FOREIGN RADIO AND PRESS REACTION TO NEW YORK TIMES RELEASE OF PENTAGON STUDY ON VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000200130001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 39
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 25, 1971
• Content Type: REPORT

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FOREIGN
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MORANDUM
FOREIGN RADIO AND PRESS REA CTION
TO NEW YORK TIMES RELEASE
OF PENTAGON STUDY ON VIETNAM
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IS SENSITIVE DO~~ ~~ ' ;I;~S;OiS r~ ~kllr, P~OD~CING
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TO ANY I ?GL~ FER-~
OFFICE "
25 JUNE 1 971
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STAT
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L5 JULIE 19'(1
CONTENT S
SUM-1ARY i
I. NON COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
Wes t Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Middle East and Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
H. COMMUNIST COUNTRIES)
North Vietnam and the PRG . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The USSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
`fie PRC and North Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
East Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cub a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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FOREIGN R 1DIO PJ!D PRESS REACTION TO NE' YORK TIf 1E,S; RELEASE CF
PEJ TAGON STUDY ON V! ETN/!
SUMMARY
WEST EUROPE: The press and radio of West Europe have given
prominent news coverage to the New York TIMES rel(,ase of the
Vietnam documents and subs..,!uent developments. `T e volume of
direct comment has been moderate. The principal British papers,
including the TIM-TS of London, have voiced editorial support for
the action taken by the U.S. papers and concern ')ver the doubts
raised about the credibility of past U.S. Cover.rment statements.
Paris' LE fl;ONDE has indicated that it sees i_itt..c new in the
._ocurients as published so far. Scandinavian reaction is mostly
critical of the Administration's reaction to t?le release of the
documents.
ASIA: Editorials in the principal Japanese papers have welcomed
the decision of. U.S. papers to publish the materials and
criticized the Administration's efforts to prevent publication.
The ASAHI papers have printed extensive summaries of the three
New York TIi?IES installments. Several Indian papers have
interpreted the documents as an indictment of U.S. Vietnam
pn1icy. Saigon and Bangkok radio-TV programs have not been heard
to mention the documents, but the vernacular press in both
capitals has commented in a freeswinging manner. A Malaysian
newspaper is to reprint the TIMES series.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA: Middle East radios have reported on the
New York TII?1S release of the Pentagon study with no special
prominence and in some cases belatedly. Broadcast comment is
confined to Cairo radio, and a Cairo newspaper is reprinting the
bulk of the TIDIES' three installments. Damascus radio reviewed
a critical Syrian press editorial, and other press comment came
from the UAR, Lebanon, and Cyprus. The limited comment tends
to take a parochial a'proa^_h, questioning U.S. motives and
attitudes with respect to such local issues as the Middle East
and Cyprus problems in light of the VietnaJ disclosures. Israeli
newscasts have reported developments, but there is no available
press or radio comment.
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Algeria has provided the only monitored radio comment from North
Africa, and its papers give the story more play than does the
Moroccan and Tunisian press. No comment has been monitor?-.d from
Africa south of the Sahara.
LATTI! AMERICA: News coverage of developments has been fairly
thoroughgoing, and Argentina's LA NACION is reprinting the three
New York TIMES installments. Some commentators have argued that
publication of the documents serves the purpose of confirming
the worst suspicions of U.S. policy. Papers in Argentina and
Panama have voiced concern over newspaper publication of
information essential to national security.
THE TNDOCIITNESE COMMUNISTS; Hanoi and South Vietnam's PRG have
reacted to publication of the Pentagon study with only a modest
volume of low-level propaganda which cites foreign sources in
reporting continuing developments and interjects little independent
comment. Hanoi radio first mentioned the subject on 16 June and
since then has broadcast items daily, in both English and
Vietnamese. The party paper NIIAN DAN and the army organ QUAN DOI
NHAN DAN have carried reports of develo)rnents but there is no
known press comment.
The PRG's Liberation Radio first acknowledged the publication in a
Vietnamese-language broadcast on the 17th. But subsequent Front
attention is confined largely to rebroadcasts of Hanoi items in
Liberation Radio's English-language broadcasts. In reporting
some of the substance of the documents, Hanoi says that these.
