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Secret Raids on Cambodia Before ‘70 Totaled 3,500

Secret Raids on Cambodia Before ‘70 Totaled 3,500
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July 18, 1973, Page 1Buy Reprints
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WASHINGTON, July 17‐ United States B‐52 bombers made at least 3,500 secret bombing raids over Cambodia in a 14‐month period beginning in March, 1969, Defense De partment sources disclosed to day.

In addition, a Pentagon spokesman, Jerry W. Fried heim, acknowledged at a news briefing that falsified reports were officially ordered and made after the strikes in an effort to prevent disclosure of the raids, which he said were fully authorized by President Nixon and Melvin R. Laird, who was Secretary of Defense at the time.

Mr. Friedheim also said that “hundreds of missions” were flown monthly, but refused to provide a more specific total. Other sources said, however, that as many as 400 missions were flown in some months and that the number of such flights, when officially tabu lated could exceed 4,000.

20% Go Unreported

At the time, the sources said the total number of B‐52 mis sions in all of Southeast Asia were running at the rate of 1,500 to 1,800 monthly, mean ing that as much as 20 per cent of the over‐all operations were

officially going unreported to the public.

The B‐52 bombers usually at tack in units, or “cells,” of three, but statistically the mis sions are tabulated on a basis of one flight by one B‐52. The first official announcements of the secret raids was made yes terday by Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, who de fended them as being necessary for the protection of the lives of American soldiers.

Hughes Charges Lying

Today, meanwhile, Senator Harold E. Hughes, Democrat of Iowa, issued previously classi fied Pentagon statistics that he said showed that the Defense Department deliberately lied to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1971 and 1973 reports on the bombing opera tions in Cambodia.

During a committee hearing yesterday into the falsification of records in connection with the bombing, Mr. Hughes had complained that an unclassified report made available to him by the Defense Department had not listed any B‐52 raids in Cambodia until the May, 1970, invasion. At the Pentagon news briefing today, however, Mr. Friedheim assorted that some members of the Armed Services Committee had been fully briefed on the Cambodian op eration. Other Senators, he said, specifically mentioning Mr. Hughes by name, were not so informed.

‘Deliberately Not Included’

Asked why Pentagon statis tics supplied to Mr. Hughes did not list the 1969 and 1970 bombing raids in Cambodia, Mr. Friedheim said they were “de liberately not included,” and said that the decision to do so had been “determined by senior civilian and military officials here.” He would not elaborate.

The subsequent release of the classified reports by Mr. Hughes was made in direct response to the Friedheim statement. Those reports, the Senator said in a statement, show that the Nixon Administration deliberately “de ceived the committee,” and his personal office, by not showing any B‐52 bombing missions be fore May, 1970, in Cambodia.

Both classified responses, he said, issued in 1971 by the for mer Secretary of the Air Force, Robert C. Seamans Jr., and last March by the former Secretary of Defense, Elliot L. Richard son, contain zeros—'not blanks indicating information was withheld, but zeros declaring that there were no B‐52 strikes inside Cambodia.’

“And today,” he added, “we learn that in fact there were more than 100 sorties each month for 14 months.”

“If Congress and the Ameri can people have been lied to in this instance,” Senator Hughes asked, “how can we have any confidence in Penta gon spokesmen when they come before the committee in classi fied, closed session and ask for billions of dollars?”

To Expand Inquiry

The Senator, who was in strumental in promoting last year's hearings into the un authorized bombing of North Vietnam by former Gen. John D. Lavelle as well as the cur rent hearings into the Cam bodian air operations, also an nounced that the Armed Serv ices Committee would expand its investigation to determine how and why the Pentagon submitted the false statistics.

He quoted Senator Stuart Symington, the acting chairman of the committee, as having “expressed his personal indig nation” over today's Pentagon statements and said that the Missouri Democrat had agreed to summon high officials “un der oath to tell us precisely what happened in these bomb ing operations and falsification of reports.”

“Although I am the one who has requested this investiga tion,” Senator Hughes said with obvious anger, “I am not the only member of the committee who has been kept in the dark.”

In a brief telephone inter view, Senator Symington con firmed Mr. Hughes's remarks. “I want to go to the bottom of this,” Mr. Symington said. “I don't like people destroying evidence.”

In interviews today, a num ber of present and former high Government officials expressed concern over the Pentagon”s admissions that it had deliber ately falsified official bombing reports after the strikes in an effort to disguise the raids.

No Evidence of Orders

In a statement yesterday to the Armed Services Committee, Gen. George S. Brown, the newly approved Air Force Chief of Staff who headed Southeast Asian air operations in 1969 and 1970, acknowl edged the false reporting but described it as being “in accord with instructions.”

Interviews today with high officials of the White House, National Security Council and the Pentagon produced no evi dence that any such high‐level orders were issued.

Military sources did confirm, however, that information about the Cambodian raids was directly provided to President Nixon and his top national se curity advisers, including Hen ry A. Kissinger.

The sources said that the un usual method of reporting ‐ which bypassed the normal lines of communication — was set up to avoid public disclos ure of the raids. The system was not changed, sources said, although The New York Times published a dispatch about the B‐52 raids in Cambodia on May 9, 1969—about two months af ter they began.

Major Told Story

The current dispute arose Sunday in an interview by The Times with a former Air Force major, Hal M. Knight of Mem phis, who told of falsification of reports and destruction of documents dealing with the B‐52 operations.

In public testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, the for mer officer said he decided to inform the Senate about his experiences after reading newspaper accounts of the La velle hearings last fall.

“It became obvious to me,” Mr. Knight testified, “that the committee was unaware of what had taken place while was out there. General Lavelle apparently was disciplined for doing the same thing on a small scale that I was doing on a big scale.”

Pentagon officers agreed to day that General Lavelle was ousted in 1972 for doing the same thing—falsifying records —that apparently had been authorized by some responsible Government official three years earlier.

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