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Author of Succe Sful Book on Vietnam War Broke, in Debt

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Author of Succe Sful Book on Vietnam War Broke, in Debt Author of succe sful book on ails his EDITOR'S NOTE — Frank Snepp's another of what he book about the end of the Vietnam War, "soundmares." "-Decent Interval," sold well. In or- One man's voices in the ni ht are too dinary circumstances, he should be the con- comfortably off. But little about the personal, too gossamer to cern of the justices of the Sup me Court book, the author, and the battle he lost to are they his erstwhile employer, the CIA, was of the United States. Nowhe heard in the somber, juicele pages of Vietnam ordinary, and so Snepp is broke and in nepp III, debt, though not exactly penitent. United States v. Frank W. docket No. 79-265,- which and him culpable, in effect, of "faithl sness" to By SID MOODY the security of his country. AP Newsfeatures Writer Those voices neither incri inate nor acquit Frank Snepp before th bar. They ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Just hours, are hearsay. if that, remained. It was Die Gotterdam- merung, the twilight of the gods, Frank Snepp wrote a boo about the twilight, finally, at the end of the tunnel. last months of Vietnam entitl d "Decent War broke, The CIA station chief in Saigon sent a‘ Interval." It chronicles dipl atic and valedictory message to Washington intelligence fumbling and th abandon- before smashing the equipment: meat of thousands of Vietn ese who "Let us hope we will not have another worked for the CIA and othe agencies. Vietnam 'experience and that we have No one has questioned its a curacy or learned our lesson. argued that it revealed secre . But the "Saigon signing off." CIA, for whom Snepp serve two tours That same spring night in 1975, a in Saigon, sued because did not helicopter lifted out of the flames and submit his manuscript for republlca- the clutching hands of those left behind. tion review in accordance w an oath in debt Their screams were an appeal and a he had taken at least twice. curse, together, screams thpt still Snepp fought all , the w y to the search and destroy the sleep oL one of Supreme Court; lost and has been the passengers on that flight. Their penalized $140,580 so far — th amount is chivalric code and Snepp's desire to discordant trespass jerks him awake. dependent on his royalties a the book beat the draft led him to accept a pro- Frank W. Snepp' III has dreamed is still in print — some g of a fessor's recruitment into the CIA in 1968. landmark for a private ci en. He is That September. 16 he signed an oath now broke and $40,000 in debt cause of swearing "... not to publish ... any in- the penalty. formation or material relating to the Snepp says he wrote "Decent Agency, its activities or intelligence ac- Interval" because he had come to tivities generally, either during or after believe that otherwise the s ry would my term of employment without not have come out. He says e intended specific prior approval by the Agency." no "irreparable harm" to the CIA whose That was the first step towards docket purposes he still supports. No. 79-265. He-disdains ex-CIA author like Philip Agee, who named names. ose who Snepp got to Vietnam because some decry the CIA would find ally, in colleagues volunteered him as a prac- Frank Snepp, which may count for tical joke. Nonetheless, he fought a good why he is alone, working ously on a war. He survived a hand grenade- novel and a book on I travails thrown at his car that has left him deaf simultaneously, writing to st y afloat in in the left ear. A deskbound analyst his $411-a-month apartment ere. When a specializing in North Vietnamese inten- the phone rings, it is often a f reign jour- tions, he nevertheless constantly toured nalist hoping Snepp will ill some the countryside, became skilled at inter- beans about CIA operative He tells rogation and at briefing — U.S. con- them he will not. gressmen, journalists and even South Vietnamese generals. Snepp is 37, bright, handso e, a North When it was all over, Snepp was Carolinian raised in the cav lier tradi- awarded the Intelligence Medal of lion of the Old Confederacy. Merit. Vietnam in the '60s, howe er, did not As soon as he arrived in Saigon, Snepp bring out the warrior Snepp "The one had decided the war was unwinnable, thing I knew about Vietnam as I didn't "but I thought the outcome was want to be there." • modifiable." When Snepp saw how his A Jekyll-Hyde mixture of e South's reports were being edited or