"revelations" a-e merely further confirmation of long-standing
Vietnamese communist charges of U.S. deception about its
"aggression" in Indochina. The medi!,. did not acknowledge that
the subject came up at the 17 June session of the Paris talks
nor that the communists gave journalists copies of a DPV White
Book on the war that Hanoi had released in July 1965.
The first known reaction from clandestine media in Laos came on
18 June when the Pat het Lao radio carried a news item on the
New York TL.IES' publication of the documents. The first acknow-
ledgment from the radio of the Patriotic Neutralist Forces came
on the 21st. On the 22d the Pathet Lao radio, unlike Hanoi,
acknowledged that the DRV press spokesman in Paris had discussed
the secret documents.
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The radio of Sihau:ouk's Cambodian government first mentioned
the documents in a brief item on the 19th. And the first
reaction from the clandestine news agency AKI cu.me in a
commentary on the 23d which -,aid that the documents refute
U.S. Presidents' assertions for a quarter of a century on
their desire for peace.
CHINA AI D NOR'.!'ll KOREA: Both Peking and Pyongyang have remained
silent on the Pentagon materials, but two communist clandestine
radios sponsored by them ha~"e .reacted--the pro-Peking Thai
Communi:;t Party's Voice of the People of Thailand, and the
Voice of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification of Korea.
Tlic, USSR: Moscow has devoted extensive attention to the
controversy over publication of the Pentagon study since its
prompt acknowledgment on the 15th. Ongoing news items cover
continuing developments such as the various restraining
orders imposed on the papers, the FBI's search for the source
of the "leak," Secretary Laird's announcement of a security
review of the study, and the President's dec,-_sion to turn
over the study to Congress. Moscow radio has devoted more
than two-thirds of its comment on Indochina in the past week
to the documents, and there have also been press articles by
such authoritative writers as Ratiani in PRAVDA and Matveyev
in IZVESTIYA. Soviet media have carried extracts of the
study including references to the effect of the Sino-Soviet
split on U.S. policy. And some Mandarin-'language radio
commentaries use this as a peg to repeat the standard charge
that Peking's "splittist" policy harms the Vietnamese struggle.
EAST EUROPE: Reaction from Moscow's East European allies has
treated the Pentagon material as confirming that the United
States has systematically practiced deception and has been
the aggressor in Vietnam. A recurrent theme has been that
the iiixon Administration is continuing policies revealed in the
documents. Where comment by the more orthodox members of the
Soviet bloc has been uniformly hostile, Bucharest's reaction
has been relatively restrained and has avoided direct criticism
of present U.S. policy.
Yugoslav comment, which has hailed the publication of the
documents, uniquely includes the line that release of tie
material might be a welcome event for the Nixon Administration
by aiding it in shedding previous U.S. commitments.
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Tirana remained all but silent on the matter until 22 June,
when a radio commentary observed that the Albanians were not
surprised by the' Pentagon material because they had been
"unmasking the U.S. aggressors" for a long time.
CUBA: Considerable Cuban comment on the "worldwide scandal"
has stressed continuities between present and past U.S. policies
on Vietnam. In characteristically vitriolic terms, Havana has
discussed the documents as showing "the treacherous and deceitful
policy which led to Yankee genocide in Vietnam."
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I. NONCOMMUNIST COUNTRIES
WEST EUROPE
BRITAIN The British press has given broad news coverage to the
publication by the New York TIDES and other U.S. papers
of the Vietnw:i documents. Editorially, the major papers support
the action of the U.S. papers and seize the occasion to argue that
Britain's Official Secrets Act has a deleterious effect on freedom
of the press in Britain. In an editorial entitled "Some Beans Need
to Be Spilt," the GUARDIAN declared that "the once-secret informa-
tion about Vietnam published by the New York TIDES does not
endanger the United States any more than the Sunday TLLEGRAPII's
report on Nigeria endangered Britain." The TIDES of London said
that the New York TIMES defensa of its action "is one that will be
r: yinpa.thetically followed by much opinion in Britain," especially
"since revelations about the Suez crisis showed how government
could actually be conducted."
