Suit Against ’60 Minutes’ Is Dismissed

A federal appeals court today threw out Lt. Col. Anthony Herbert’s 9-year-old libel suit against CBS, “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace and producer Barry Lando, saying a story that challenged Herbert’s account of Vietnam atrocities was not malicious.

“We believe the appellees had ample grounds to support their conclusion that Herbert had not reported war crimes to his superiors in Vietnam,” a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said in granting defense motions for a summary judgment dismissing the case.

Herbert served in Vietnam from 1968 into 1969, when he was relieved of his command of the 173d Airborne Brigade. After trying unsuccessfully to regain his command, he retired in 1972 and wrote a book in which he contended that he was relieved because he had tried to report the killing of innocent civilians by U.S. forces. He quickly became a celebrity.

Defense lawyers said Lando initially believed Herbert’s story but, in researching it for a “60 Minutes” segment, became convinced that the colonel had not reported war crimes while in Vietnam. The segment entitled “The Selling of Colonel Herbert,” broadcast on Feb. 4, 1973, was narrated by Wallace.