Plaintiff: General William C. Westmoreland#N#Defendant: CBS, Inc.#N#Plaintiff Claim: That a certain television documentary broadcast by CBS concerning the conduct of the Vietnam War libeled the plaintiff#N#Chief Defense Lawyers: David Boies and Stuart W. Gold#N#Chief Lawyers for Plaintiff: Dan M. Burt and David M. Dorsen#N#Judge: Pierre N.
Westmoreland V. CBS (1985).On 22 January 1982, CBS Television broadcast a 90‐minute documentary, CBS Reports: The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception. The program was produced by George Crile and based in large part on reporting by Sam Adams. Crile was the co‐author.
After CBS refused Westmoreland’s demands for monetary compensation and a full retraction to be aired on the network, the general in September 1982 filed a $120-million dollar libel lawsuit against CBS and those involved in the program, including Adams, Crile, and Wallace. The lawsuit, first filed in Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, was eventually moved to New York City, where CBS had its headquarters. CBS filed a motion in May 1984 to dismiss the lawsuit on several grounds, including that the First Amendment to the Constitution protected CBS “from a libel action brought by a high public official challenging commentary on his performance of the duties of his office.” On September 24, 1984, Judge Pierre Leval rejected the CBS motion because of several of the mistakes in the program that raised “triable questions of knowing or reckless falsity.” 3
The controversy raised by “The Uncounted Enemy” bore no relation to its success as a television program: it ranked last in the ratings for the week. The relatively small number of viewers did not stop General Westmoreland from holding a news conference in Washington a few days after the broadcast. Surrounded by former senior officials and military officers, Westmoreland flatly denied the premise of the program. While initial media reaction to the program was largely positive, some began to question its accuracy and fairness. In particular, TV Guide magazine ran an article by Dan Kowet and Sally Bedell, in which they accused CBS of sloppy journalism and bias.
In a 1998 interview for George magazine, Westmoreland criticized the battlefield prowess of his direct opponent, North Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp. "Of course, he [Giap] was a formidable adversary", Westmoreland told correspondent W. Thomas Smith Jr. "Let me also say that Giap was trained in small-unit, guerrilla tactics, but he persisted in waging a big-unit war with terrible losses to his own men. By his own admission, by early 1969, I think, he had lost, what, a half million soldiers? He reported this. Now such a disregard for human life may make a formidable adversary, but it does not make a military genius. An American commander losing men like that would hardly have lasted more than a few weeks." In the 1974 film Hearts and Minds, Westmoreland opined that "The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And as the philosophy of the Orient expresses it: Life is not important."
In June 1968, Westmoreland was replaced by General Creighton Abrams, the decision being announced shortly after the Tet Offensive. Although the decision had been made in late 1967, it was widely seen in the media as a punishment for being caught off guard by the communist assault. He was mentioned in a Time magazine article as a potential candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination.
Westmoreland adopted a strategy of attrition against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, attempting to drain them of manpower and supplies. He also made use of the United States' edge in artillery and air power, both in tactical confrontations and in relentless strategic bombing of North Vietnam.
World War II. Korean War. Vietnam War. William Childs Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) was a United States Army general, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.
Westmoreland was sent to Vietnam in 1963. In January 1964, he became deputy commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), eventually succeeding Paul D. Harkins as commander, in June. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told President Lyndon B. Johnson in April that Westmoreland was "the best we have, without question". As the head of the MACV, he was known for highly publicized, positive assessments of U.S. military prospects in Vietnam. However, as time went on, the strengthening of communist combat forces in the South led to regular requests for increases in U.S. troop strength, from 16,000 when he arrived to its peak of 535,000 in 1968 when he was promoted to Army chief of staff.
Army Chief of Staff General William Westmoreland with Speaker of The House Carl Albert and Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General John C. Meyer during Flag Day ceremonies on June 14, 1971.
Mike Wallace interviewed Westmoreland for the CBS special The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception. The documentary, shown on January 23, 1982, and prepared largely by CBS producer George Crile III, alleged that Westmoreland and others had deliberately understated Viet Cong troop strength during 1967 in order to maintain U.S. troop morale and domestic support for the war. Westmoreland filed a lawsuit against CBS.
Westmoreland v. CBS was a $120 million libel suit brought in 1982 by former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General William Westmoreland against CBS, Inc. for broadcasting on its program CBS Reports a documentary entitled The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception. Westmoreland also sued the documentary's narrator, investigative reporter Mike Wallace; the producer, investigative journalist and best-selling author George Crile, and the former CIA analyst, Sam Adams, who originally brok…
U.S. Army General William C. Westmoreland served four years in Vietnam, from 1964 to 1968, as COMUSMACV—Commander U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam. He was in command during the Tet Offensive, a surprise, country-wide attack on the U.S. forces by the combined forces of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Vietnam People's Armyin 1968. The attack is widely viewed as having contributed to a growing perception in the United States t…
CBS made a motion for a summary judgment, claiming immunity from libel for doing a commentary on a public figure under the precedent established in New York Times v. Sullivan. At the onset, the presiding judge ruled that under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and the First Amendment, Westmoreland, as a public figure, must prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that CBS acted with actual malicein gathering the evidence and putting it together in the documentary. This is le…
A conservative public-interest law firm, Capital Legal Foundation, brought the suit on September 13, 1982, on Westmoreland's behalf, and its president, Dan Burt, served as Westmoreland's pro bono attorney. The suit was funded by grants from several conservative organizations, such as the Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation whose goals were to kill CBS Reports and turn back the 1964 New York Times v. Sulli…
Westmoreland's decision to dismiss the case before the jury reached a decision prevented an appeal that might have created a legal landmark. Instead, this high-profile case provided a practical demonstration of what many already understood: That any public figure seeking damages for libel must follow the stringent standards set in the precedent of 376 U.S. 254. Further, a public figure must prove actual malice, as required by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, …
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