POINT BY POINT, EX-ANALYST DETAILS CASE AGAINST GENERAL
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690005-0
Release Decision:
RIFPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
January 6, 2012
Sequence Number:
5
Case Number:
Publication Date:
January 15, 1985
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690005-0
By David Zucchino '
Inquirer Staff writer
NEW YORK - Dissecting point by
point a litany of allegations made in
a disputed CBS documentary, former
CIA analyst Sam Adams detailed to a
jury yesterday why he believed Gen.
William C. Westmoreland had en-
gaged in a "deception" in Vietnam.
Often gesturing to make a point as
he spoke directly to the jurors, Ad
ams said he was "'proud" to have
been associated with a documentary
that has made him a defendant in the
libel suit. Research by Adams formed
the basis of the 1982 broadcast, for
which Westmoreland has sued CBS, .
Adams and two other people for $120
million.
Westmoreland, occasionally grin-
ning disdainfully, watched from the
plaintiff's table as Adams expounded
on virtually every significant charge
made in the broadcast. As the docu-
mentary was shown on videotape to
the jury, Adams explained section
after section of it to the jury, citing
his years of interviews and his. own
personal experience.
It was the first time in the 14-week
trial that the jury had seen the en-
tire broadcast. Westmoreland's attor-
neys have played each of the pro-
gram's five segments separately, but
not the documentary as a whole.
Yesterday was Adams' second day
on the stand for questioning by an
attorney for CBS. During that time
the attorney, David Boies, attempted
to convince the jury of the depth and
accuracy of Adams' research'. and
memory. Adams, a paid consultant
for the broadcast, provided CBS with
secret documents on Vietnam intelli-.
gence, and led the network to former
intelligence officers who confirmed
his charges.
The broadcast, The Uncounted Ene-
my: A Vietnam Deception, accused
Westmoreland of engaging in a"con-
spiracy" in 1967 and 1968 to "de-
ceive" his superiors. by minimizing
estimates of enemy strength. .
Again and again yesterday, Boies
interrupted the playing of the broad-
cast to ask Adams whether he' be-
lieved before the program aired that
a particular allegation was true.
Each time, Adams replied gravely,
"Yes sir-1 did."
Asked repeatedly to explain the
"basis" for his beliefs, Adams gave
long, minutely detailed reconstruc-
tions of his own participation in
p^T!V'LF APPEARED PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Z _A
r 15 January 1985
..Point point
ex-analyst
details -case -against general
300 000 he had lm osed on hit own
events of 1967 and 1968 in.-Washing - intelligence officers. The disputed
ton and Vietnam analyzing intelli- deceit by Westmoreland's command,
gence documents, and of subsequent both Adams and the broadcast have
interviews with dozens of former contended, exposed U.S. troops to
CIA and military intelligence ana- added dangers.
lysts from the period. He repeatedly. Based on his research, Adams said,
cited specific dates and quoted con. he concluded at the memorial that
versations 'verbatim, often .remind- perhaps one-third to..One-half of,the
ing jurors of whenparticular_offi 45,000 casualties had been killed by
cers had been promoted from bombs ,and booby-traps planted by'
colonel to general. "I was there when the irregulars. "When intelligence
it happened," he reminded the jury has: failed .that badly," Adams-con.:
at one point.. cluded, "what failed --ought. t ~ . be ;
At another point, he quoted a for- brought- to light ....so that we don't
mer intelligence officer under West- repeat the same iaistakes.' c ?
moreland as confessing to him in Moments-earlier, Boles asked Ad-I
1976 that he had followed orders to ams whether he had any -.regrets
"cook the books" on enemy esti- about participating in the broadcast.
mates: "We were wrong, Sam. Its. Hereplied: "None whatsoever. I have
been on my conscience for years." no regrets because I think it accu.
Adams, who will be cross-exam- rately reflected what went on" in
fined tomorrow, also told the jurors Vietnam: He added:11.6m proud 'to
that the research he conducted be. have been part of the broadcast.
tween 1966 and 1982 included more-f Asked whether he would still join
than 200 interviews and- dozens of the CIA if he "had it all to do over,"
government documents. Adams smiled and said. "Yep."
His research and his own'-experi. Asked whether he was satisfied
ence as a CIA analyst on Vietnam with the broadcast when it aired in
from 1966 to 1968 convinced him, he January` 1982, Adams responded: "I
said, that U.S. soldiers "were being was satisfied, first, a8_t6 its accuracy. '
killed while we were playing with Iwas satisfied its the sense that it had
numbers." He said some of West- ' portrayed accurately in my view
moreland's own 'intelligence offi whatrthought was the massive falsi-
cers, as well as many of Adams' fel- - fication of statistics" .by Westmore-
Inm ?- rte land' cnmmand _
enemy strength was as high- as
600,000 - double the 300,000 reported
by Westmoreland's command.
Finally, just as Westmoreland had
concluded his own testimony. with.
an impassioned soliloquy defending
his conduct, Adams ended with an
emotional defense of the broadcast
and of. his own long campaign to
prove a "monument of deceit", by
Westmoreland's command.
Leaning forward and' speaking
loudly but slowly, Adams then de-
scribed a visit he made last year to
the .Vietnam memorial in washing.
ton, D.C.: He said he had asked him-,
self how many of the 45,000 U.S. sol-
diers who died in Vietnam combat
out of what he said were 53,022 total
deaths - whose names were en-
graved on the granite memorial had
been-killed by enemy irregulars who
Westmoreland has said posed no mil.
itary threat. -
The broadcast accused Westmore.
land of dropping those irregulars
from official estimates of enemy
strength in order to keep the esti-
mates under an arbitrary "ceiling"
He added: "We-in intelligence, I
thought, had tried to fool-the Ameri?
can public. We tried to fool the Con-
gress, and even to soahe extent the
IJohnsonl administration, - but we
ended-up, I- think,- in fooling our.
selves. I thought thitithe broadcast)
came to explain atleast-ipart how
we had managed to lose-this war."
Adams,: Sl; testified that he had
become,"so convinced of Westmore.
land's ."deceit" that he asked the
Army inspector general.to court-mar-
tial him in" 1973, When he. resigned
from the CIA the.sameyear, he add.
ed, he took photocopies of scores of
CIA documents, burying some of
them on his Virginia farm.
Asked by Boles why he-had taken
the documents, Adams replied: "I
thought I had witnessed what I con=
sidered ...'certainly the biggest
scandal in military., intelligence..
American intelligence, that I was
aware of. And I eras frightened. I was
scared that perhaps this kind of re-
cord might disappear, and'I wanted
to preserve the evidence."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690005-0