NEW YORK TIMES CLEARS EX-ENVOY'S NAME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303370003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 28, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303370003-4
EDITOR & _PU3LIS R
28 P?eoruarr 1981
York Times dears
ex vo , 's name
By Andrew Radolf
It was an "unusual story" by all
accounts: A front page exoneration of a
former United States Ambassador to
According to Korry, after the story
appeared in the Times, as well as_ other
Chile in the New York Times headlined, unable to work in either government oral
"New Evidence Backs Ex-Envoy on His journalism, his first career.
Role in Chile.". Korry had been U.S. Ambassador to
The February 9 story was written by Ethiopiafrom 1963 to 1967 before assum-
Seymour M. Hersh who left the Times in ing his post in Chile. He also had been
March 1979 to write a book on former United Press's chief European corres-
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. pondent based in Paris in the early 1950's
Hersh won his Pulitizer for international and had covered the beginnings of the
reporting in 1970 for his stories on the My United Nations at Lake Success, New II
Lai Massacre.- He also won several . York for UP. One of his fellow reporters
awards for his 1974 investigative series inI at the U.N was A.M. Rosenthal, then a
the Times on domestic spying by the CIA1 Times reporter.
and the Drew Pearson Prize in 1975 for his! . Korry said he and Rosenthal had been
stories on CIA involvement in Chile.
Hersh, at the request of Edward M.
Korry, U.S. Ambassador to Chile from
1967 to 1971, told Times executive editor
A.M. Rosenthal in November 1980?that
he had uncovered new evidence while
researching his book supporting the ex-
envoy's claim that he never knew any-
thing about covert CIA attempts to pre-
vent Salvador Allende Gossens from
being sworn in as that country's presi-
dent.
Rosenthal responded to the news by
assigning Hersh to write the story for the
Times.
"This is a very unusual story," Rosen-
thal said. "In itself it's a story. It's not a
correction. We ran stories some years
ago. The writer came across some new
information, so we ran that story."
The executive editor added he had
asked Hersh when the latter informed
him of the new evidence "not to put it in,
the book before you write-if for us."
In the spring of 1973 Korry had testified
to the Senate Subcommittee on Multina-
tional Corporations headed by Frank
Church, former Senator from Idaho, that
the covert plot against Allende in 1970,
known as Track. II, did not exist. - - --- ..
At the time, few believed Korry was
telling the truth.
On September. 17, 1974, Hersh wrote in
the Times that the subcommittee staff
said it was recommending that Korry,
along with former CIA director Richard
Helms and other-Nixon officials, be
charged with contempt of Congress for
allegedly giving misleading testimony at
the 1973 hearings.
Korry's name was never submitted to
the Justice Department, and the former
ambassador was never charged with any
news media including the Washington
Post, he became "a pariah" who was
-friends from 1946 until the news stories
appeared in 1974 on his role in Chile.
The ex-envoy said Hersh's story on
September 17, 1974 and two other stories
by theTimes reporter on September 8 and
September 10, 1974 were some of the
most. harmful to his reputation.
Korry said Hersh's February 9 story
ends nearly seven years of frustration in
trying to get himself heard by the major
news media including the Times.
"The story reestablishes an integrity I
was robbed of unjustly and unfairly seven
years ago," Korry told E&P. "It's the
Times that has ended the nightmare that
began seven years ago."
Korry stated "an accurate reading of
the record (of his 1973 testimony)" would
show he had "inadvertently stopped it
(Track II)" by continually acting against
it "without knowing it existed."
"If he (Hersh) had called me and asked
me," Korry said, "he never could have
written what he did." ,;,
Korry contended Hersh for his
September 17, 1974 story relied on in-
formation supplied by a source on the
subcommittee instead of reading the re-
cord-The ex-envoy stated that Hersh in a
recent conversation admitted to "only
skimming" the record of Korry's testi-
mony.
E&P asked Hersh if he had made such
an admission to Korry. Hersh replied the
allegation was "ludicrous. I let my record
as a journalist speak for itself."
Korry also contended that Hersh was
aware by the end of 1976 that his stories in
1974 about the former Ambassador's role
in 'Chile were inaccurate.
STAT
Hersh wrote in his February 9 Times;
story, and told E&P, that he had con-1
tacted Korry in 1976 about doing another
story to present Korry's side of what hap-
pened in Chile but had concluded the for-
mer ambassador's account was "too self-
serving to be credible."
But Korry said Hersh never wrote a
story in 1976 about his version of events
in Chile because it would have been
"ideologically displeasing" and dealt
with CIA involvement in the country dat-
ing back to the Kennedy administration.
Korry claimed that in 1976, Hersh had
said to him, "I may resurrect you" if he
agreed to provide the Times reporter with,
information on Henry Kissinger's in-
vovlement in covert CIA operations in
Chile.
Korry said he told Hersh he would only
talk about "what I did and could swear
to."
Hersh dismissed Korry's claim of an
offer "to resurrect him" and said he "did
not want to dignify it with a denial."
Hersh did write a storyfor the Times on
December 23, 1976 which mentioned
Korry near the end. Hersh wrote testi-
mony Korry had "volunteered in June
(1976)" to Federal investigators looking
into allegations of CIA/iTT wrongdoing
in Chile was found by them to be
"'helpful."'
In that same story, Hersh credited Joe
Trento of the Wilmington News-Journal
with writing the "first published reports
of the active grand jury investigation in
the CIA-Chile connection."
Trento's story appeared December 19,
1976 in the News-Journal. It was the
second of many stories by Trento which
began appearing November 28, 1976 and
continued into 1978.
In his stories, Trento wrote at length
about Korry's account of events in Chile
and said the former ambassador had been
victimized by others in the government
who were his political opponents.
"Sy Hersh had all the information of
any consequence Uat appeared in his
story on February 9, 1981 by December
19, 1976 when he had his hands on our
second story dealing with what really
happened in Chile," Trento said. "I
didn't have any preconceived notion of
Ed Korry. I checked out what he had to
say and it stood up. The readers of the
Wilmington News-Journal knew the truth'
four years earlier than the people who
read the Times."
Hersh told-E&P,."I didn't trust Joe's
articles as much as I should have. At one
point, I felt one of his stories was very
bad. The later stories were very good. I
didn't think much of those stories be-
cause I was wrong (about Korry in
1974)." .
" "?-~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303370003-4