WESTMORELAND DEFENDS HIS WAR STEWARDSHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160078-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 78
• Publication Date: November 16, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-005528000707160078-7
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WASHINGTON POST
16 November 1984
"Did you have any reporting ob-
ligation to the Joint Chiefs of S.taff?"
his lawyer Dan M. Burt asked him.
"No," Westmoreland replied.
"Did you have a reporting. obli-
gation to the secretary of defense?"
"No."
"Did you have a reporting obli-
gation to the president of the Unit-
ed States?"
"No," the general said, adding
that Bunker and Sharp "were my
~' -two bosses and I was obligated to
report to them and to them only."
Westmoreland also described in
new detail a key May 1967 meeting
with his. intelligence chief, Maj.
Gen. Joseph McChristian, who is
expected to be a key witness fori
CBS. ,
He said McChristian came to him ~'
one evening and presented a draft.
telegram showing that the "home
guard militia" were far more nu-
merous than shown in the Order of ,
Battle summary. ~
CBS lawyer David Boles has said
repeatedly that the fact that West- i
moreland did not pass on the
McChristian cable' was evidence '
that higher enemy troop figures
were being suppressed. j
But Westmoreland described the
evening meeting as "irregular" be-
cause he had had no advance brief- ~
ing on the data. He said he held the
cable and asked for more data be-
cause he thought the cable would be
misinterpreted by people not fa-
miliar with the details ... "
Westmoreland added that he dis-
agreed with McChristian on the
status of the home guard troops
because he was spending four days
a week in the field and had heard
almost nothing about them from his ;
officers.
After going through his war
record Westmoreland was asked if ,
he had ever been disciplined in his
40 years in the military.
The general thought a moment
and then said, "Well, I guess I
have."
The first time, he said, was as a
second lieutenant at Fort Sill, Okla.,
where he was reprimanded for pay-
ing his commissary bill more than
five days late.
The second was in Hawaii where
he was caught three times going
over 20 mph in a 10 mph zone.
Did he have any other disciplin-
ary actions on his record, he was
asked.
"I think I can say categorically I
have not.," he replied.
Special correspondent John Kennedy
contributed to this report.
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General Takes Stand in Libel- Suit
J
Eleanor Randolph
Washington Post Statt Writer
NEW YORK, Nov. 15-Straight-
backed, his voice authoritative, re-
tired Army general William C.
Westmoreland took command of the
witness stand today in his latest
battle-this one defending his
record 17 years ago as commander
of ground forces in Vietnam.
In the first day of what may be a
week of off-and-on testimony in his
$120 million libel action against
CBS Inc., Westmoreland provided a
packed federal courtroom with a
series of specific denials of sections
of a 1952 documentary that he says
defamed him by charging that his
command "cooked" enemy troop
figures. - I
Westmoreland told the jury that a
key document he supposedly or-
dered changed-a thick analysis of ~
enemy troop data called the official i
Order of Battle-is not one he re-
members ever using in his daily du-
ties in Vietnam.
"I was aware of it," he said. "It
was available in my office, but I
don't ever recall having an occasion
to refer to it."
Westmoreland said he was con-
cerned primarily with daily or "cur-
rent" intelligence, whereas the Or-
der of Battle was "historic data, and
it was not something that was use-
ful to me."
The general also said that cate-
gories of ''irregular" enemy troops
that CBS said he ordered dropped
from the official summary were not
recognized at the time as "fighters,
the people we wanted to destroy in
a military way."
"We're not fighting these people;
they're basically civilians," he re-
calledtelling his intelligence officer,
who tried to get the home guard
units increased in official estimates
in May 1967.
The 70-year-old general, looking
remarkably fit, also presented the
jury with a dramatic personal con-
trast to the view of him they saw on
the CBS broadcast "The Uncounted
Enemy: A Vietnam Deception"
when it aired almost three years
ago.
On the show and in an unedited -
version of his May 1981 interview
with CBS that wag.shown today af-
ter his live testimony, the general
seemed occasionally defensive, ir-
ritated by questions from interview-
er Mike Wallace. When he stumbled i~
over ,answers, the cameras some-
times moved in close, framing his
face from his eyebrows to just be- ,
low the chin.
On the stand, however, West-
moreland seemed more confident,
even offering rare moments of hu-
mor in this complicated trial.
At one point he was asked wheth-
er his personal calendar included
the names of all the people he
talked to each day.
"Not necessarily;' said the gen-
eral, the barest flicker of a smile on
his normally stern face. "I could
have talked to people in the hall. I
could have talked to people in the
latrine."
In contrast to previous witnesses
such as retired Central Intelligence
Agency official George Carver, who
spoke in long and convoluted sen-
tences, Westmoreland made his
case clearly and without hestiation.
For example, one primary issue in
the trial is whether CBS was cor-
rect in saying that Westmoreland
tried to suppress from his superi-
ors-including President Lyndon B.
Johnson-higher troop data that;
the general himself once described '
as a potential "political bombshell"
in those tumultuous war years.
Westmoreland testified .that he
had, in effect, two direct superiors,
neither of whom was the president.
They were Ellsworth Bunker, the
U.S. ambassador in Vietnam, and
Adm. U.S. Grant Sharp, command-
er in chief of the Pacific forces.
Westmoreland said Sharp was h_ is
"military boss" and Bunker was his
civilian boss and technically a rep-
resentative of the president.
Approved For Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-005528000707160078-7