Word: westmorelands
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...first day on the witness stand, General William C. Westmoreland described how he made frequent visits to his field commanders in Viet Nam to hear their briefings and get firsthand impressions. He used the word briefings as an old soldier would, perhaps not even aware of its connection to his $120 million libel suit against CBS. For briefings are also what journalism is about?gathering facts, asking questions and then briefing a public that hasn't the time or the patience to hear...
...choose unfairly to prove a thesis when it reduced hours of taped interviews to make a 90-min. Viet Nam documentary in which General Westmoreland came off looking bad? In a paneled and marbled federal courtroom in Manhattan, television screens are arrayed so that judge, jury, lawyers and spectators can see replays of what CBS chose and what it disregarded. This unusual behind-the-scenes look at the editing process disturbs the press?reporters think they should be judged by their printed stories, not by their notes; television producers by the footage they used, not by rejected outtakes. Back...
...testimony last week, Westmoreland insisted that the nonuniformed forces in dispute were civilians, mainly old men, women and youths engaged in such home-guard activities as digging fortifications, laying mines and planting poisoned punji sticks as booby traps near their villages. They were not, he said, "fighters who could damage us, who we had to destroy." Westmoreland maintained that listing these irregulars as enemy troops could have sapped the spirit of U.S. soldiers. Said he: "It would be terribly detrimental to the morale of my troops to find out the enemy has increased...
...response to the charge that he had concealed crucial information from President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs, Westmoreland pointed out that he did not report directly to them; his "bosses" were Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, the commander of U.S. armed forces in the Pacific, and Ellsworth Bunker, the U.S. Ambassador to South Viet Nam. Moreover, Westmoreland said that on several occasions he had discussed with Admiral Sharp the disagreement among intelligence sources over the significance of the nonuniformed cadre...
...Westmoreland's testimony continues this week, the first major confrontation of the trial is scheduled to take place when he is cross-examined by CBS Lawyer David Boies. In coming weeks, Reporter Mike Wallace, the chief correspondent for the documentary, and other CBS journalists will testify...