On the content of the documents themselves, the TIMES, GUARDIAN,
and TELEGRAPti'iave all stressed the doubts raised about the
credibility of past U.S. Government statements. A TIMES editorial
uii tiie 17th asserted that the deception practiced in 19614 seems
"to have been such that no democratic system can accept without
protest. All governments find that they have to be less than
frank, and oil governments are deluded by their own hopes, but to
go to war on a lie is a different matter."
On the 21st, another TIMES editorial, arguing that Washington
should. withdraw its objections to publishing the materials,
declared that "the full truth will do less harm than the partial
truth and will help to restore belief in the processes of American
government."
FRANCE The scant available French comment is highlighted by an
editorial in LE MONDE on the 17th which expressed
surprise that the U.S. electorate should be astonished by the
content of the published documents. The editorialist claimed that
"many of the facts reported by the New York TIRES were known,"
having been disclosed by Indochinese communists and independent
observers as well. An article in the communist L'HUMANITE
portrayed the release as a serious "political scandal.": "Clearly
panic reigns in Washington, and Nixon is above all concerned to
find the leak."
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WEST GERMANY The West German press has published extensive
factual reports on the release of the documents,
but available continent is scat-cc. FRANKFURTER ALLGEIM INE ZEITUNG
said editorially on the 18th that the !unerican nation, torn apart
by the Vietnam war, will now be further d Tided, while the
FRANI0,'URTER RUNDSCFIAU declared on the 17th that the TIMES' decision
to print this "incriminating material" demonstrates it still has
confidence in U.S. democracy. The Cologne tabloid EXPRESS, under
the headline "Johnson's Deceit Unmasked," argued that a government
has no right to withhold information that its citizens should know
before going to war on that government's orders.
OTHER COUNTRIES Elsewhere in West Europe, there is scant
available comment although news coverage seems
to have been fairly prominent. Vienna papers are divided, with
some sharply critical of U.S. Vietnam policy ("Only the withdrawal
of its forces can restore America's good name in the world"--
ARBEIT'ER-ZEITUNG, 17 June) while others give the previous
administrations credit for having acted with good intentions.
A Vienna TV commentator argued on the 19th that the New York
TIMES publication had done "i,imlens~ly grave" damage: "What
other government will any longer conclude secret arrangements
wi-Lh the Americans when everything may be uncovered in one or
two years?"
Available Scandinavian reaction is mostly critical of Administration
reaction to the TIMES release. The Swedish paper DAGENS NYHETER,
recalling Woodrow Wilson's maxim of "'open conv2nants openly arrived
at," asserted that Presicar~nt Johnson would not have been able to
pursue his Vietnam policy had he r-aspected this maxim. Now that
the American people have seen the "double-dealing and hush-hush"
that went on in the White House, they can be expected to exercise
a different type of control to prevent the cynical abuse of power,
the paper said. EXPRESSEN claimed that the New York TIMES articles
"should be a warning to a government that is responsible for the
invasions of Cambodia and Laos and the continued terror bombing,
and the remarkable strategy known as Vietnamization of the war."
The Finnish paper HELSINGIN SANOMAT on 18 June deplored the
censorship of the TINS, claiming that it well illustrates the
truth of the old saying that "truth is the first casualty of war."
The SUOMEN SOSIALIDIMOKRAATI, after noting the U.S. Govermnen*u '
argument that publication of thc, documents may cc.ise irreparable
harm to the United States, said that "in the view of an outsider
it ap)ears that it is preci' ly the measures of the U.S.
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authorities to suppress freedom of speech that are really
causing damage to the United States." The paper concluded
with the hole that present events may contribute to "demolishing
the political line pursued by the U.S. Government and the
military leadership and lead to the immediate, total, and
unconditional withdrawal of the United States from Vietnam."
ASIA
JAPAN Despite preoccupation in recent days with the
reversion of Okinawa, Japanese news media have devoted
considerable attention to the release of the Vietnam documents.
Tokyo radio and television have pron.inently featured news
reports on the subject in their major newscasts, and the Tokyo
precs, both Japanese- and English-language editions, has daily
accorded front-page prominence to the latest developments. In
adcU.ition, the ASAIHI newspapers announced on l', June that they
would withhold publication of a daily feature and a regular
column for one week in order to publish the gist and an
anLlysis of the three TILIES installments already published.
On 23 June the communist AKAHATA began carrying highlights of
the Pentagon documents as a separate feature.
