Adams, Sam. War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir. South Royalton VT:
Steerforth Press, 1994. 251 pages. Introduction by Col. David Hackworth.
Sam Adams was a 1955 Harvard graduate who spent the years from 1963 to
1973 as an analyst for the CIA. His talents first attracted attention during
the Congo crisis, when he was able to rattle off an analysis of African
tribal politics when called on at high-level staff meetings. In 1965 Adams
transferred to the section that was responsible for the daily situation
report on Vietnam. On his subsequent trips to Vietnam, where he spoke to
analysts with field experience, and from his analysis of captured enemy
documents, Adams discovered that the U.S. brass was consistently rigging the
numbers. Entire categories of combatants would be shifted to non-combatant
status, in order to convince the Pentagon and White House that victory was
close at hand. More Vietcong were dying in battle each week than the VC
could recruit to replace them.
At first Adams assumed that this was simple oversight, but soon his
career became sidetracked. Thirteen times he was threatened with dismissal.
Finally he resigned in 1973 and went public with a cover story in the May
1975 issue of Harper's magazine. Later he set aside work on this memoir to
help with a CBS documentary, which resulted in the famous Westmoreland vs.
CBS libel trial in 1984. Adams died suddenly of a heart attack in 1988
before he could complete this memoir.
ISBN 1-883642-23-X
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