Seymour Hersh

3. Hersh Becomes a Target

28 CHAPTER 3 Hersh Becomes a Target Flying High Sy Hersh and David Obst were flying high in late November. On November 25, the president announced that America would stop producing and stockpiling chemical and biological weapons. Although not widely known, it was a direct response to Hersh’s 1968 book. Meanwhile, newspapers across the country were carrying Hersh’s My Lai stories—with two more on the way—and the television networks were all following Hersh’s lead. Suddenly, as Hersh told a group of newspaper editors, “the newspaper profession, in one of those collective changes of mind that can only be found in business, decided that each man’s testimony was important to play all over the front pages.” The once obscure Associated Press reporter was now getting his name known across the country. Syndicated columnist Mary McGrory wrote a profile of Hersh, saying it was difficult to capture the nervous energy of the “fast-talking fast-moving” reporter. Robert Walters of the Washington Star went to interview Hersh and Obst in their new offices in the National Press Building, but it was an odd interview: there was no furniture! “Obst and Hersh simply haven’t had time for the luxury of setting up desks and chairs,” he wrote, because they have been “single-handedly investigating” the massacre. An exaggeration, for sure; the press pack had descended on the story. But Walters saw the same thing as McGrory. Hersh’s “non-stop style overwhelms observers even when he isn’t working on something important,” Walters wrote. Obst was particularly ebullient. “Now we have a little money to play around with,” he chortled, referring to the $10,000 from CBS. “We’re on our way.” Showing the optimism of the young, and naive, Obst was convinced the atrocity stories would have a profound effect. “I really HERSH BECOMES A TARGET 29 thought our story would end the war . . . . I couldn’t imagine how . . . any rational person would let it go on.”1 But a counterattack on Hersh’s work and motivations—and on the interpretation of what he was exposing —was about to begin. The White House first commented the day after the Paul Meadlo interview appeared on CBS, a day a congressional committee also held a hearing to discuss the photographs in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, photographs that soon came out in Life magazine. The president’s spokesperson called the incident “abhorrent to the conscience of the American people.” But he assured the public that a full investigation was under way and that “illegal and immoral conduct” will be dealt with. Nonetheless, Ron Ziegler said, thousands of Americans had served with honor and courage , and this one incident should not reflect on them or the conduct of the war. “If Nixon’s advisers had once hoped that the massacre could be held outside the horizon of public concern, that hope had finally faded,” observed historian Kendrick Oliver. Hersh’s work—and the press’s followup onslaught—made sure of that. Nixon’s strategy had always been to fight the press head-on. Vice President Agnew’s attacks, secret plotting to take antitrust action against the television networks, and a plan to audit taxes of newspaper executives—all underscored his aggressive posture. “The greatest mistake we can make” in dealing with the press, he told his chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, “is to . . . slobber over them with the hope you can ‘win’ them. It just can’t be done.”2 In the midst of the My Lai stories the Birmingham (Alabama) News published a cartoon showing an enemy soldier presiding over an atrocity. Nixon urged his staff “to try to get this syndicated.”3 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was urging that the administration take “some unified line.”4 Nixon adopted what became the common mantra: the other side is guilty of more atrocities than American soldiers. Overall, the Nixon staffers felt that the press was unduly blowing up the incident, for profit and for purely partisan reasons. When New Mexico senator Pete Domenici attacked Ron Haberle for selling his My Lai photographs, Nixon wrote a note, declaring, “Bravo!” Profiteering was at the heart of the attacks against Hersh and Obst for bringing Paul Meadlo to CBS. Maine congressman Edward J. Gurney 30 HERSH BECOMES A TARGET wondered if Meadlo could be believed if he was paid. “How much money changed hands?” Syndicated columnist John Chamberlain...