No official government statement has been monitored, and the
only ruling party pronouncement occurred during a political party
forum program on television in which Zentaro Kosaka of the
Liberal-Democratic Party was asked by a JCP member whether the
LDP had repented its support of U.S. policies in Vietnam in light
of the press dijclosures. Kosaka replied that personally he
hi,-;hiy evaluated the New York TIMES release; he pointed out that
,.n a democratic country it is possible for a newspaper to attack
tl:e government and that such a practice can serve as a safeguard
for peace.
Editorial reaction in the Tokyo press has been overwhelmingly
favorable to the newspapers' decision to publish the disclosures
and critical of the Nixon Administration for its attempts to
prt? -:nt publ ication. The i- IINICHI newspapers in both their
JapaL..ese and English editions said editorially: "There is no
doubt that the flew York TIUL S, in deciding to publish the
documents, was convinced that clarification of the truth would
eventually serve the true interests of the country. By offering
evidence of the errors of succeeding governments, it had hoped
to arouse public opinion both at home avid abroad for an early
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settlement of this 'war without a convincing cause.' We believe
the paper was right in its judgment."
The ASAHI newspapers in their editorials called the documents a
"grim balance sheet" of U.S. involvement in Indochina. Saying
the documents have proved that the Vietnam conflict has not
been a "correct" war, the English- and Japanese-language editorials
stated: "We want the Nixon Administration rather to make this
the starting point for a decision to end the war."
The Japanese-language YOMIURI said editorially: "We can fully
understand the stand of the New York TIMES. What the TIMES
has done to show to the whole world that freedom of the press
does exist in the United States today will help the country
restore its honor, which has been impaired by its war in
Vietnam."
The Japanese-language SANKEI editorial contributed the following:
"If the Administro.t,-ion does not intend to learn from the failures
of preceding adriinistrations, but tries to suppress the people's
criticism of its Vietnam policy in order to 'protect secrets,'
it will commit more serious errors. There has been too much
shadiness in the U.S. Government policy toward Vietnam. This
has caused popular mistrust of the Administration. From t:iis
viewpoint, the courage with which the TIMES has printed the
documents is of mwimoth significance."
The JAPAN TIMES, alone among the Tokyo dailies which have
commented editorially, took a neutral stance. After reviewing
the details of the litigat;.-n so far, the newspaper quoted
Judge Gurfein's decision and supported Senator Muskie's rroposal
for the establishment of a committee to decide what documents
and information should be declassified. The editorial concluded
innocuously by saying that in the United States and in other
democratic countries, "There is a need to ponder upon the
relationship between the freedom of the press and the require-
ments of any nation's security."
In a press intervievi, the director of the JCP secretariat Tetsuzo
Fuwa used the disclosures as a pretext to attack the Sato
Government, whose policies, he charged, have resulted in Japan
becoming an accomplice in the "aggressive war" in Indochina.
The JCP organ AKAIIATA referred editorially to the release in
casting doubt upon the Okinawa reversion rgreement and advocating
the abrogation of U.S.-Japan security arrangements.
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INDIA The New Delhi radio provided prompt news coverage of
the New York TIMES release and subsequent developments.
India's English-language press relied heavily on Western news
reports, but a few of tiie leading; dailies carried their own
correspundents' dispatches from Washington. TIMES OF INDIA
correspondent Kamath said in his dispatch of 16 June that the
extensive reports made public by Lhe TINES have caused "a
major rumpus, if not a scandal," The correspondent called
the Pentagon study a "damning indictment" of the previous
administration.
TI IES OF I14DIA commenLator Sham Lal termed the Pentagon study
"a sordid story," adding that the U.S. Government, which can
hardly have its nervous system inLact after all the death acid
desolation it has brought to the people of Vietnam, must be
"writhin: in pain." he observed: "So far as India is concerned,
the Pentagon story is one more reminder of the need for a little
more realism in assessing the U.S. role in Asia, in Bengla Desh
in particular."
The leftwing PATRIOT of New Delhi said in an editorial: "The
Vietnam war was begun by the US. Government in del i aerate
betrayal of international obligations and filthy deceit of its
own people. It is grinding down in a heroin-drugged coma, in a
vast convulsion of corruption and exposures of cruelty and crime
that should make every decent American hang his head in shame."
