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September 02, 2017
Seymour Hersh Honored for Integrity, Truth-Telling
Seymour Hersh. (Wikimedia)
Ray McGovern
This article first appeared on Consortiumnews.
Journalist Seymour Hersh is to be honored with this years Sam Adams Award
for Integrity to be presented to him at the Sam Adams Associates for
Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) award ceremony on the evening of Sept. 22
at American University.
Sam Adams Associates, who selected Hersh last month from a truly impressive
roster of truthtellers, are enthusiastic at the prospect of Sy joining the
ranks of the 15 earlier awardeesfrom Coleen Rowley (2002) to John Kiriakou
(2016). Included among those in between are other patriots: like Katharine
Gun, U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray, Col. Larry Wilkerson, Julian Assange,
Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Fingar, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning,
and Bill Binney. [To learn more about previous honorees, as well as other
material on whistleblowing, go to samadamsaward.ch.]
SAAII confers its annual award on a member of the intelligence profession or
related field who exemplifies the courage, persistence and devotion to truth
of Sam Adams, a CIA analyst on Vietnam who exposed the lies of the generals
in Saigon and was then silenced. Laterbut too lateSam realized he should
have gone public. (Yes, during the 1960s and 1970s, more of the U.S. media
was able to put the national interest first and was open to whistleblowers.)
Sam, who was a fourth cousin seven times removed of President John Adams,
died prematurely at age 55, nagged by the thought that had he not let
himself be diddled by the system, thousands of lives might have been saved
in Indochina. His story is told in War of Numbers, published posthumously.
Several of Sams former colleagues are included in SAAII, as well as others
who hold up the experience he underwent as a lesson for those who now know
that, if they wish to succeed in getting the truth out, going thru
channels normally is not only quixotic but also dangerous.
In 1967, Sam discovered that there were more than a half-million Vietnamese
Communists under arms in South Vietnamroughly twice the number that the
U.S. command in Saigon would admit to, lest the outside world learn that
American generals claims of progress were bogus. Commanding general
William Westmoreland had put an artificial limit on the number that Army
intelligence was allowed to carry on its books.
On Aug. 22, 1967, Westmorelands deputy, Gen. Creighton Abrams, specifically
warned the Johnson administration back in Washington that the press would
have a field day if Adams numbers were released, and that this would weaken
the war effort. In a SECRET/EYES ONLY cable from Saigon, Abrams wrote: We
have been projecting an image of success over recent months, and cautioned
that if the higher figures became public, all available caveats and
explanations will not prevent the press from drawing an erroneous and gloomy
conclusion.
The Communist countrywide offensive during Tet (January/February 1968) made
it painfully clear that the generals had been lying and that Sam Adamss
higher figures were correct. A few weeks after Tet, Daniel Ellsberg rose to
the occasion and leaked the truth. Dan had learned that Westmoreland was
asking for 206,000 more troops to widen the war into Cambodia, Laos and
North Vietnam right up to the border with China, and perhaps beyond.
After the 206,000 request was leaked by someone else to the New York Times,
Ellsberg leaked Sam Adams information on actual enemy strength. Dan had
come to the view that leaking truth about a deceitful war would be a
patriotic and constructive act. It was his first unauthorized disclosure,
and it was effective. On March 19, 1968, the Times published a stinging
story based on Adamss figures.
On March 25, President Johnson complained to a small gathering, The leaks
to the New York Times hurt us.
We have no support for the war. This is
caused by the 206,000 troop request [by Westmoreland] and the leaks.
I
would have given Westy the 206,000 men. On March 31, 1968, Johnson
introduced a bombing pause, opted for negotiations, and announced that he
would not run for another term in November.
Enter Sy Hersh
Sy Hersh, who was already famous for bringing the My Lai massacre story to
global attention in 1969, found Sam Adams and pursued this other story of
Vietnam deception. Thus, there is poetic justice in Sy Hersh receiving this
award named for Adams, since it was he who first reported (in the New York
Times on Feb. 26, 1973) on Sams David vs. Goliath struggle against a
military/political/intelligence establishment eager to cover up the
politically driven undercounting of Communist fighters in South Vietnam.
In an article on Feb. 26, 1973, Hersh duly quoted Army officials who were
still disparaging Sams courageous pursuit of the truth. But the quote that
Sy chose to conclude the article reflects his well honed smell for the
truth. He wrote, The trouble with Sam is that he has always been right,
one former colleague remarked. He always told the truth and never cared
whose toes he stepped on.
Sy Hersh has no doubt worn out several pairs of shoes stepping on the toes
of a well-heeled Establishment. The current response from the mainstream
media to Hershs latest exposés that challenge the lies and propaganda of
Official Washington is to say: Well show you, Hersh. Just you try to get
published anywhere in the English-speaking world.
Sy tried in vain to find an American or British outlet that would publish
his most recent report on President Donald Trumps lie that a Syrian
aircraft carried out a chemical weapons attack in Syrias Idlib Province
on April 4. This disclosure of a deception by the new President would have
been a big deal, at least by the journalistic standards of the past, since
Trump openly attacked Syria with 59 cruise missiles on April 6 in ostensible
retaliation.
Sy ended up having to go to the mainstream German newspaper Die Welt to get
the results of his investigation published. [See here and here.]
As for the New York Timesthe so-called paper of recordand its proud
tradition of publishing all the news thats fit to print, its hallowed
pages have made no mention of Pulitzer Prize-winning Sy Hershs article on
the chemical incident in Syria on April 4. The slogan should be changed to
all the news that fits neatly into the government narrative we print. Many
Sam Adams Associates have also been active with Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity and have faced similar ostracism from the
mainstream media for almost 15 years.
Until He Was Silenced
Besides revealing the My Lai massacre in 1969, Hersh exposed illegal CIA
domestic operations against the antiwar movement in 1974. More recently, in
2004, he reported on the torture and other abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and
he exposed the Obama administrations lies used to justify a bloody proxy
war in Syria. None of this, however has left him cynical or dulled his
conscience.
Sy told Die Welt that he still gets upset with government lying and at the
reluctance of the media to hold governments accountable. Summing up lessons
from Trumps reaction to the April 4 chemical event in Syria, Sy said this:
We have a President in America today who lies repeatedly
but he must
learn that he cannot lie about intelligence relied upon before authorizing
an act of war. There are some in the Trump administration who understand
this, which is why I learned the information I did.
The common challenge we all face is getting such information into media
outlets that Americans regularly access. Encouragement comes from Sy Hershs
example of grit, integrity and stick-to-itiveness, which have already had a
powerful influence on Sam Adams Associates. In sum, this years awardee is a
wonderfully good fit.
Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical
Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. A former CIA analyst and
colleague of Sam Adams, Ray co-founded Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in
Intelligence and Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
