Word: westmorelands
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...voted last month to dismiss a libel suit against Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, whose Washington column appears in about 180 newspapers. In his 37-page concurring opinion Bork suggested that the courts ought to be stricter about the rash of libel suits. He did not mention General William Westmoreland's $120 million suit against CBS--in which the general's attorney vows to "dismantle" CBS News--or former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon's $50 million suit against Time Inc. Bork examined the conflicting rights of a man to his reputation and the press's constitutional right...
...Viet Nam. Yet when he later went before a Senate committee, testifying as the Secretary of Defense, he strongly denied that we were in a "no-win" war. By ordinary standards, this would seem a lie, but not to McNamara. Testifying in the current libel trial of General William Westmoreland vs. CBS, McNamara said he based his testimony to Congress on the unstated hope that Henry Kissinger (then a private citizen) might be able to work out a diplomatic peace. That is what is known to theologians as a mental reservation, and to children as crossing your fingers behind...
...with the problem of telling the truth or lying in a way that never faced Washington, Jefferson or Lincoln. Before congressional committees or television interviewers they face cameras, instant answers are demanded, and the pictorial proof of what is said goes into the files to haunt them. In the Westmoreland trial, McNamara was a reluctant witness; for 13 years previously as head of the World Bank he ducked discussing Viet Nam on the ground that he could not talk about it as an international civil servant. Not many public officials are that lucky. They are usually condemned to explaining themselves...
...that Mr. Jones, who has been a hostage in Iran, was actually a runner for the heroin ring," is that right? Should you do that? And if he sues, shouldn't he be entitled to probe to get that name? He's a private citizen. He's not General Westmoreland...
Crimson: Let me turn towards the Westmoreland and Sharon cases which have been alluded to in the discussion thus far. What do you see as the importance or the implications of the decisions, one way or the other...