FORMER ANALYST PRESSED ON FEES HE GETS FROM CBS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150080-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: January 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13 :CIA-RDP90-005528000707150080-5
pxt'>: I CLP~ APPEi~RE~
By David Zucchino ,
ln7uircr S[a}1 Writcr
NEW YORK -For the first time in
five days on the witness stand, for?
fl mer C1A a*za~st Samuel A. Adams
was p er ssed yesterday about his per-
sonal finances and his paid relation-
ship with CBS.
Adams, answering grudgingly, told
the jury zn the trial of Gen. William',
C. 1estmoreland's S120 million libel
suit against CBS chat he was paid
525,000 as a consnltan*. for a disputed
documentary on Vietnam. He also
said he has been paid 5200 a day plus
extenses in connection with West-
more:and's suit against the network,
Adatrs 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-!
credit Westmoreland. Adams, who
has contended since 1966 that West-
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 t,
listed in the official "order of battle" I
in 1967 and ~ 1968 to make it appear
that the war was being won. Adams,
51, was a Vietnam analyst for the CIA ~
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 ethree-day cross~xami-
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?"
e gets from C
ress~d on fees
PriILADELPHtA INQUIRER
22 January 1y85
"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
520,000 advance for a book on Viet- 'i
nom intelligence, with S20,000 more ;
due upon publication. He said he had
been paid 512,000 by CBS so far dur- ~,
ing the more than two years of litiga-
tion, 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 j
ai 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: "1
indicated there was a major problem
... that it did not tell the full story
[bu!] it was accurate in that it por-
tray~d 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 admiais-
tration of President Lyndon B.
Johnson to distort enemy troop esti-
mates, "but that was a separate sto-
t,y ~'
Dorsen also confronted Adams
with his testimony before a 1975 con-
gressional committee. In that testi-
mony, Adams said W'estmoreland's
command had underreported enemy
infiltration in South Vietnam only "a
little bit" and had been "fairly bon- ~
est." The broadcast accused the com- ;
mend 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 he was referring to the
reporting of Westmoreland's com- i
mend 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."
ContinueG
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 Approved For Release 2010/08/13 :CIA-RDP90-005528000707150080-5
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 I
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,
"lf 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 McChrisrian, a key accuser of
Westmoreland,."loathed" Gen. PhiI-
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 behelf.
Dorsen's strategy appeared to be to
persuade the jury that McChrisrian's '.
?accusations stemmed from a person-
al vendetta
Dorsen ended his cross-examine- ~~
tion by asking Adams if he had ever
met Westmoreland prior to the trial.
"No," Adams replied.
Approved For Release 2010/08/13 :CIA-RDP90-005528000707150080-5