RE-FIGHTING THE VIETNAM WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100240001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 25, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/05 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100240001-3
WALL STREET JOURNAL
25 May 7984
Re-Fighting the Vietnam~a~
By FREDERICK TAYLOR
In 1967, when I was a reporter for this
newspaper attempting to cover the Penta-
gon, Ibecame aware of a fierce dispute
between the Central Intelligence Agency
and the military over the size of the enemy
forces in Vietnam. Analysts held meetings
in Honolulu, Washington and Saigon at-
tempting to resolve their differences. The
CIA thought the enemy forces were a lot
bitiger than the Army did, or said it did.
I nee=er was able to get to the bottom of
the argument and eventually went on to
other things. I didn't know then that the
dispute was going to turn into an industry,
with magazine articles, a congressional
hearing, a CBS Reports television show
called "The Unr_ow]ted Enemy: A Vietnam
Deception," a TV Guide cover story about
that program called "Anatomy of a
Smear," an internal CBS im?estigation of
the TV Guide charges that became pub-
lic, a 5120 n]illion libel suit by Gen. Wil-
liam 1~'estmoreland-the U.S. commander
in Vietnam-against CBS, and now a book
expanding upon the TV Guide charges, en-
titled "A hatter of Honor," by Don Kowet
lAlacmillan, 317 pages, $16.951.
Even before publication, the book has
stirred up a storm. At least 10 of the CBS
people who appear in it wrote, in appar-
enth? orchestrated responses, to Air. Kowet
or :pia^I]]:I1?.n disputing the accuracy of his
reportin<