Pentagon Says No Evidence for Nerve Gas Attack in Laos

Pentagon officials on Tuesday said that an investigation found no basis for the controversial CNN-Time magazine report that U.S. soldiers had used poison gas to wipe out defectors during the Vietnam War, and disclosed that they are considering giving new commendations to now-retired officers accused of using the nerve agents.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said a massive Pentagon study that looked at American and Vietnamese war records had turned up “absolutely no evidence” to support charges that U.S. special forces used the gas in Laos in 1970 in violation of U.S. policy and international norms.

But there were signs of veterans’ lingering bitterness about the charges. Retired Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, who had been commander of the units involved, said that he believes CNN executives should fire reporter Peter Arnett for his role in the report.

Broadcast June 7 in the premiere of a TV newsmagazine show called “NewsStand,” the report alleged that a special unit had used the gas in a mission called Operation Tailwind to wipe out dozens of enemy troops, women, children and U.S. defectors.

The report--followed up with an article in Time, CNN’s corporate sister--stirred a storm of protest from Vietnam veterans and, according to the Pentagon, was quickly used by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in an anti-American propaganda campaign. Earlier this month, CNN and Time retracted the report, saying there is insufficient evidence to support the allegations.

But the Pentagon’s fact-gathering found that the 16 U.S. troops and the 120 hill-tribe allies who had joined them in the mission had in fact used a nonlethal tear gas to try to subdue the enemy.

They had killed neither defectors nor civilians in a mission that was actually aimed at distracting attention from a CIA offensive underway nearby, according to the study.

“Americans and foreign nations should understand that the United States has not and does not use lethal nerve gas,” declared Cohen, who was flanked at a news conference by six retired officers who had been involved in the mission.

Cohen portrayed the officers as heroes who had been cruelly defamed by the allegations, and suggested that the military wants to help make amends for the injuries they had suffered.

“I can assure you and your colleagues and your families you did nothing wrong. And quite to the contrary, you did everything right,” Cohen told the veterans.

Americans, he said, “should know that the 16 men who conducted this mission were heroes, that they have been hurt by this report,” he said.

Cohen quoted a medic involved in the mission, Capt. Michael Rose, as saying: “It’s hard for me to explain to my 20-year-old daughter that I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Since the operation was done in secret, Cohen said, the officers’ actions at the time may not have received the attention they deserved.

On the allegation concerning a campaign against defectors, Cohen said that “no document, military order, after-action report, briefing paper or official military history mentions the pursuit of U.S. defectors as Tailwind’s mission. . . . There is no hint, nod, wink or subliminal reference to such a mission.”

Singlaub, the former commander of the special operations group, said the soldiers connected to the mission “feel very strongly that Peter Arnett had more responsibility than he had been given credit for. We believe that he should be discharged.”

Arnett conducted three interviews for the news report. But he has contended that, in keeping with what he said was the frequent role of TV reporters, he in fact knew little about the report and should not be held responsible for its shortcomings. CNN executives have decided to retain him and Rick Kaplan, the CNN executive who oversees the newsmagazine.

Arnett did not respond to a telephone call Tuesday seeking comment.

April Oliver, one of two CNN producers who was fired over the report, strongly disputed the Pentagon’s conclusions. She said records did not bear out the CNN-Time story because the files had been cleared of details of secret missions.

“The mistake that was made was the retraction,” Oliver said.

NEWSMAGAZINES’ WOES: The TV genre is under fire because of its investigative bent and its sensationalism. F1