FORMER ANALYST PRESSED ON FEES HE GETS FROM CBS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690003-2
p'RTICLE APPEARED
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Former a-[%M~Ilyst
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
22 January 1985
ressed*o-taftl fees
he gets from CAS
J By David Zucchino
"Profitable?" Adams asked, visibily
annoyed.
"Yes, profitable," Dorsen repeated.
"No," Adams said harshly. "It has
not."
But under persistent questioning,
Adams said he had been paid a
$20,000 advance for a book on Viet-
nam intelligence, with $20,000 more
due upon publication. He said he had
been paid $12,000 by CBS so far dur-
ing the more than two years of litiga-
lion, although he has not billed CBS
for all of the approximately 100 days
he has worked on the case.
The jurors, who sat bundled in
coats, scarves and gloves because the
heating system had failed, watched
with puzzled looks as Dorsen then
asked what hotels Adams has stayed
at during the trial Adams listed the
Plaza, Essex House and the Hilton -
all expensive hotels.
Dorsen asked Adams about a letter
he had written four days before the
broadcast to Col. Gains Hawkins, one
of Westmoreland's chief accusers on
the program. Adams wrote of the
broadcast:
"Overall, I think It's reasonably
good, but, as I mentioned before,
there's a major problem; The docu-
mentary seems to pin the rap on
General Westmoreland, when it
probably belongs higher than that."
In a tape-recorded conversation
with a TV Guide reporter after the
broadcast, Adams said of the pro-
gram's use of the term conspiracy to
describe Westmoreland's actions: "I
was uneasy with the word conspiracy
in the sense that you have a bunch of
villains sitting around a table con-
spiring together."
Asked to explain the references,
Adams clung to his belief that the
broadcast was accurate. .
"I am clear there was a conspira-
cy." he told Dorsen. He added: "I
indicated there was a major problem
... that it did not tell the full story
[but] it was accurate in that it por-
trayed the massive falsification of
intelligence" by Westmoreland's
command.
Adams said he believed that West-
moreland may have been under pres.
sure by top officials in the adminis-
tration of President Lyndon B.
Johnson to distort enemy troop esti-
mates, "but that was a separate sto-
ry"
NEW YORK - For the first time in
five days on the witness stand, for.
~.} mer Cl Est Samuel A. Adams
was essed yesterday about his per-
sonal finances and his paid relation.
ship with CBS.
Adams, answering grudgingly, told
the jury in the t: ial of Gen. William
C. Westmoreland's S120 million libel
suit against CBS that he was paid
525,000 as a consultant for a disputed
documentary on Vietnam. He also
said he has been paid $200 a day plus
expenses in connection with West-
moreland's suit against the network,
Adams and two CBS employees.
David M. Dorsen, an attorney for
Westmoreland, pressed Adams on his
finances as he tried to prove that
Adams had a financial motive to dis-i
credit Westmoreland. Adams, who
has contended since 1966 that West.i
moreland's command falsified ene-
'my strength estimates in Vietnam,
was not identified in the 1982 docu-,
mentary itself as a paid consultant in
the preparation of the program.
That program, The Uncounted Ene-
my: A Vietnam Deception, accused
Westmoreland of deceiving his supe-
riors about the size of the enemy as
listed in the official "order of battle"
in 1967 and 1968 to make it appear
that the war was being won. Adams,
Si, was a Vietnam analyst for the CIA 1
at the time.
Adams' finances were well-known
to the litigants in the case, but they
were revealed in detail to the jury
for the first time yesterday as Dorsen
completed a three-day cross-exami-
nation. Reminding Adams that he
has testified that he was "proud" to
have taken part in the broadcast,
Dorsen asked, "Hasn't this whole
controversy over the order of battle
been rather profitable to you as'
well?"
Dorsen also confronted Adams
with his testimony before a 1975 con-
gressional committee. In that testi-
mony, Adams said Westmoreland's
command had underreported enemy
infiltration in South Vietnam only "a
little bit" and had been "fairly hon-
est." The broadcast accused the com-
mand of suppressing intelligence es.
timates in late 1967 and that there
were about 125,000 more infiltrators
than Westmoreland was reporting
back to Washington.
Adams said be was referring to the
reporting of Westmoreland's com-
mand from 1968 to 1975 - and not
the five-month period in 1967 dis-
cussed in the broadcast.
Adams said he relied, in part, for
his infiltration estimates on a West
Point book about the Vietnam War
giving infiltration estimates much
higher than Westmoreland's com-
mand had reported in late 1967.
Asked if he had been aware that the
book had been dropped from the
curriculum, Adams replied, "I didn't
feel there was any reason for me to
find out."
Continued
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690003-2
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690003-2
He added that he learned after the
broadcast that the book was dropped
because it described the enemy's Tet
offensive of early 1968 as the "big-
gest [military) surprise since Pearl
Harbor." The broadcast said West.
moreland's alleged deceit left the
U.S. unprepared for the scope of the
offensive.
Asked by Dorsen to interpret the
Pearl Harbor reference, Adams said,
"If it was the biggest surprise since
Pearl Harbor, it was certainly a big
surprise."
Later, Dorsen questioned Adams
repeatedly about different numbers
he has given over the years about the
ratio of enemy killed to enemy
wounded, and about enemy guerrilla
strength. Both subjects were dis.
cussed in the broadcast.
Under questioning, Adams conced-
ed that he had told a CBS producer
before the broadcast that Gen. Jo-
seph McChristian, a key accuser of
Westmoreland, "loathed" Gen. Phil-
lip Davidson, his replacement as
Westmoreland's intelligence chief.
Davidson, who was implicated in the
reported deceit by the broadcast, has
testified on Westmoreland's behalf.
Dorsen's strategy appeared to be to
persuade the jury that McChristian's
accusations stemmed from a person-
al vendetta
Dorsen ended his cross-examina-
tion by asking Adams if he had ever
met Westmoreland prior to the trial.
"No," Adams replied.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807690003-2