Almost 40 years later, a then-CBS News reporter identifies the general whose "sober, intellectual analysis" unmasked the "stalemate" in Vietnam

"I've destroyed a single division three times. I've chased main-force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. . . . The war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations."
--"a senior American general" in Vietnam quoted in August 1967 by then CBS News correspondent Murray Fromson (pictured below) and New York Times reporter R. W. "Johnny" Apple Jr., who died Oct. 4

Today retired journalism professor Murray Fromson, who as a CBS news corresondent played a major role in digging up a "scoop" that in turn likely played a major role in turning American public opinion against our involvement in Vietnam, identifies his and NYT reporter Johnny Apple's source, and explains how the story came about.

December 11, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor

Name That Source
By MURRAY FROMSON

Los Angeles

THE article was headlined "Vietnam: The Signs of Stalemate," and it appeared on the front page of this paper on Aug. 7, 1967. Written by R. W. Apple Jr. [right], it was a bombshell that resonated in both Washington and Saigon, caused consternation in the United States Army and the intelligence community and gradually altered perceptions of American success or failure for the remainder of the Vietnam War.

Over nearly four decades, dozens of historians and journalists asked Johnny (as he was known) and me, because I did a similar story for CBS, to identify our source for that report, and we steadfastly declined to name him. But now, the source has come forward to release us from our pledge of confidentiality.

In 1967, when I was a CBS News correspondent in Vietnam, I met an American general at a cocktail party in Saigon. He whispered to me: "Westy just doesn't get it. The war is unwinnable. We've reached a stalemate and we should find a dignified way out." He was referring to Gen. William Westmoreland [right], the commander of United States forces in Vietnam.

The reception was crowded and noisy, and I asked whether I could meet with him at another time. "O.K., but no cameras," he replied. Might I bring another reporter with me? "O.K., but one only." I had advised CBS News in New York that I probably had an important story to report but that it would be what we used to call a standupper on camera with no film. The reaction was decidedly cool. Had Walter Cronkite or Mike Wallace been available, such a report might have led "The CBS Evening News." On the other hand, I guessed--correctly--that once it appeared in The Times, the universal scream would be for me to match it.

So I ambled up Tu Do Street to Johnny's office and invited him to come along. We took a helicopter ride into the Mekong Delta and then spent two hours with one of the more erudite general officers either of us had ever met in Vietnam.

The general pledged us to absolute confidentiality. Later, when Johnny and I compared notes to ensure we had understood him correctly, both of us were stunned. His article was published 24 hours later. Mine, in the era before satellites, reached CBS News in New York days later. Here, in essence, is how we quoted the general for our reports:

"‘I've destroyed a single division three times,' a senior American general said the other day. ‘I've chased main-force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. It meant nothing to the people. Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti-communism can be found, the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations.' " The report enraged President Lyndon Johnson, General Westmoreland and, as I recall it, Gen. Earle Wheeler, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Johnson then initiated action to call up an additional 205,000 troops for the coming war against the North Vietnamese. But the action was negated by the misleading perception many of us had that the Communists achieved a major victory in the Tet offensive, which began on Jan. 30, 1968.

The "stalemate" story re-surfaced in 1984, when Westmoreland filed a multibillion-dollar libel suit against CBS News for a report that said the general had knowingly understated the strength of North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces to make it appear that victory was in sight. David Boies [right], CBS's lead lawyer, remembers asking Westmoreland: "General, I want to read you an excerpt from a story reported by R. W. Apple in The New York Times on Aug. 7, 1967. In it, Mr. Apple refers to an American general who said the war is unwinnable. What about that, General Westmoreland?"

The normally composed Westmoreland, then retired, was shaking as he replied, "No general of mine would ever have said that." I called Mr. Boies's office the following day and told one of his associates that the general in question had said it not once, but twice--the first time in my conversation with him in Saigon.

In 1995, on the 20th anniversary of the war's end, I was invited to participate in a Freedom Forum discussion in Oakland, Calif. With Johnny's knowledge, I called our source to ask whether he might release us from our pledge of confidentiality so that we could set the record straight. He was hesitant. "Westy is an old friend," he said, "and I would not want to hurt or embarrass him. Let's wait until he's no longer with us."

Westmoreland died in 2005. The officer in question, then a three-star general, now 90 years old and retired and living in Hawaii, is Frederick Weyand. General Weyand was a distinguished combat officer and commander of III Corps in the Mekong Delta who later supervised the American withdrawal from Vietnam and then became United States Army Chief of Staff. Last week, in the interest of historical accuracy, I called to tell him about the coming memorial service for Johnny. I told him Johnny had described the "stalemate" piece as the most important story he'd ever done, and I was renewing my request for a release from the pledge of confidentiality we had given him 40 years ago. He agreed.

I believe both Johnny and I were struck, in 1967, by General Weyand's sober, intellectual analysis of the problems facing both the Americans and the Vietnamese. So many years later, I suspect there may be other officers of his caliber who are thinking about the contradictions in yet another war.

There is, of course, no way of determining how much of an impact the "stalemate" story had on Lyndon Johnson's decision to abandon plans to seek re-election in 1968. The daring of the Communists' Tet offensive undoubtedly swung American public opinion irreversibly. But to me, writ larger, our reports demonstrated how important it was and is for journalists to offer pledges of confidentiality to credible sources in order to report the kind of stories officials normally are reluctant to discuss. It was essential during the Vietnam War, as it is essential today in Iraq.

Murray Fromson, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Southern California, was a CBS News correspondent during the Vietnam War.