THE PROFESSOR, VIETNAM AND A MURDER CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201300003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201300003-4
lICL AYPl AfcJ D PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
ON FACE - 23 January 1985
STAT
The professor,
Vietnam a;
By Murray Dubin
Inquirer Staff Writes
FULLERTON, Calif. When An-
thony Russo a 'co-defendant in the
Pentagon -Papers case, was told that
his friend Edward Lee Cooperman
had been shot to death, be assumed
that Cooperman had been assassinat-
ed by right-wing, anti-communist
Vietnamese.
When Morton Sobell, who was im-
prisoned for 18 years for conspiracy
to commit espionage with Ethel and
Julius Rosenberglearned of his
friend Cooperman's death, he was
certain that - the physics, professor
had been assassinated.
And when John McAuliff, -former
director of-the Indochina Program
for the American Friends Service
Committee in Philadelphia, learned
of the shooting, he, too, assumed that.
Cooperman had been murdered, an
other victim in a recent rash of at-
tacksby Vietnamese refugees against
those sympathetic with the' commu
nistgovernment in Hanoi.
Cooperman's widow believes he
was assassinated. So does the Hanoi,
government, which has accused the
CIA with engineering the death of a
man who had worked actively for
eight years to help the people and
government of Vietnam.
niaState University at Fullerton, was
a widely known.- some say. contro-
versial -'figure`inthe Asian commu-
' nity in Orange.County, which has an
estimated .60,000 Indochinese_?refu-1
,,,gees.
He devoted much. of his time to-
;ward improving' American relations
. with Vietnam, after :the fall. of Saigon,.
;visiting the country many"times and
'founding an'-organization that ex-
ported books, medical equipment
and even high-tech equipment to
that country the, last, apparently
illegally.
But his pro-Hanoi politics were not
well received: by some in the;;Asian
community; ati l e told family -and
thti I
colleagues ofreats agains his lfe. In the most-recent development in
Z the case,.an.inmate who shared a-cell
,with Lam, reportedly, told prosecu-
:tors that-Lam badtold, him that, he
kill: C-66 According. to"a" source who `bas
":heard a tape -ofthe -inmate's. state=
ment, Lam said he killed Cooperman
because a Vietnamese businessman
had threatened to kill Lam's sister if
he did: not, Lam said, the business-
"'Man worked for someone, named "Ky
Police here, though, say there is no ,~- "" '"- " """""" `-Y`"- -"'-' '---'
quick to
Local news accounts were ,
evidence that Cooperman .wasassas:
sinated, and the CIA vehemently de point out that
Viet
Preside t of Scut K
A Vietnamese student, -MihnVan
Lam, who'-told police that Cooper-
man was like a father to him, has
been -charged with murder in the
Oct. 13 slaying. Lam, 21, contends
that the shooting was an. accident
while they were "playing around"
He said the case has drawn world-
wide attention because of Cooper-
man's international reputation as
the most active American scientist
working to help the people of North
Vietnam. He said he knew of scientif-
ic groups in Paris. Berlin and the
Netherlands that ' were closely moni-
.toring the case. -
town who graduated from Pennsyl- .;
vania State University with a doctor-
ate in nuclear physics in 1963. was
involved in the antiwar movement.
But; it was not until dater, when he
went'to"'work at a; nuclear-research-
ter in France, that -he became so ::
passionately. pro-Vietnamese. ;
His brother, William -Cooperman, a
middle school principal in Topton,
.Pa., said that while Edward was in. .
France, he metmany Vietnamese and
became more active in the antiwar
movement.. He first. visited Vietnam ;
Killed over his pro-Hanoi politics?
"He saw the effects of-Agent Or
'
it
ange on newborn children and
"destroyed him," William Cooperman
said. "My brother thought he had a
1moral obligation to be in Vietnam."
So he formed the U.S. Committee
with a pistol. "And I still haven't heard a credi- nam, a private group of citizens and
But when Lam's trial begins thisI ble scenario yet," said Cooperinan's scientists, and laterstarted the com-
month, the victim, not the defend- friend and colleague, physics profes- mittee's funding arm, the Founda-
ant, is likely to be the focus of atten- sor Roger Dittman, who nonetheless tion for Scientific Cooperation with
tion. And there promises to be plenty j believes that his friend was assassi- Vietnam.
of testimony about espionage, moneys nated.
'and sex, as well.
Continue
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201300003-4
;y,nam, owns a liquor store not far from
Fullerton
Lam ;denies ,making any conies-
Sion.