Arguing that no one will believe President Nixon, the editorial'
said in conclusion: "The American establishment, which has been
corrupted for decades by fascist organizations like the CIA and
the FBI, whose heads are among the President's most important
advisers, has been losing credibility both at home and abroad
for years now. The TIMES exposure makes it look as black a
quantity as Hitler's."
The HINDUSTAN TIMES editorial on 18 June observed: "What is
frightening is the conclusion that the Indochina war and its
escalation acquired an autonomous status )f its own, more
related to U.S. prestige than to assisting Sou1.h Vietnam."
SOUTH VIETNAM Monitored Saigon radio and television broadcasts
have not mentioned the publication of the Pentagon
report. Saigon newspapers have carried a number of coimiieritaries,
mostly with vague references to "plots" or "conspiracies" of one
sort or another. THACH DO on the 19th argued that the TIMES
articles have "exposed the U.S. leaders' plot to create the
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Victn,un war." PIENG VAN on 22 June suggested that some elements
in the U.S. Administration might have been part of a plot to
release the documents: "One wonders whether the CIA itself
released the secret documents because the CIA intends to hold
other people responsible for the war now that it sees the
unreasonable war must be concluded."
On the 23d, TI-10I DAI MOI concluded that "the American people are
using very means" to compel an early withdrawal of American
forces, and thus it behooves "the various political parties in
South Vietnam to heighten their vigilance arid, together with
the entire people, be ready to cope with the new situation left
to us by our allies." A second TIIACH DO commentary expressed
the view that some "Vietnamese personalities" might find them-
selves in difficulty as a result of the publication: "It will
be an irremediable scandal for them if, prior to the elections,
they rc r.ecused of having given a hand to the Americans and of
having; soaked their hands in blood on U.,". orders." DUOC NHA NAM
said the revelations about U.S. involvement in Vietnam as early
as 1945 may have cone as a surprise to Americans, but not to the
Vietnamese, "because the latter know a lot more than the Americans
THAIL/VJD Bangkok radio and television broadcasts have not been
heard to mention the publication. The Bangkok
vernacular press has provided full news accounts based on Western
press agency reports as well as editorial observations. SIAM RATH
in a 17 June article said the action of the TIMES in publishing
the documents is "definitely not an action that constitutes a
danger to national stability, because it is the direct duty of
newspapers to inform the people of . . . the truth on matters that
concern them. Is catching the government telling lies an action
constituting subversion? Will the American Department of Justice
dare to molest the press?"
THAI RATH in a series of editorials on 18, 19, and 20 June
observed that the document signifies utter humiliation for former
President Johnson and has caused even more discontent among U.S.
opposition politicians, who accuse the government of leading the
people into war through stealth and of deluding Congress and the
people. A 19 June editorial in the DAILY NEWS said the case is
still another dispute between the Government and the press in the
United States. It praised the TIMES "for its policy of informing
the people on a matter they should and mus;; know about."
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Coverage by the English-language papers BANGKOK POST and BANGKOK
WORLD was prompt and complete, but these papers relied solely on
Western agency reports and rct'rai.necl from original comment. The
only of'flei.al response dune from Deputy Foreign Minister Sanga
Kittikachorn ci.t a news conference on 21 June. When asked for his
views retarding possible repercussions for Thailand, he stated:
"Don't let us interfere in a matter that concerns their internal
affairs. 't'heir action shows their, owi stupidity. Americans are
a strange people. It is wiser for us not to make any comments at
all uu to wh2ther it has repercussions for us or not." This
remark was not reported, however, by -the radio or local press,
although several papers reported on other statements made by
Sanga at the same news conference.
OTHER COUNTRIES No comment has been monitored from Nationalist
China and South Korea media; news coverage has
been modest in volume. The Cambodian radio has not been heard to
rmc: ion developments.
The Kuala Lumpur, Djakarta, and Karachi radios have provided scanty
news coverage, without comment, in monitored broadcasts. The
STRAITS TIME'S, published in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, announced
to its readers that the New York TIMES series would be published
exclusively in the SUNDAY MAIL, an associated English-language
paper, starting 20 June. In an editorial, the STRAITS TIMES
said that the disclosures by the New York TIMES do not direc+ly
endanger national security, nor put American troops it risk,
but it cuestioned whether this was the "right time" to publish
these documents. The paper added: "Iror_ically, this honesty
has rebounded, recoiling not against the Administration whose
conspiracy is denounced, but its successor; who are engaged in
withdrawal."
