CBS WITNESS LINKS U.S. LOSSES TO VIETNAM SELF-DEFENSE FORCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150078-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 78
• Publication Date: January 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150078-8
THE NEW YORK TIMES
23 January, 1985
Losses to
Links U
S
CBS Wit
.
.
ness
,~
Vietnam Self -Defense-Force.
By M. A. FARBER Senior C.I.A. Analyst and various intelligence agencies, Mr.
George W. Allen, a former deputy Mr. Allen - who served as a senior Adams and some C_I.A.' colleagues un-
chief of Vietnamese affairs for the Cen- - analyst at the C.I.A.'s station in Saigon successfully opposed the deletion of the
tral Intelligence Agency, testified yes- from 1964 to 1966, when he became self-defense forces in the order of bat-
ter-day that the Vietcong's self-defense deputy head of the agency's Vietnam- tie. But it was not until early 1973,.
forces may have been responsible for ese affairs staff at Langley, Va. - said shortly before he resigned from the
as much as "40 percent of American he had been Mr. Adams's "mentor on! C.I.A., that Mr. Adams first publicly
,losses" in Vietnam. . -order of battle problems since we first accused the military of willful decep-
Mr. Allen, who is 58 years old, took "`met" in January 1966. At that time, Mr., tion.
the stand in Federal District Court in ; Adams had worked for six months of a Besides being used 'for the order of
Manhattan as the second witness for : two-and-a-half year assignment on the battle, the enemy strength figures set-
;' CBS in the $120 million libel trial Vietnamese affairs staff. ----
brought by Gen. William C. Westmore- -. "I sometimes wished I had the tour tled upon in late 1967 were used fora 25-'
land against the network. age of my convictions as Sam had," page special intelligence estimate for
President Johnson and other senior of-
mentary that charged a "conspiracy
by the general's command to minimize
the true size and nature of enemy
Adams as one having an unusually high
sense of professional integrity."
Mr. Allen said that Mr. Adams's in-
;.;strength in South Vietnam in the year -tegrity "was commensurate with the
+ before the Tet , offensive of January , biblical passage engraved in the en-
1968. The broadcast - "The Uncounted -trance to C.I.A. headquarters - 'Ye
Enemy: A Vietnam Deception" - ac- .'.shall know the truth and the truth shall
cused the military of deliberately dis- make you free.' "
toning enemy capabilities by deleting A,'- Earlier in this trial, George Carver,
the Vietcong's self-defense units from the chief of that C.I.A. unit, testified for
the official listing of -forces known as ` General Westmoreland and portrayed
the order of battle. -Mr. Adams as someone who was "seI-
Mr. Allen, who appeared on the docu- . dom in doubt, often in error."
mentary, is regarded as a particularly -General Westmoreland, who com-
.important witness for the network. ,manded United States forces in Viet-
Both George Crile, the producer of the _ nam from January 1964 to June 1968,
for broadcast, and Samuel A. Adams, a contends that CBS defamed him by
former C.I.A. analyst who was a paid ?' saying he had lied to President Lyndon
consultant for the program, have told !B. Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
'the jury that Mr. Allen was the "dean" ';about enemy strength in 1967.
on Vietnamese issues: Mr. Allen him- Arbitrary Ceiling
self said yesterday that he had more ''The documentary specifically
experience on Indochinese matters as
an American intelligence officer -charged that General Westmoreland
more than 17 years - than any other. imposed an "arbitrary ceiling" on
.person, civilian or military. -reports of enemy strength, mainly by
the deletion of the part-time, hamlet-
`Concept' Twisted ..-based self-defense forces from the or-
On the documentary; Mr. Allen said ' .`derof battle, and had disregarded re-
the removal of the "paramilitary" self- ports from his officers of a higher Viet-
defense forces from the order of battle 'tong presence and a higher rate of
twisted "our concept" of the war. . North Vietnamese infiltration than was
"We were skewing our strategy," he made known.
said on the broadcast. "We were not ac- - General Westmoreland testified that
knowledging that indeed there was an he, removed the self-defense forces -
important indigenous South Vietnam- -then newly estimated at 120,000 - be-
ese component; that, indeed, it was a ;cause they were inconsequential mill-
- Mr. Allen followed Mr. Adams to the
stand around 4:15 P.M. yesterday, an
-hour before court adjourned. Mr..
Adams completed his testimony by re-,
calling his many years of efforts to,
bring to light what he called the "embarrassing but significant" story of
military "deception" in Vietnam.
Mr. Adams said the military's "dis-
honest" position regarding enemy
strength in 1967 was the "kind of thing
that people want to put out of their
mind.
"It was the kind of thing people al-
tanly and their inclusion in the order of
battle at a high figure would mislead
Washington and the press. He said he
also wanted, in 1967, to "purify" the or-
der of battle by "separating the fight-
ers" - such as North Vietnamese
regulars and Vietcong guerrillas -
from what he called the "nonfighters,"
such as the self-defense units.
'At a series of conferences in 1967 be-
tween representatives of the military
most have to confess to," he said, tell-
ing of his repeated attempts to pry the
story loose from former military intel-
ligence officers and to acquire infor-
mation that was still in classified docu-
ments.
ficials. That document-which listed a
total enemy military strength of 223,000
to 248,000 - said, in a paragraph, that
the self-defense forces might have
numbered 150,000 in 1966 and, though
declining and not "offensive military
forces," still "constitute a part of the
overall Communist effort.'-',
Yesterday, on re-direct examination
by David Boies, a lawyer for CBS, Mr.
Adams said that document was "not an
honest statement" of full enemy
strength.
But his interpretation was chal-
lenged on re-cross examination by
David Dorsen, a lawyer for General J
Westmoreland.
Q. Are you suggesting that people
like Secretary of Defense McNamara
would not be aware that self-defense
forces were not in the strength
totals?
A. I believe he might be aware, but
if he read that paragraph he wouldn't
get a proper idea of what those peo-
ple did.
When Mr. Dorsen suggested that Mr.
Adams had "mixed feelings" about de-
scribing the self-defense units as "mili-
tary," Mr. Adams said that "para-
military" might be an acceptable term
but that he never doubted the need to
include them in enemy strength-totals. I
Mr. Allen testified that the self-de-
fense forces "were responsible for
sniper fire, preparing booby traps and
terrorist-type grenades and sometimes
they would actually engage in a fire-
fight." He said they were killing South
Vietnamese and American troops "and
were terrorizing civilians. They were
an integral part of the enemy's mili-
tary strength."
He said he recalled "figures -as-hieh
as 40 percent of American losses being
inflicted by militia self-defense ele-
ments ,
Mr. Allen, who said he waQ one of a
dozen intelligence analysts who de-
vised the first American order of battle
for enemy forces in Vietnam in 1962,
said he agreed with Mr. Adams that the
military's position on enetny strength
figures five years later was not in
good faith."
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150078-8