As the trial draws near -a judge is
this college town is. bursting with
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201300003-4
From 1977 to mid-1984, he visited After examining Cooperman's re La`m told' police that he then left
Vietnam 12 times, delivering medical cords, receipts and bills of lading, and went to a movie with a girl-
'supplies, helping study the effects of May contends that Cooperman was friend, returned to Cooperman's of pis Agent Orange, retraining hospital afraid that the U.S. government was five alone, ut.th Cool in Cooper.
personnel, working on methods of going to discover that he was V.
man's hand and.called police'lelling
drying rice with solar energy, ping computers and technical items authorities that he had just arrived.
launching 35 projects .in all by the to Hanoi illegally and that the Hanoi When police arrived, they believed
time of his death. government would learn he was the death to be a suicide but Lam told
lie brought Vietnamese doctors shortchanging it and exporting infe? them "it was an accident," according
'and scientists into the United States. nor merchandise. to, police testimony at a preliminary
He worked with the United Nations May said he believed that Cooper- hearing.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural man had more to fear from U.S. sane- A number of people have raised
Organization: bons and an angry Hanoi than from -,questions about aspects of Lam's sto-
"He was a giant," said Russo, "be- anticommunists.
ry.
cause he applied his science to the May acknowledged Cooperman .s Dittman, who said he believedthat
people and didn't stay in an ivory brilliance and benevolence,. tut as- his friend had been,' assassinated,
tower. He was building a bridge to serted, in court documents and in cannot- understand why Lam, if he
Vietnam." interviews, that the physics profes- were an assassin, would return to the
But apparently not everyone want- sor had bizarre sexual interests, was office.''.'.
ed that bridge built. illegally assisting Hanoi and might William Cooperman said his broth. Coo erman bean receiving.. have been a crook
P g or would -never play around with a
'.threats re opposed life from people loaded "gun. He didn't like my, kids
who were opposed to his work in playing-around with scissors,"
Vietnam: Although never citing According to-documents filed by
May, Lam, a former student of Coo- A ballistics expert testified that it
`;names, he osomeoold his wife, Would beve difficult to accidental-
Klaaske, that someone came u .to perman's, went to Cooperman's of- m'
P Tice on the morning of Oct '13 at the ly fire the murder weapon.
him on campus and said he would g The Police' found many him: professor's request. Y photo-
He took the threats seriously. Bars "The defendant was; as other, graphs-of'-Asian' youths = in black.
Were put on`'-his ,windows at ome, young male students before him se- leather jackets In Cooperman's office
and lights were installed in the lected by Dr. Cooperman for special well as more explicit sexual mate
- rial, May said.
driveway. " - - attention,., the document said. "That attention included urchas- " Anybody could have gotten in
"He thought they'd get him on his P there and planted that'stuff"
motorbike," his brother said. ing the defendant a black,leather Mrs:
Cooperman
"He was afraid they would try to jacket, a motorcycle, gifts of money: said.
Y Y Moreover, she said her husband's
hurt his reputation, to plant drugs in and a weekly social appointment that
his office or something," Klaaske included wrestling " usually bulging briefcase had been
Cooperman said ;During the preliminary hearing, found virtually empty. Still he joked about the threats, two physics department' employees . Y PtY? She main
testtfiedthat,tliey had seen Cooper- tamed that her husband's pap
once reminding a colleague that they - ers
looked alike and that the friend had man wrestling in hit office with oth were stolen, including his work on
Agent Orange.
Asian oaths.
better be careful. Cooperman never er youths.
:changed his routine, which consist- Cooperman, May alleged in the "He was getting close on'
Agent
Led of going to and from work seven document, asked Lam to dress in the Orange he told me, she said'
`:days a week, always at the same time. "rough look"of leather. "Lam had an Dittman speculated that some of
In May, while on a trip to Hanoi, he anti-motive for killing him,": May Cooperman's unofficial work, such
learned that two good friends in San said. "He wasa sugar daddy. He had as trying to help former South` Viet
Francisco, a Vietnamese. couple ac- every emotional arid material reason namese government officials to get
live in improving relations with Ha- to want the professor to live." back into the country, might have
not, had been attacked. The man was ;. Lam, in a statement to police, said precipitated his death.
wounded, his wife killed. the shooting occurred when the two Sobell and others are furious with
men were seated in chairs facing one May's `efforts to tarnish the reputa-
"It's going to happen to me, too,'.'
Cooperman's wife quoted him-as say- another. The - professor "placed : a -lion of?a'manwhose integrity,. they
ing. loaded,,.25-caliber pistol in.,: Lam'ssay; was beyond reproach
When he returned from Hanoi in hand, insisting that. the defendant 1 Fin"-He's trying Ed Cooperman and
July, Cooperman seemed changed. point it at his throat," May said in a be's dead. w