was able last week b scenario of what ma• The theme of the me] Top of the Week to these friends, was the protagonist was N, H ITCH - A reputable prods PAGE 26 Poland, Frykowski, f: Case of the Green Berets no real career in this RD drugs—as a user and The astonishing arrest of Col. Robert last year he had the i B. Rheault, the commander of U.S. Spe- ious other purposes of Gibby Folger, a cial Forces in Vietnam, on suspicion of n's plans for future rich girl who moved murder has raised disturbing questions New York City to the about both U.S. military justice and the use, has the power cupations of the mov trol and police the money, and Frykows. use of American soldiers in espionage operations. And although the case ways done so with it, according to friend: Its military-affairs drugs—LSD, heroin, against Rheault and seven of his men is without expertise. juana and a new the still shrouded in secrecy, it has already de the reputation —and peddled them cast grave doubt on the future of the ed him in the Pres- kowski had two regi elite Green Berets. From files by May- ing military con- Canadians, in his dri nard Parker, Kevin P. Buckley and Francois Sully in Saigon, Lloyd 'econd world war. he is known to have at Fort Bragg, N.C., on was probably with them. What's me Norman in Washington, Henry P. Leifermann Russell Watson wrote an anyone else for are known to have 1: and other correspondents, Associate Editor Should the wheel as recently as two d this week's cover story. In a companion article, Associate Editor approval of this Tate's party. Robin Mannock describes Colonel Rheault himself. (Newsweek cover ye devices, as it Odd Taste: Frykov photo by Al Satterwhite—Camera Five.) ight become the go, was connected to weex resinie. it,c octrette, ai wi to uell iiemocrats- best net for a 1972 Presi- much through her husband, Polanski, as angry debate, has refused by a two- dential comeback. through her former fiance, Jay Sebring, vote margin to turn down the Presi- NEAR-HYSTERIA with whom Frykowski shared a taste for dent's request for deployment of an odd sexual fun and games. All three liked anti-ballistic-missile defense system. Sense of proportion has been lost in to trip together on pot or acid. Friends The House has passed an admirable the current near-hysteria. It has hap- believe drugs were used by the victims tax reform and relief bill but one that pened before. On the eve of the sec- on the night of the murder (though this would reduce government income too ond world war, the House came with- has not been confirmed by the medical substantially. Both branches have ex- in a vote of suspending the draft. examiner), but Miss Tate presumably tended the temporary 10 per cent After that war, public demand to abstained in view of her pregnancy. surtax, but the Senate has refused to "bring the boys home" was so insistent Some suspect the group was amusing go along with the House on other that the armed forces were all but itself with some sort of black-magic rites— anti-inflation measures. disbanded. Secretary of Defense Louis as well as with drugs—that night, and Yet the first seven months were less Johnson was a hero one day for presid- they mention a native Jamaican hip to notable for any of these achievements ing over their dissolution and a scape- voodoo who had recently been brought in- than for "the revolt against the Penta- goat the next for the nation's lack of to Frykowski's drug operation. Some such gon." This was the phenomenon that preparedness to fight the war in Ko- parlor rites might account for the hood toned the period. The sound and fury rea. Conditions can change attitudes found over Sebring's head and the rope of it were deafening. It was the itch with the speed of light. binding him to Miss Tate. Indeed, one politicians and the media spent their The Senate-based campaign against group of friends speculates that the mur- energies scratching. It was what the the Pentagon would be excessive in ders resulted from a ritual mock execution easier times and is especially so with that got out of hand in the glare of hallu- ABM debate in the Senate was about. Its shibboleth, "restore civilian control the world as tense as it is now. The cinogens. Others are convinced that the of the military," was so pervasive that recent resumption of enemy attacks in murderers surprised their victims at play Vietnam and immovability of Commu- —and believe the killers were Frykow- nobody bothered to ask how some- thing that had never been lost could nist negotiators in Paris seem to be ski's Canadian accomplices with whom he be restored. It was as faddish as mini- the answer to Averell Harriman's the- had quarreled and perhaps also the Jamai- skirts and mutton-chop sideburns. ory that what we need do is set a pa- can. The police, who are known to be on cific example in order to stop the fight- the Canadians' trail, feel that the killers POLITICAL PAYDIRT ing. The Soviets are outbuilding us in at least had their wits about them and cite Denunciation of the "military-in- strategic weapons and catching up in the fact that the telephone wires leading dustrial complex" looked like political naval power, displayed in the Medi- to the house had been carefully cut. paydirt, and members of Congress, terranean and even in the Caribbean. Polanski himself—one of the hottest di- especially those sitting in shaky seats, Potentially contagious crises persist in rectors in Hollywood since the success of hastened to dig it. Disillusionment the Middle East and along the Sino- "Rosemary's Baby"—was in England at with Vietnam, the high cost of sophis- Soviet frontiers and Moscow is delay- the time of the killing, working on plans ticated military hardware and the in- ing arms-control talks. for a new film. Whatever he knows has so flation resulting in part from paying But we are advised not to be timid far remained a secret between him and the bills for it made the digging easy. about reducing armaments. After all, the police. But no one is talking about China is a distant threat and the new Polanski any longer as a master of the Opponents of ABM in the Senate came so close to winning and were so Soviet leaders are reasonable fellows. macabre. At the burial of his young wife Those who give this advice would do —together with the unborn child who universally applauded for the effort that they almost all became overnight well to read testimony by Anatoly would have been his first son—the help- Kuznetsov, the recently defected So- less director broke down and wept on his military experts. They were soon pro- posing to cut authorizations for an air- viet author, on the stability of the pres- mother-in-law's shoulder, no more the ent Soviet leadership. master of this horrible tale than any other craft carrier, for a new tank, for exper- man would have been in his place. • August 25, 1969 25 7ZZ `id&i:AR 7317.1R/3/- The Cazs 2[1(--ra, rESA 2))B "SSi erhaps no organization in United ants. "At least four of them," she de- North Vietnamese officers or possibly the D States military history has so quickly clared, "he had never seen in his life until testimony of a double agent—to show captured the imagination of the Ameri- he met them at the investigation." that the man was a traitor. can public as the Special Forces. Dash- In the absence of solid facts, rumors At this juncture, the Special Forces ing guerrilla fighters skilled in all the spawned dozens of theories to explain asked the CIA for guidance. Under- grim arts of war, the Green Berets have the killing and the Army's surprisingly standably, the CIA insistently denies any become an instant legend. They inspired harsh reaction to it. Some said that the vic- central involvement in the Chuyen case. the only movie Hollywood has so far tim had been close to important figures in But there is solid evidence that, at the made about the war in Vietnam—John the South Vietnamese Government. Oth- very least, the Berets requested the ad- Wayne's potboiling jungle Western. They ers hinted that he had been a secret vice of a CIA representative in Vietnam were featured in a hit record, and they peace emissary to Hanoi and had been on how to handle Chuyen. And, quite have received reams of adulatory pub- killed by mistake. George W. Gregory, a conceivably, someone in the agency sug- licity. In Vietnam, they have produced small-town South Carolina lawyer who gested verbally that Chuyen be killed; heroes out of all proportion to their num- had flown into Saigon to act as attorney according to Gregory, the phrase "termi- bers. And at home, they have basked in nate with extreme prejudice" was used. the reflected glory of the Kennedy mys- In any case, on June 20, Chuyen was tique—for it was John Kennedy who spon- shot, stuffed into a weighted sack and sored the Special Forces and to this day, dropped into the South China Sea, a green felt beret lies on his grave in somewhere off the city of Nha Trang Arlington National Cemetery.