Dear classmates and other fellow West Pointers.

I wanted you all to know that I have just quit CNN. For a solid
week I tried to convince the top bosses that the special last Sunday night was
profoundly wrong. I have not been able to do so. The clincher was an e mail
from   Ft. Benning. Part of it follows. ---"Sir, please assist us in
regaining our honor,
you "fast movers" never let us down in SVN, you and your peers got
me out of hot water many times, so I hate to impose and ask you to once more
leap into the breach.  So many of the men of SOG that ran those dangerous
missions are dying now as a result of the wounds received, the diseases that
ran through them, malaria, dengue, etc, the physical abuse one's body had
to
absorb in the performance of duties, that this is having a terrible effect on
them.

Please don't let their last thoughts be that once again their sacrifices were
in vain, and that the press can once again crucify us as they did thirty years
ago."

There is an outside chance that my resigning in protest will finally get the
attention of the top guy and he will run a full retraction. A few of his
people snuck this special by him--a real sad story. You might be interested in
knowing that a lot of the lower level troops at CNN were with me on this.
Best to all.

Perry M Smith, USMA '56
gencnn@aol.com