Word: westmorelands
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...skirmish in the war between CBS and Westmoreland...
Although General William Westmoreland's libel suit against CBS is not scheduled to come to trial until this fall, both sides keep trying to settle the case in the court of public opinion; time and again, each camp has claimed to have found a "smoking gun" that would demonstrate the other's guilt. Last week this war without heroes continued with a new gun pointed at CBS: Westmoreland's lawyers released a damaging interview with CBS News Executive Vice President Howard Stringer that had been secretly taped by former TV Guide Reporter Don Kowet...
Written by Journalist Don Kowet, the book is a critical analysis of a January 1982 CBS Reports show, reported by Correspondent Mike Wallace and Producer George Crile. The program accused General Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. forces in Viet Nam, of participating in a "conspiracy at the highest levels of American military intelligence" to underreport enemy troop strength in order to create the impression that the U.S. was winning the war. Kowet first wrote about the documentary in a 1982 article he co-authored for TV Guide with Reporter Sally Bedell Smith (now at the New York Times). The article...
...Guide piece pales by comparison with Kowet's book. According to Kowet, Wallace had only a glancing knowledge of the complex issues involved in the documentary, and was reading from cue cards questions written by Crile when he conducted the hard-hitting interview with General Westmoreland that is seen in the broadcast. CBS's most fearsome interrogator, Kowet claims, was little more than "a puppet propped on George Crile's knee." Kowet's conclusion: "CBS had got the story wrong...
Macmillan then countercharged that CBS was engaged in a campaign to "chill" the publication of the book, which was "ironic for a company that is brandishing truth and the First Amendment as its defense in the Westmoreland case." Said a Macmillan press release: "CBS has created, by innuendo and the carefully selected use of 'buzzwords' familiar to First Amendment lawyers, the impression within Macmillan that Kowet and Macmillan will have to face legal consequences if the book is published...