BITTER CLASH IN CBS TRIAL TESTIMONY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160060-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 60
• Publication Date: November 22, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707160060-6
r,RTC"1-E 17 "'EARED
C, E., 7
NEW YORK TIMES
22 November 1984
Bitter Clash in CBS Trial Testimony
S, By M. A. FARBER
Gen. William C. Westmoreland and
CBS lawyers clashed sharply in court
yesterday, as the general stabbed the
air with his glasses and asserted his
prerogatives as a commander and the
CBS lawyers, catching him in various
discrepancies, suggested that he could-
n't get straight his decisions in 1967 or
his testimony now.
Typical of the day's proceedings at
the general's seven-week-old libel trial
against the network was an angry ex-
change over General Westmoreland's
decision in the summer of 1967 to re-
move the Vietcong's self-defense
forces from the official military listing
of enemy strength known as the order
of battle.
"You were then the commander of
American forces in Vietnam, weren't
you, sir?" said David Boies, who, as
the principal attorney for CBS, was
cress-examining the witness in Federal
Court in Manhattan.
"C'mon, Mr. Boies. you know that,"
the general shot back.
"Yes," said Mr. Boies, his voice am-
plified by a microphone on a lectern,
"but I sometimes wonder whether you
forget it, sir."
"Objection," shouted Dan M. Burt,
General Westmoreland's lawyer, as
Judge Pierre N. Leval interrupted a
series of rapid-fire questions from Mr.
Boies.
"You didn't call the order of battle
'so-called' back in 1967, did you, sir?"
Mr. Boies pressed the witness, who has
insisted that the listing needed revi-
sion. "Did you call it 'so-called' when
you were interviewed by Mike Wal-
lace?"
The general had not.
But General Westmoreland told the
jury that the deletion of the self-defense
forces from the order of battle. against
the recommendation of his intelligence
chief, Maj. Gen. Joseph A. McChris-
tian, was his "prerogative."
"I exercised it," he said.
Arbitrary `Ceiling'
The general's $120 million suit stems
from a 1982 CBS Reports documentary
titled: "The Uncounted Enemy: A
Vietnam Deception," for which Mr.
Wallace was "chief correspondent"
and narrator.
Mr. Wallace, who is also a defendant
in this case, interviewed General West-
moreland in May 1981 for the documen-
tary, which alleged a "conspiracy" at
the "highest levels" of military intelli-
gence to minimize the strength of the
enemy in South Vietnam in 1967 to
make it appear that America was win-
ning the war.
General Westmoreland, according to
the broadcast, arbitrarily set a "ceil-
ing" of 300,000 for the order of battle.
Another "tactic" of the general, Mr.
Wallace said on the documentary, was
to order the removal of the part-time,
hamlet-based self-defense forces.
These units had been carried in the or-
der of battle at 70,000. But, as the result
of new studies in early 1967, General
McChristian estimated their number at
117,000.
On May 11, 1967, according to Gen-
eral Westmoreland, General McChris-
tian gave him a draft cable for Wash-
ington containing the higher figures for
self-defense forces, plus higher figures
for an enemy category called political
cadre.
During his direct testimony last
week, General Westmoreland testified
that he had deferred transmission of
the cable and asked General McChris-
tian for a full briefing later. He denied
telling his intelligence chief - contrary
to General McChristian's recollection
- that the figures in the cable would be
a "political bombshell," a phrase Gen-
eral Westmoreland said "is not in my
lexicon."
Yesterday, Mr. Boies came back to
this subject.
Mr. Boies showed the witness a copy
of his pre-trial deposition last January
in which he said that General McChris-
tian's new figures represented a previ-
ous "underestimate" of enemy
strength and that, without a "re-order-
ing" of the order of battle, the total fig-
ure for the enemy "would have been a
real bombshell."
"That's not inconsistent with what I
said before," the general explained,
saying that, during 14 days of being de-
posed, the word "bombshell" had been
"thrown around so much."
"You just thrust it right into my lexi-
con, Mr. Boies," he said.
Although laughter swept the court-
room, Mr. Boies was unsmiling. He
suggested that the witness review the
1,642 previous pages of his deposition to
see "just how recently this was thrown
into your lexicon."
"All 1,642?" asked Judge Leval.
"Yes, I'd like to know," said Mr.
Boies, as General Westmoreland
leafed casually through the pages with-
out finding another reference.
Q. Did you ever say to Mr. Wallace or
to me that "bombshell" was not part of
your lexicon?
A. No, but I guess I could have.
"Let me make it clear," the general
said, turning, red-faced, to the jury and
waving his black-rimmed reading
glasses. "If the cable had gone out
without explanation, it would have
created a major public relations prob-
lem." He also termed the problem a
"political" one.
General Westmoreland's decision to
exclude the self-defense forces from
the order of battle and to assign no
numbers to them - as well as a related
decision he made to place 75,000 to
85,000 political cadre in a separate
category outside the listing of enemy
strength - was taken after a fuller
briefing on May 19' or May 20, 1967.
Yesterday, the general repeatedly
sought to emphasize the relative im-
portance of those decisions as against
what he said was the "insignificance"
of his'. May 11 meeting with General
McChristian.
At the same time, he complained
about the prominence that CBS had at-
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2,
tacked to the whole matter of the self-
defense forces, whom he said were
comprised of "old women and young
boys,
"I mean, it's ridiculous," he said,
nearly shouting. "I was four and a half
.years in that country. Nobody knew
more about it than I did. And it's ludi-
crous to put such emphasis on this or-
ganization."
General Westmoreland said that
what General McChristian believed
"was one thing. What I believed was
another. I happened to be the com-
mander. It was my responsibility."
The general lowered his voice.
Meeting Not Recorded
"You know that, Mr. Boies," he said.
"I don't know that," said the defense
lawyer, who is expected to call wit-
nesses later in the case to dispute not
only General We~smoreland's inten-
tions and chronology of events but also
his opinion regarding the threat posed
by the self-defense forces.
Mr. Boies, his hand on his hip and a
sheaf of papers on his lectern, asked
the witness whether he had spoken to
General McChristian after the CBS
documentary was aired in January
1982. General Westmoreland said he
might have.
Q. Do you recall calling General
McChrlstian at or about the time of the
broadcast and saying that your conver-,
sation [on May 11,1982] was a a private
matter between West Pointers and
should not be revealed publicly?
A. I do not recall that conversation.
Mr. Boies, drawing on "historical
notes" General Westmoreland had
kept in 1967, asked the witness why he
had not recorded his meeting with Gen-
eral McChristian about the higher
enemy figures.
A. I didn't put everything in my
notes.
Q. But you put a lot of things in your
notes, didn't you?
A. The meeting was inconsequential.
Q. Well, you put in your notes that
you had arranged for your surgeon to
look at a visiting Congressional aide
who had a head cold.
"That," said the general, grinning,
"was a human interest item."
Mr. Boies went on to emphasize the
difference between General Westmore-
land's "problem" with the new esti-
mates produced by General McChris-
tian in May 1967 and the witness's ac-
ceptance of earlier figures by his intel-
ligence chief - including figures that.
were apparently shown to President
Johnson in April 1967.
The CBS lawyer also noted that Gen-
eral Westmoreland had quickly ap-
proved enemy strength figures com-:g
piled by Gen. Phillip B. Davidson Jr.,
who succeeded General McChristian
,on June 1, 1967.
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