WESTMORELAND AIDE SAYS HE DOESN'T RECALL BRIEFING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150045-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: February 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150045-4
Tr'! APPEARED
WASHINGTON POST
14 February 1985
Westmoreland Aide Says He Doesn't
il Briefing "In preparation for your testimony today, were
ei~"a you shown any documents or written material
?" Dorsen asked.
~' By Eleanor Randolph
Washington Post Staff Writer
NEW YORK, Feb. 13-Gains B. Hawkins, a
key witness for CBS, said today that he does not
recall a briefing on May 19, 1967, when retired
general William C. Westmoreland has said he
told his immediate military superior about higher
enemy numbers in Vietnam.
Hawkins, who was in charge of estimating en-
emy-troop numbers for Westmoreland's com-
mand in 1967, said he "may or may not" have
prepared documents for the briefing, when
Westmoreland said his immediate superior, Adm.
U.S. Grant Sharp, was told of new data.
The session with Sharp is important to West-
moreland's claim that CBS libeled him in a 1982
documentary that accused the general of failing
to tell his superiors of higher enemy-troop fig-
ures. Hawkins, who was in charge of the military
"order of battle"-or enemy-troop estimates-
for Westmoreland's command, said that "ordi-
narily" he would have been at such a briefing.
In his first day of cross-examination by West-
moreland lawyer David M. Dorsen, Hawkins said
he remembers discussing the higher figures with
Westmoreland only on two later occasions-May
28 and June 14, 1967. He testified Tuesday that
the general told him at the time that the new
enemy data was "politically unacceptable."
"The reason I recall these was because it was
a sort of a traumatic experience," Hawkins said
today. "I gave many other briefings, but I had no.
reason, I guess, to remember those [others]."
Hawkins, whose folksy stories and Mississippi
colloquialisms drew repeated laughter from the
courtroom, appeared to be a tough witness for
Dorsen, who is to continue Tuesday trying to
elicit testimony favorable to Westmoreland.
In a long conference with U.S. District Court
Judge Pierre N. Leval before court today, Dor-
sen complained that Hawkins had been "prepared
to an incredible extent" by CBS. Dorsen said that
CBS co-defendant Samuel A. Adams or CBS at-
torneys had made about 10 trips to Hawkins'
home in West Point, Miss., to help the nursing
home administrator prepare for this case.
Hawkins, who uses words such as "boondocks"
to describe the Vietnam countryside, seemed to
undermine easily some of Dorsen's efforts to
show the jury that Hawkins had been coached for
his appearance on the stand.
"I have been shown various documents: I read
affidavits, I read depositions, I read cables, I read
some memoranda that had been prepared,"
Hawkins began.
Then, cocking his head and squinting through
his glasses, Hawkins asked: "Is this evil, sir?"
As it would on several occasions throughout
the day, the courtroom filled with laughter.
Asked to read from a manuscript he had writ-
ten in 1980 about his time in Vietnam, Hawkins
read a description of one of the other key wit-
nesses for CBS, retired major general Joseph A.
McChristian, who testified last week that West-
moreland balked at sending a cable on higher
enemy numbers to his superiors.
"I vaguely disliked him out of what paucity of
knowledge I had concerning him," Hawkins read
from his analysis of McChristian, one of his
bosses in Vietnam. "He was a cold man .... He
was a relentlessly ambitious man. He had a pas-
sion to excel. He drove his staff and subordinates
unmercifully. He drove himself with no more
mercy; he was not a likable man."
Then Hawkins looked across the courtroom to
Dorsen and added: "I think General McChristian'
might be proud of this statement."
Special correspondent John Kennedy contributed
to this report.
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150045-4