CBS WITNESS DENIES PROFITING FROM TROOP DISPUTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150082-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: January 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150082-3
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
22 January, 1985
CBS Witness Denies Profiting From Troop Dispute
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By M. A. FARBER
1V rl
. Dorsen con-
Last week, on direct examination, But, yesterday,-
Mr. Adams stressed that his interest in fronted Mr. Adams with a statement he
the controversy over enemy strength had made six years later during his
estimates derived from his belief that testimony at the 1973 "Pentagon
thousands of American soldiers had Papers" trial of Daniel Ellsberg.
died unnecessarily in Vietnam'and that Mr. Adams confirmed that he had
this country still had much to learn said, "The problem was in Vietnam to
from how the military had "misled" it. sort out who was a soldier and who was-
Mr. Adams, who will continue on n't. A person that lays a grenade on a
redirect testimony today, is a defend- path with a trip wire had, for some pur-
ant in this case poses, in the earlier order of battle, say
Yesterday, the start of court was de- in 1966, been considered worthy of
layed for nearly two hours because the being put in the order of battle. Now,
cold weather held up two jurors who whether you consider this man a mill-
live north of the city. When the morn- tary man or a civilian I couldn't say."
ing session finally began at 11:45, Mr. Dorsen suggested that Mr.
Judge Pierre N. Leval expressed to the Adams and George Crile - the -pro-
jury his "warm appreciation" - "I ducer of the documentary and a de-
wish it could be warmer," he said with fendant as well - had put a sinister but
a smile- for coming at all and for nor- unjustified interpretation on General
mally being punctual.
land's action.
For hours thereafter, the courtroom Westmoreland's
it a fact, acMr. tion.
Adams, that
was frigid. Jurors, spectators and re Q
porters wore coats and. gloves and you and Mr. Crile took a debate over
scarfs and when Mr. Dorsen, at one whether the Administration had or
point, asked the judge whether it was a had not been leveling with the press,
convenient time to break.for lunch, the the public and the Congress and con-
judge lid not hesitate. verted it into a serious allegation that
"Yes, it is" he allowed, as everyone General Westmoreland had lied to
ran for the doors. his superiors?
A. We did not, sir.
Program Charged Consp;sacy Letter to Colonel Cited
General Westmoreland commanded Mr. Dorsen questioned Mr. Adams
American forces in Vietnam from 1964 about a letter he had sent a retired
to 1968? Army colonel on Jan. 20, 1982, three
The 90-minute CBS Reports
Enemy: dyA , before the broadcast, in which he
Vietnam -"cep Uncounted hA had said "there's a major problem: the
Vietnam Deception" t e charged arged a% documentary seems to pin the rap on
"conspiracy" Bracy" by the general's e army General Westmoreland when it prob-
minimizing show progress in the war by ably belongs higher than that."
forces s ', ; The problem, Mr. Adams explained
North Vietnamese esize and and Vietcong nature
North
in the year before the Tet offensive of yesterday, "was not with the broad-
January 1968. As a result of that "con- cast's accuracy or importance but that scious effort," the broadcast charged, it did not tell the whole story." Mr.
President Lyndon . B. Johnson and Adams said he felt "at the time that
American troops, as well as the public, there may have been pressure on Gen-
were caught "totally unprepared" for eral Westmoreland" to falsify evidence
the scope of.the Tet attack. the this was a story that bore follow-
The documentary specifically act ing up-
caged the military command in Saigon But wasn't it true, Mr. Dorsen asked,
of "suppressing and altering critical that Mr. Adams was `uneasy with the
word 'conspiracy' in the sense of a
Lawyers for Gen. William C. West-
moreland suggested yesterday that
Samuel A. Adams had a financial inter-
est in "the whole controversy" sur-
rounding his thesis that the military.
had lied about enemy strength esti-
mates in South Vietnam in 1967..
But Mr. Adams, a former Central In-
tel Bence Ai encv yst w was a
paid consultant for a 1982 CBS docu
W on the ect that is now at
issue guenerai estmore ans
million libel suit against the network
denied he had profited from the dis-
.P
-C mpleting his cross-examination of
Mr. Adams at the 15-week-old trial of
the suit in Federal District Court in
Manhattan, David Dorsen, a lawyer for
the general, recalled that Mr. Adams
had said he was "proud of the docu-
mentary."
Q. And hasn't this whole matter of
order of battle been rather profitable
to you as well?
A. Profitable?
Q. Profitable.
A. No, it has not.
Received Book Contract in 1976
Mr. Adams, who wrote a magazine
article on his thesis in 1975, testified
that he received a book contract in 1976
and had collected $20,000 against a
$40,000 advance on royalties if the book
is published.
He also said that he was paid $25,000
as a consultant to CBS during the
preparation of the documentary in 1981
and that, on Sept. 13, 1982, when Gen-
eral Westmoreland filed suit, he was
rehired by the network "for services"
at $200 a day.
Q. Plus expenses?
A. Plus expenses, that is correct. I
maintain a residence in Virginia and
I am renting a house down there even
though I don't live there.
Which hotels, Mr. Dorsen asked, had
Mr. Adams stayed at in New York at
CBS's expense?
"I have stayed at the Plaza Hotel,"
he said, ,at the Essex House, I have
stayed at a couple of Hilton hotels."
Billed CBS for $12,900
Mr. Adams said the only other "job"
he has had since 1976 was working his
250-acre farm in northern Virginia. Al-
though his work on this case had occu-
pied him "virtually full time" since
.eptember 1982, be said, he had billed
CBS so far for only 60 days, or $12,000.
Q. And if you put in for it, how
much will you receive from CBS?
A. I don't know how much I would.
receive, but I have not put in for it.
intelligence" on the enemy and of im- le sitting around al
posing an "arbitrary ceiling" of 300,000 group of PceP g 11
on reports of enemy size, mainly by j table?
really," said the witness. "I be-
deleting the Vietcong's part-time self= lieve there was a conspiracy, there was'
defense forces from the official listing
of enemy strength known as the order
of battle.
The removal of approximately
120,000 self-defense forces - done, ac-
cording to General Westmoreland, to
"purify the order of battle" by separat-
ing "the fighters from the nonfighters"
- was opposed by Mr. Adams and
some C.I.A. colleagues in 1967.
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"
 Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150082-3
an attempt to do wrong with the num-
bers, that a group of people did it and
did it in secret."
Mr. Dorsen also raised questions
about a 1969 West Point textbook, on
which CBS relied during the prepara-
tion of the documentary, that said the
Tet offensive represented "an allied in-
telligence failure ranking with Pearl
Harbor."
Mr. Dorsen asked Mr. Adams
whether he knew before the broadcast
that the textbook had been discontin-
ued or revised by the mid-1970's, and
Mr. Adams said he was unaware ex-
actly when it had been in use.
"I may be wrong on this," he said,
"but my understanding is that the book
indicated that the attack at Tet had
been the biggest surprise to the Amer-
ican military since Pearl Harbor and
this was not apparently something that
they wanted to tell the West Point
cadets at some time later."
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150082-3