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
THE UAR A Cairo domestic service commentary on the 16th
asserted that the documents prove that President
Johnson deceived the people by giving them false information "to
draw the United States into the Vietnam war," and it wordered
when his "real role" in the Middle East would be exposec_. The
commentary referred to "talk at the time" about U.S.-Israeli
collusion in 1967 and recalled that :fforts to conceal the
"tripartite collusion" in 1956 proved futile. Another Cairo
commentary, on the 20th, said the documents show that despite
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the United States' colossal power it is unable to suppress the
Vietnwncr^ revolutionary will, and it asked if the United States
would abandon its "secret measures in the Far East to support an
outcast minority and in the Middle East to support a racial
entity foreign to the area." A Voice of the A:-abs commentary on
the 21st mentioned the issue in passing, clairning "it is certain
there are many confidential documents bti.ween Washington and
Tel Aviv" on the same pattern as those revealed in the New York
TIMES in connection with U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war.
AL-AIIRAM on 17 June began serializing "most of the secret study
and many of the appended documents," having obtained "the right
to publish these documents under an agreement" with the TIMES.
The paper proi~i.ded a frontpage introduction and has continued
the series, with photographs and maps on inside pages, on 19,
20, and 23. June. AL-JUI?IIILTRIYAII in two commentaries stressed
President Johnson's "duplicity" and linked this aspect to
alleged U.S. secret involvement in the 1967 Middle East war.
SYRIA The only public reference to the issue by a Middle
East leader comes from Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad
in his 23 June address at the opening of an Afro-Asian Solidarity
Organization meeting in Damascus. In line with the general tenor
of the lii.Lited Arab comment, al-Asad stated that the day would
come when "~.he facts about the imperialist role in the aggression
against the rab people will be exposed, just as the American
press has uncovered the plotting of the U.S. ruling establishment
against the Vietnamese people and their deceiving the American
people."
While Damascus radio has not originated any comment, the broadcast
press review on the 21st reported an AL-BA'TH editorial as
declaring that "the lie" the United States used as an excuse to
'.nvade Indochina "is the same lie the United States always used
as justification for countering liberation movements" and for
its "support of world Zionism and its aggression against the
Arab people."
LEBANON Beirut radio, which has not commented, includes in
its routine news coverage reports on the coart
proceedings against the New York TIMES and the Washing;.zin POST.
AL-i?IUIHARRIR on 17 June began serializing the documents which it
said "Cairo's AL-AHRAI4 obtained." According to AL-ANWAB on the 19th,
the American people now know that their government lied to them
about the air raids on Hanoi., and will soo.. know that their govern-
ment took from them "billions of dollars to send to Israel to be used
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for the expulsion of a people from their homeland." The paper
claimed that the U.S. system is no longer capable of nerving
the American people but rather serves an "imperialist policy
from which only Israel and a few agent governments" benefit.
All-NAI!AH commented on the 17th that a chain of presidential
decisions "taken for God only knows what reason" led to U.S.
intervention in Vietnam and Indochina which culminated "in a
conspiracy based on falsifications, lies, and deception."
ISRAEL No Israeli radio comment has been monitored, and
broadcast press reviews have carried no press
comment on the Pentagon study. News broadcasts, beginning on
the 15th, have reported developments almost daily, touching
on the reaction of several Senators and the legal actions
halting further press publication of the materials. The Tel
Aviv Forces Radio has not been heard to mention the subject.
CYPRUS KIIARAVYI, organ of the Cypriot communist party, said
on the 17th that the sole conclusion to be drawn from
the published documents has been summed up by leading U.S.
figures, and cited Senator Humphrey, among others, as saying the
documents proved that the Johnson Administration involved the
United States in the war through deceit. The paper concluded
that despite the "gagging of the New York TIMES," the American
p.~ople's opposition to the war in Indochina will be intensified.
