CBS SAYS OTHERS CRITICIZED GENERAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160043-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: December 4, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160043-5
AGTMLE APPEARED 1,; f
Odd PA;- a
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
4 December 1984
CAS says others
criticized general
By David Zucchino
Inquirer Staff Writer
NEW YORK Reading from a
thick stack of press stories and con-
gressional testimony excoriating
Gen. William. C,' Westmoreland, an
attorney for CBS yesterday sought to
prove that the general's reputation
-was so tarnished that the network
could not have libeled him in a 1982
documentary.
At the same time, attorney David
Boies also continued to pressure
Westmoreland on his reporting of
enemy troop strengths to higher-ups
in 1967. He elicited several inconsis-
tencies from Westmoreland as he
sought to prove. that, Westmoreland
distorted both the size of the enemy
and U.S. progress in the war during.a
visit to Washington in November
1967.
Boles' wide-ranging presentation
came as he began summarizing West-
moreland's five days of cross-exami
nation in the trial of the general's
$120 million libel suit against CBS.
The cross-examination is expected
to end today. Westmoreland,sat calm-
ly as Boies read quotations accusing
him of engaging in "a string of lies"
and a '.'squalid deception" while di
recting "a numbers game" that pro-
duced "dubious". intelligence.,
Decade-old newspaper and maga- .
zine headlines cited Westmoreland's
alleged role. in producing -. "Faked;
`Data" and "False Data'.' that-helped`-
produce a "Vietnam Pearl-Harbor.
- Westmoreland -steadfastly,-denied
being aware of most, of the.Dress
articles, which stemmed from the
1975 investigation of . inte i-
gene in Vietnam -by the House Se-
lect Committee on lntelli ence. The'
essence of thecoMmittee's criticism'
of Westmoreland, and the press re-
porting It engendered, was repeated
in the CBS Reports documentary that ;
accused Westmoreland of,-impropri-
eties.;
Approved For Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160043-5