Samuel A. Adams

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Samuel A. "Sam" Adams (* 14. June 1934 , † 10. October 1988 ) was an analyst for the US intelligence service Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who during the Vietnam War a conspiracy at the headquarters of the US suspected Troops in The officials deliberately underestimated the estimates of the troop strength of the Viet Cong and the Vietnamese People's Army and thus deceived the public. Adams is considered a whistleblower , he is the namesake of the Sam Adams Award , which is awarded to intelligence workers to this day.

Life

Samuel is a descendant of the Adams family, who produced a variety of politicians, mostly in the US state of Massachusetts . He graduated from St. Mark's School in Southborough and Harvard College .

Whistleblowing

Adams joined the foreign intelligence service CIA in 1963 and remained there until 1973. He generally assumed that intelligence services provide information in accordance with political wishes and in particular that General William C. Westmoreland in 1967 the public through an under-specified troop strength of the enemy, Viet Cong and Vietnamese People's Army, deceived. He attributed what he believed to be 50% low numbers to political pressure. After the Tet Offensive in January 1968, the numbers he proposed were officially adopted by the CIA; By this time Adams had already changed departments in protest and was dealing with Cambodia . In 1969 he illegally obtained documents in support of his point of view and buried them on the grounds of his private Virginia farm .

After retiring from the service he tried to establish contact with fellow activists from the CIA, with whose help he wanted to further substantiate his allegations. Adams gave the edited chronologies from the stolen documents to Harper's Magazine in 1975 . After the publication, the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence came to the same conclusion: the troop numbers were deliberately manipulated.

Also in 1973 he was a sworn witness to the defendants Daniel Ellsberg & Anthony J. Russo , who were on trial for the publication of the Pentagon Papers , a government-funded, secret analysis of the Vietnam War.

media

Film & television
  • "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception" 1982, CBS documentary
Book & Print
  • Sam Adams: War of Numbers , 1994. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-883642-23-5
  • Michael Hiam: Who the Hell Are We Fighting? The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars , 2006. Hanover, New Hempshire: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-58642-104-5

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samuel Adams, Ex-CIA Officer And Libel Case Figure, Dies at 54 , The New York Times - Website. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Adams, Samuel A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adams, Sam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American intelligence agent and whistleblower
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1934
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1988