TROOP-COUNT COMPROMISE HIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150076-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: January 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150076-0
WASHINGTON POST
24 January 1985
poop-Count Compromise Hit
In CBS Trial, Ex-Analyst Calls CIA Agreement a Mistake
J
A
By Eleanor Randolph
Washmgton PosrStaft Writer.
NEW YORK, Jan. 23-Former
CIA analyst George Allen said today
that a CIA compromise almost 48
years ago on enemy troop strength
in Vietnam was "the mistake of -the
century."
Allen, a key defense witness for
CBS Inc. in retired Army general
William C. Westmoreland's $120
million libel suit, called a 1967,
agreement between the Central
Intelligence Agency and Westmore-
land's command on how many en-
emy troops were in Vietnam late
that year "a prostitution of the. in-
telligence process."
"I felt that my own professional
integrity had been compromised by
my going along with this particular
estimate and that ... the agency
had sacrificed its integrity on the
altar of public relations and political
expediency by going along with the
publication of a dishonest and mis-
leading estimate," Allen said.
Allen, 58, who was a former dep-
uty chief of Vietnam affairs for the
CIA and is under contract to lecture
on intelligence ethics at the agency,
said he told CBSproducer and co-
defendant George Crile that West-
moreland "had the `fundamental re-
sponsibility" for the "distortion of
the [intelligence] process."
He said Westmoreland, com-
mander of ground forces in Vietnam
at the time, established a "command
position" 'that listed enemy troop
totals in the 1967 official roster at
about 300,000 instead. of as much
as 500,000. The' higher figure. was
proposed by the CIA and some of
Westmoreland's Army intelligence
experts.
Allen's firm defense of CBS came
on the third anniversary of the
broadcast at issue in this case.
Called "The Uncounted Enemy: A
Vietnam Deception," the program
accused Westmoreland of being` - proud of the-agency's involvement,
part, of an alleged "conspiracy" to and I just did not feel that I was pre-
keep a ceiling on enemy troop=`- pared at that time to wash my own
strength figures in order to main- and the agency's dirty linen in pub-.
tain support for the war.' lic."
Westmoreland, who has'-argued Allen said he felt that ,he was un
that the broadcast defamed him in der similar constraints . for 'the.
saying , he: triedlo'hide the larger broadcast as -those -her `said- were
enemy count from superiors includ- imposed onhim by then-CIA Direc-
ing President Lyndon B. Johnson, tor William E. Colby in'-1975 when
dropped "home militia troops"- from- Allen testified before the House.',
the official enemy count because. intelligence committee.
they were difficult to count and
were "civilians" or "non-soldiers."
Allen said such .troops should be
considered dangerous in a the type
of -war waged in Vietnam. "The mi-
litia was organized.: in -much the
same way as our own militia had-',.
been during the Revolutionary
War," he said.
Allen said the importance of the
troop estimate became apparent in
January. 1968 when- communist
forces staged the Tet offensive, the
series of attacks against virtually
every major city and military base
that became for' many Americans a
psychological. turning point affect-
ing their support for the war.
"This was the chickens coming
home to roost," Allen said he told
, codefendant Samuel A. Adams, who
worked for Allen at the CIA in 1967
and early 1968. "Our having gone-
along with-the dishonest estimate
had contributed to the psychological
impact on the administration of the
Tet offensive," Allen said.
Allen said he spoke to. Crile
more candidly and forthrightly" off
camera than during the two inter-
views he gave the team working on
the disputed documentary.
"I had some feeling of guilt about
my involvement ... and was reluc-
tant publicly to acknowledge that
guilt," Allen testified.
"I was not proud of my own in-
volvement in this," he said, speak-
ing firmly to the jury. "I was not
Challenged later by Westmore-
land's attorney, David M. 'Dorsen,
about his statements to that panel,
Allen said Colby told him before his
appearance that "we ... don't want
to put ourselves in the position of
attacking the military or appearing
to attack the military in order to
save the agency on this issue." - .
"I played my role on that, occa-
sion, I regret to say, of not breaking
ranks and conforming to what I,now
see clearly in my view was a white-
wash," Allen said.
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150076-0