WESTMORELAND'S CRITIC HAS HIS DAY IN COURT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302070002-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302070002-1
USA TODAY
11 January 1985
estrnorelan 's critic
hs his iay in court
A Seventeen years ago, Sam-
uel A. Adams felt like Paul
Revere ? galloping around
CIA offices, spreading the
word that U.S. soldiers were
fighting "a hell of a lot more
Viet Cong" than our govern-
ment was reporting.
Thursday, the 51-year-old
former CIA analyst and de-
scendant of President John
Adams repeated the claim in
no uncertain terms ? enliv-
ening what has become a
sleepy gathering in the U.S.
District courtroom in New
York where retired Gen. Wil-
liam Westmoreland is suing
CBS for $120 million for libel.
Adams was the first witness
called to the stand by CBS in-
defense of the 1982 broadcast
? The Uncounted Enemy: A
Vietnam Deception ? on
which he was paid consultant.
Adams, a Harvard gradu-
ate with patrician good looks
and mischievous blue eyes,
explained the genesis of his
theory ? the basis of the doc-
umentary ? that Westmore-
land's command deliberately
lowered figures to make it ap-
pear the U.S. was winning.
A CIA analyst from 1963 to
1973, he won a reputation for
precision while working on
the Congo. Not long after be-
ing assigned to Vietnam in
1966, in the "hot, dusty mar-
ket town of Long An," he says
he discovered enemy docu-
ments showing enemy
strength was greater than the
U.S. military was reporting.
More documents followed,A
sending him trumpeting news
through CIA hallways in
Langley, Va., that the enemy
in Vietnam was at least dou-
ble what was being reported.
At first, he said, higher-ups
agreed with him. But then
they began "bargaining like
rug merchants," and ultimate-
ly "caved in" to Westmore-
land ? holding estimates of
enemy troop strength below a.
ceiling of 300,000 ? he testi-
fied Thursday.
Westmoreland's friends
say Adams is "obsessed" with
the 14-week-old trial.
In testimony, his former
CIA boss, George Carver,
said of Adams: "He was often
in error, but seldom in doubt."
In January 1968 he re-
signed his position under
Carver ? protesting the troop
strength figures ? and wrote
a letter calling Westmore-
land's official enemy esti-
mates "a monument -of de- 1
ceit."
? Bruce Frankel 1*-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302070002-1