filed away, , he says, he became increasingly uneasy Snepp insists today that he felt he did Supreme Court. And went down in that the truth wasn't getting back to not have to submit so long as he reveal- flames. Washington. ed nothing classified. The vote, last February, was 6-3. "I kept answering my disenchant- "I have no question Frank thought he ment with the bureaucrat's rationaliza- was legal," says Mark Lynch, his Alice Daniel, an assistant U.S. at- tion: If I hang in, tomorrow I'll be strong American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. torney general active in Snepp's case, enough to change. But tomorrow never Snepp asked his case officer if an in- told a closed House subcommittee hear- comes. You get in deeper and deeper. formal review would be acceptable to ing in July that "the Department of Fail to fight for your analysis. Lie to the the CIA-. It wasn't. Justice doei not seek to use the (Snepp) press. Once you begin to waffle, it's a decision to reduce people to penury." dance step very difficult to unlearn." "Decent Interval" came out in late But Snepp has turned over all his in- He thought the CIA, of all agencies, 1977 and sold well. The CIA sued Snepp, come for three years, the proceeds from should learn from Vietnam: the not Random House. "Decent Interval." On Aug. 12 he gave thousands of native employees left "They would have lost against us and Justice a cashier's check for $116,658.15; behind, the chaos and conflicting signals aroused the public as well," says Robert on Sept. 2 another for $23,921.50. This at the end. He wrote a 15-page report en- L. Bernstein, Random House presictent. leaves him, as mentioned, $40,000 in titled "End Game" but thought a full- The CIA says it had to find out if its debt. Random House lent him a chunk scale "after action" report would be for- secrecy agreement would stand up in and an advance on "Irreparable thcoming. It wasn't. court. "With Snepp, we bad to take a Several journalists Snepp had known stand," said a spokesman. in Saigon had told him: "You had it ' The CIA did not claim "for purposes of right in Vietnam. Why don't you do a this action" that Snepp had revealed book?" Why not indeed? secrets. It sued instead under equity law Snepp says the CIA and the Justice normally applied to trustees of estates Department have tried to portray him and such. Snepp, the agency claimed in as a mercenary who wrote for the essence, had betrayed the CIA's trust in money. Snepp says he wrote because the him by not playing according to Its agency wouldn't. rules. Therefore, he had done Before leaving the agency In early "irreparable harm" to American in- 1976 to do his book, Snepp signed another telligence and its image. agreement: Damages would be le the form of a "I will never divulge, publish or "constructive trust" which would re- reveal ... any classified information, or quire Snepp "to disgorge the benefits of any information concerning intelligence his faithlessness" — his proceeds from Harm." The Authors League Fund or CIA that has not been made public by "Decent Interval" including the already recently lent him 85,000. A woman sent CIA ... without the express written con- spent advance: him a check for the price of a copy of sent of the Director." A federal judge in Virginia found for "Decent Interval" so he, not the govern- That was the second step. the CIA. Snepp appealed, mentioning his ment, would have something to show for The government says Snepp wrote First Amendment rights to print his work. Others have sent checks. "Decent Interval" "deliberately and unclassified information. The appellate ' A Who's Who of noted authors, in- surreptitiously." Well, he' hadn't been a court upheld the verdict for the most cluding John Hersey and Robert Penn CIA spook for eight years for nothing. part. Warren, have protested to the Justice "Every time I came back to my apart- Not wanting a jury trial where secrets Department. ment I was afraid I'd find they had burn- might have to be aired, the CIA ten- Snepp said he "absolutely" will not ed the manuscript." He kept Xeroxed tatively offered to settle for ;80,000. Set- hide funds in a Swiss 'bank account. copies around town, used pay phones for tlement for money would portray him as Reluctantly, he has submitted his new key calls, met secretly with his editor in a mercenary, Snepp felt. He refused. novel to the CIA. They asked him to Central Park in New York. "I wanted vindication On the legal and make one change. He did. He knew the CIA had assigned a case moral issues.
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