The Greek-language TA I?IEA on the 17th linked the issue with the
Cyprus question, remarking in an editorial that the practice of
deceit "proves how careful people must be when they are given
assurances not followed up by substantial measures--as is the
case with the U.S. approach to the Cyprus question."
IRAN Teherau radio on the 18th discussed the essence of the
Pentagon study, the actions against the New York TIMES,
and the effect of the disclosure on U.S. politics in light of
next year's elections. The radio observed that while he documents
reflect mainly against the Democrats, criticism will also be
aimed at U.S. institutions and laws, including "the extensive
powers of the U.S. President," and it saw a second issue in the
threat to freedom of the press.
The Persian-language: communist clandestine Radio Iran Courier, in
a commentary on the 21st, asserted that publication of the
Pentagon study posed the question of whether or not existing
Ir7:nian-U.S. agreements could be regarded as valid. It asked
if' there might be a danger of repetition of "such sham incidents"
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as that in the Tonkin Gulf occurring near Iranian shores, and
if the "U.S. milita:.-y advisers in the Iranian armed forces could
not plunge our country, int' a bloody involvement similar to that
of Vietnam."
TURKEY Ankara radio, which carried its first monitored report
on th.: Pentagon study on the 19th, gives scanty
attention to the story and little coverage to the documents.
Brief news it-ns have followed legal developments in the court
action to halt pul;lication and noted than the President would
submit the secret documents to Congress.
The Turkish-language communist clandestine "Our Radio" asserted
on the 23d that the "fascist Erim government" took a step "even
beyond its Washington masters" and banned publication of the
documents in Turkish papers, as well as the broadcast of news
items on the subject over Turkish radios. Commentaries by "Our
Radio" have stressed the "duplicity" of U.S. leaders without
relating the Pentagon study issue to any Turkish or Middle East
questions.
NORTH AFRICA Of the Maghreb press, Algerian papers have
given more prominent coverage to the publication
of the Pentagon study than those of Morocco and Tunisia. All
three draw on news agencies for material on the ^C"_^en s and
reaction abroad. There is no available comment from Libyan
media. The only monitored broadcast comment comes from Algiers
radio, which on 1'1 June claimed that the "violent reaction" of
the Nixon Administration to publication of the documents was
dictated by concern over the next presidential election. The
choice before the Administration, the radio said, is to decide
fa.?~r of peace by g5.ving a precise date for withdrawal from,
Vietnam or to continue the war, "in which case it cannot count
on public opinion, which prefers peace." The commentary
concluded that the silent majority on which Nixon thought he
could depend "has now considerably diminished."
AFRICA No comment has been monitored from Africa south of
the Sahara. News coverage by local radios has
been modest in volume and factual in content.
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LATIN 0?ICA
ARGENTINA principal Buenos Aires dailies gave the Now
York TIMES release extensive news coverage, and
LA NACIP~N commenced on the 18th to reprint the series of TIMES
articles. On the same clay LA PRENSA published a commentary by
its New York correspondent, who said the developments will
serve to int'lame hawk-dove and Republican-Democratic battles.
lie reported that the U.S. press is dividers over the issue of
freedom of the press to publish anything it sees fit, since
"it can also be said that without national security freedom
of the press is also in danger."
BRAZIL The Brazilian press and radic provided extensive
news coverage, but there was no comment. The
Brasilia radio in a feature "congressional report" program
quoted an opposi;,ion deputy's remark to the effect that the
U.S. Government's resort to the courts shows its respect
for freedom of the press and the rights of the press; the
Brazilian Government should adopt a similar attitude
toward the press, he implied.
CHILE Initial press reaction was mostly limited to
reprinting of wire service news items.
LA TERCERi. DE LA HORA carried an editorial applauding
the TIiEJ for its action and concluding that there is
"nothing mare enlightening for democracies than this
trial taking place in the United States."
