U
.S. Army Capt. Eugene McCarley’s ac-
tions with his Hatchet Force team in
Laos during Operation Tailwind,
Sept. 11-14, 1970, remained all but
forgotten for nearly three decades.
But, on June 7, 1998, television viewers were shocked
when the premiere episode of “NewsStand: CNN & Time”
featured an investigative report titled, “Valley of Death,”
presented by Vietnam War correspondent and CNN re-
porter Peter Arnett, in concert with a June 15 Time
magazine article.
The program portrayed Tailwind as a top secret, CIA-
planned mission to target “American defectors” hiding in
Laos and murder them using sarin nerve gas. Developed
by German scientists in 1938 as a pesticide, sarin (some-
times referred to as GB gas in the military) is a deadly
nerve agent stockpiled by the U.S. and Soviet Union
during the Cold War. The U.S. had long disavowed its
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claimed “over 100 men, women and children” had been
killed by sarin gas. If true, it was clearly a war crime.
McCarley’s Hatchet Force, the name for small com-
mando units launching attacks behind
enemy lines, consisted of 16 U.S. Spe-
cial Forces troops and about 100 mili-
tiamen from South Vietnam’s Montag-
nard tribes. In reality, they were sent
into Laos on a secret mission to draw
the North Vietnamese Army away from
battles with a separate CIA-supported
Laotian force nearby, while also gather-
ing intelligence on the enemy.The evidence in the CNN broadcast
pointing to sarin use by the Hatchet
Force seemed convincing—particularly,
damning testimony by several Special
Forces and Air Force participants in
Tailwind: Robert Van Buskirk, Mike Hagen, Jimmy Lu-
cas, Craig Schmidt, Jay Graves, James Cathey and Ike
Isola. Lending even more credibility to the report, an
interview with retired Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, chair-
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port the report’s contention that the Tailwind forces
used nerve agent and targeted American defectors.
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raised before the broadcast by a CNN military analyst,retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Perry Smith, but ignored.
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CNN initiated an investigation, and the Defense Depart-
ment conducted an exhaustive review. Both found that
the broadcast was unfair and unsupported by evidence.
The CNN investigation, conducted by Floyd Abrams, a
prominent lawyer on First Amendment and media is-
sues, concluded “a decision was made by CNN to broad-
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formation to the contrary.”
The Defense Department review concluded that Tail-
wind was conducted “1) for the stated military purposes;
2) in accordance with Law of War, Rules of Engagement,
and United States policies in force at the time; 3) did not
target American defectors; and 4) did not employ Sarin
gas.” The department found “no evidence ...that the
nerve agent...was ever transported to Southeast Asia.”
The house of cards allegation constructed by CNN pro-
ducers April Oliver and Jack Smith collapsed when the
facts were revealed about claims made by the seven vet-
erans who said they witnessed nerve gas use and the tar-
geting of Americans, as well as Laotian women
and children. Some of their comments were shown
to be of doubtful veracity; others were edited in a
way that supported the producers’ beliefs, accord-
ing to the investigations.
“Information that was inconsistent with the
underlying conclusions reached by CNN was ig-
nored or minimized,” the Abrams report states.
For example, the accusation that the opera-
tion murdered women and children was but-
tressed by Hagen’s comment that “the majority
of the people that were there
[in the NVA base camp] were
not combat personnel.” But the
full statement included this
omitted sentence: “They were
more of a transportation unit,”
meaning NVA combat support
soldiers—not Laotian civilians.
Interviewee responses thatREUTERSHatchet Job
By Jerry MorelockCNN erroneously claimed American forces in Operation Tailwind
used deadly nerve gas to murder ‘American defectors’
36 VIETNAM
A CNN report on Operation
Tailwind, produced by Jack
Smith and April Oliver, said U.S.
troops used banned nerve gas.