Mil-Media Relations in the U.S.. Inspiring Apocalypse Now.. Very excited about this case. do look into.

'Nam Defectors: 1999 CNN Story about these dons:

1. "A deserter is a soldier who leaves his post without authorization, no matter what the reason. During the Vietnam War, many deserters "of conscience" fled through various underground railroads to nations that offered sanctuary. A smaller number chose to remain in South Vietnam, in so-called "Twilight Zones" where they thought they were beyond the reach of the authorities.

A defector commits the far more serious offense of treason-- collaborating with the enemy. In Vietnam, a number of U.S. defectors allegedly fought with enemy units, while others were said to have remained in their units, passing classified information to the enemy or committing acts of sabotage. Some defectors were prisoners of war who, in exchange for leniency, spread anti-war propaganda or attempted to persuade their fellow POWs to cooperate with the enemy."

[...]

Phoenix operations were also directed against deserters who, as denizens of Twilight Zones, were very much behind enemy lines. "We had a problem with deserters, mostly blacks hiding out in shantytowns," the Phoenix adviser in Danang told this writer. "They were trying to stay underground, but they were heavily armed and, at times, they worked with the VC. So we had cordon and search operations to round them up. After the MPs started taking casualties, we used American military units, South Vietnamese airborne rangers, and Nungs."

The report describes:

2.The very nature of the subject matter of "Valley of Death," a Special Forces raid into neutral Laos, called Operation Tailwind, that has remained a tightly held secret for 28 years, guaranteed that the evidence extracted by the reporters would be somewhat fragmentary. The US denies ever having used nerve gas in combat and, needless to say, denies having targeted American defectors in Vietnam for extermination. No one, therefore, could legitimately be surprised that for every witness affirming the use of nerve gas or the killing of American defectors, there would be at least as many ex-Special Forces men, military officers or intelligence figures staunchly denying the allegations.But there were also "killer teams" organized under the CIA's Phoenix Program whose aim was to assassinate, on sight, suspected defectors behind enemy lines.

and/but:

Taken as a whole, however, the mass of evidence, eyewitness accounts and verification from high-ranking military and intelligence sources, both named and unnamed, presented in the CNN broadcast was impressive. Seven of the sixteen Special Forces soldiers who carried out the assault gave on-camera statements supporting to varying degrees the program's contention that nerve gas was used and American defectors were targeted. Several experts on nerve gas consulted by the reporters said the symptoms of vomiting and convulsions described by the soldiers, as well as their description of the properties of the gas used on the raid, pointed to sarin.

hence:

Once the program was aired, it came under intense behind-the-scenes attack. Oliver and Smith assert that Henry Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security adviser at the time of Tailwind, Richard Helms, then the CIA director, and Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Gulf war, all contacted CNN and demanded a retraction. CNN quickly began backing away from the program, appointing attorney Floyd Abrams to carry out a supposedly independent review.

[...]

The citations in Abrams's report include Moorer asserting that sarin nerve gas was a weapon in the Vietnam arsenal, and it would not have been terribly unusual for it to be used on a mission such as Tailwind. Asked, "Would it surprise you?" he replies, "I would expect them to use whatever was necessary to achieve their mission in an emergency." At another point Abrams cites Moorer saying, "I think that it's highly possible that it was used again, but I'm not aware of exactly where it was used."

Following the airing of "Valley of Death," Moorer, under enormous pressure from the Pentagon and other quarters, distanced himself from the story. But he did not deny that nerve gas was used. While declaring he had no first-hand knowledge, he said he had learned of the Laos raid after it took place, "including verbal statements indicating the use of sarin on the Tailwind mission."

Thus the very document CNN used to justify the retraction of its Tailwind story, if read carefully and critically, actually underscores the powerful array of evidence marshaled by the reporters and the extremely serious nature of their revelations. With the full support of the media establishment, however, this has been turned into a vendetta against the journalists who quite courageously unearthed the story, and an object lesson to any others who might be tempted to follow their example. Meanwhile those who the piece suggests may be guilty of criminal actions--the CIA, the military, and individuals such as Kissinger and Helms--are off the hook.

[...]

CNN and Time immediately retracted the report and issued public apologies. When Oliver and Smith refused to disavow the story and resign voluntarily, CNN fired them. A third CNN producer resigned under pressure and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Arnett, who narrated the program, was reprimanded.

3.In its current issue, for example, Newsweek boasts that it attacked the CNN- Time report after it was broadcast, and highlights the following blurb: "Did US Special Forces use nerve gas to kill American defectors in Vietnam? No." Even Salon, an internet magazine that generally maintains a somewhat higher journalistic standard, accepted uncritically CNN's retraction and, in an article by Ted Gup, stated that "both organizations [CNN and Time] admitted that the story was unsupported by facts"

Mil even publ a "review":

4.The CNN broadcast provoked a furious response from the Pentagon, which denounced it and denied, without providing substantiation, that Operation Tailwind involved the use of nerve gas or an attempt to eliminate American soldiers who had defected. This public attack was accompanied by a well-organized campaign by right-wing groups and publications to discredit the CNN program. Considering the fact that many prominent political and military figures responsible for US policy in Southeast Asia at the time are still alive, it is likely that pressure was brought to bear from these quarters as well.