COLOMBIA The Bogota dailies provided fairly broad news
coverage, mostly from UPI. EL SIGLO reviewed
developments in a brief editorial on the 16th, concluding
that ultimately "positive results" in regard to "strengthening
and purifying" the U.S. system of government will , ae. A
coltunn in the 2.7 June EL ESPECTADOR stated that, since I'
TIMES has often evidenced its sense of responsibility, it
is "almost certain that the true reason for preventing
publication" of the Vietnam documents is to "avoid further
discredit of the war and the Administration." An editorial
in the same paper asserted that the documents "merely
confirm what world political opinion" has suspected or
known for a long time--that the "Vietnam venture constitutes
one of the biggest mistakes of U.S. foreign policy." In
a later editorial on 19 June, EL ESPECTADOR stated that
what has been published is sufficient to judge that the
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"failings of this war come from far back, from political errors,
poor military calculations, and sometimes pure bad luck, and in
airy case from having tried to force solutions where there was no
way out but the political way."
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC `here was considerable radio reportage
'out little comr::ent. One radio commental;?-
on the 18th said that the matter of the court injunction "will
put on trial the integrity, solvency, and the reliability of
the U.U. juridical institutions and will set a very important
precedent, not only for U.S. political democracy but also for
ocher nations within the U.S. area of influence whore copying
the U.S. way of life is common." In a radio interview on the
20th, Juan Bosch, former Dominican president, declared: ''The
publication of these documents bares before the American
people and the world the fact that the so-called U.S.
democracy is not the democracy that they have tried to make
the people believe."
PN'JAMA The Panamanian radio and press gave
full news coverage. A columnist in
EL I,tATUTIiNO on 18 June observed that publication of the
documents has produced "a crisis of nerves" in Washington
since the information is so delicate that it could cause
serious difficulties with roreign governments and undermine
confidence in the U.S. Government. The columnist said that
President Nixon is no censor and has the highest respect
for freedom of the press; since the nation and its foreign
policy is being affected, the President's efforts through
.legal means to halt publication of the documents cannot be
construed as obstructing press freedom.
LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMA in a 21 June editorial stated that
although freedom of the press has been "zealously
maintained and respected in the United States," in
certain cases U.S. publications have indulged in "evic'.ent
indiscretions" and one must not forget that rights have
"precise limits which cannot be surpassed without hurting
other people or institutions." The paper argued th:tt it
cannot be denied that the U.S. authorities have the right
to "consider unwise and even dangerous for natir,ial security"
the publication of secret documents; what has already been
published has given "the communists material for propaganda
which they will try to exploit to the utmost."
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H. COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
NORTH VIETNAM AND THE PRG
The initial Hanoi broadcast on 16 June told the North Vietnamese
audience that the New York TIMES on the 13th carried excerpts from a
Defense Department "secret report" which had been requested by
former Defense Secretary McNamara. The broadcast said that the
report of "40 volumes" contained evidence that the United States
had begun to be involved in Indochina before the French
withdrawal and that plans to bomb the North had been prepared
about five months before the Gulf of Tonkin incident. It went
cn to report Senator McGovern's charge that t; Pentagon study
contains "proof" that President Johnson had deceived the
American people and Congress, and -to observe that the report
has caused the Nixon Government "extreme .mbarrassmant." It
noted in conclusion that the Justice Department had asked the
New York TILIES to stop publishing the report and return it to
the Defense Department but that the newspaper rejected the
request "in the interests of the American people."
A later Hano.. broadcast on the same day--in English to U.S.
servicemen--reported that the TIMES had published the second
installment of the article on the 14th. It said that "shocked
by the disclosure," Senator Symington had called for a "full
congressional investigation" into the war.
A Hanoi domestic service broadcast on the 17th noted some
details of the report, observing that the United States had
been waging a "secret war" against the DRV, and that 10 weeks
before the Tonkin Calf incident the Administration drafter: a
resolution for Congress to adopt "that would have authori,.ed
it to tak: any necessary measures, in,!luding the use of armed
forces in South Vietnam." It also referred to the carrying
out of commando raids in North Vietnam. Noting that the third
part of the TIME`' series dealt with the introduction of
"massive" U.S. troops into South Vietnam, the broadcast said
that on 1 April 1965 the President decided to use U.S. troops
in South Vietnam "because the U.S. Administration realized
that bombings in North Vietna;a could not prevent defeat in
South Vietnam but the President ordered that this fact be kept
secret."
The only available substantial account of Hanoi press attention
to the Pentagon sttn.dy is in a Hanoi English-language broadcast
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to Southeast Asia on the 17th. It reported that NHIIN DAN that
day, "quoting the gist" of the Pentagon study, noted that the
"truth expressc