THE FRANK SNEPP CASE: NEW COVER-UP CONSPIRACY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090101-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: February 24, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK POST
Approved For Release 20gg0 /'~0My & RDP81M00980R002000090101-9
new
AMID a less than inspirational
interlude of journalistic combat
the memoirs of H. R. Haldeman
have been widely previewed and
any American titillated by them
is.free to puchase the full text
.at his local bookstore. In a-time
nit too distant Richard Nixon's
-version of his presidency will be
unveiled.
Put as the dubious stars of
the Nixon era battle for emia
nence and loot in the literary
market, one former government
cover-up conspiracy?
Involved In the Snepp saga. CIA
employes sign a "security oath"
when they join the agency; in
effect it commits them to avoid
all disclosure of their. adventures
without prior clearance by the
After Snepp undertook his
book, he met with CIA chief Adm.
Stansfield Turner, pledged to
abide by the oath of pre-publica-
tion submission and was there-
upon granted access to some un-
classified documents.
Sol and wisdom Is a luxury af-
forded columnists.
Abundant precedent justified
Snepp's belief that his work
might be sabotaged if he had
been faithful to the CIA's rules.
Moreover, the ACLU has pointed
out, there is no claim that Psis
transgression involved the dis-
closure of classified material or
bared any super-secrets that
could imperil,' the intelligence 5
structure. -
What it did unfold was a
official whose story covers a
very.. special, tragic area of ex- Union "as the most sweeping at--
perience has become a major tempt to date by the executive
target of the government cen- branch to interfere with the right
sots. of former government officials
He is Frank W. Snepp, whose to publish accounts of their gov-
book "Decent Interval" (recent- ernment service. It added:
ly;;serialized in this ne%spaper) . "The complaint against Mr.
is ;.based on his role as a senior. Snepp alleges that he broke his
CIA analyst on Vietnam. It is contract by failing. to clear his
a melancholy, documented cri- - manuscript with the. CIA. The
ticgue of the blunders and blind- government does not lTgl' that
ness of high Ford Administra fI infx Snepp's ation l se Thus any the -
l ssi
tion officials - during the closing-..
stages of the Vietnam debacle ernment's claim of the right of
ond the
far be
e
hi
y
p go
s
--and especially in the bungled, censors
-callous evacuation of Americans Marchetti-Marks and the Penta-
and our vulnerable Vietnamese. gon Papers cases In which. the
allies during Saigon's last days. government attempted to prevent
publication of allegedly classified
It Is' not a story from which- - information, and represents an
Americans can 'der'ive any pride., attempt to censor allinformation.
Neither, however, does it _ con- "If the government is success-
#afn anything remotely as. ex ful in this case, the threat of
piusive as Haldeman's a ssertion. financial ruin and injunction
-admittedly couched in -Ian-
against speaking and writing
b a.ge of surmise--that the So-would chill the participation of
viets sought to enlist U. S. SUP- former officials In'debate on pub-
port for an. , attack on _ Chinese lie Issues.".
atomic installations
nevertheless the Carter Ad.
.nistration has-selected Snepp
"a target.for a suit that: would
-He has subsequently said he aro stro
us war at will no -doubt
gave that commitment to. escape be explored in self-serving tones
the possibility of CIA pressure to in the forthcoming works of
Sion justified by earner CIA
The ACLU contends that the Adm. Turner may feel, the Ad
CIA. contract, amounting to a ministration's decision to un
vow of perpetual silence unless leash its massive legal attack on
speech is officially authorized,` Snepp is another grotesque dis-
"clearly violates Mr. Snepp's tortion of priorities. As sug-
First Amendment rights."
gested in an earlier column, It is
Presumably Random House, in especially graceless in the light
sponsoring the book's prepara- of the generous plea-bargaining
tion and Issuance, essentially em- -that spared former CIA head
braced that rationale for deceit. Richard Helms any serious re-
As Robert L. Bernstein, the firm's prisal for lying to a Congres-
president and chairman, said - sional committee.
when the. controversy erupted, The underlying question is how
"once he [Snepp] made the deci- the past and potential abuses of
Sion that It should be published, power of the CIA--so widely ]a-
we agreed It should be published, mented by public men--can be
as.it wash a responsible and law- effectivel
checked if the "con-
y
ful work.
.The ACLU argued that "this tract" becomes a conspiracy of
-case makes a mockery" of Presi- As` a . journalist I confess un- coverup.
dent Carter's. recent- expression ease about Snepp's procedure I Who-will ever blow the whistle
of encouragement to `those who would be more comfortable if against future CIA folly if
dare to blow the whistle on mis-- h,,had refrained from any con- Snepp -loses this battle? And
-his book, impose separate money conduct and misjudgment in high.. versation with Turner and as- why has Washington chosen to
damages on him and enjoin him government places. = suined the hazards of violating mount this all-out war against
from further speaking. or writing. _It maybe said "that the-ACLU' ?_ a contract whose constitutional him in an Administration avow-
vern
en
d' t d t
di
d
ica e o op
e
y
a
The move has been' described: `. statement touches. too lightly on legitimacy he was prepared to e
by? the American , Civil Liberties - a genuinely troublesome question challenge. But retroactive coup - ment"?-
Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090101-9