Operation Tailwind
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Operation Tailwind was a covert incursion into Laos by the United States Army in September of 1970 during the Vietnam War.
CNN and Time Magazine ran the story in 1998, and erroneously reported that this operation included use of Sarin gas to kill a group of defectors from the US forces who were living in Laos. The reports caused the Pentagon to have an independent investigation launched, which concluded that the claims made in the program were false. CNN and Time Magazine then undertook an internal investigation which concluded that the journalism was flawed and the story was retracted.
Two key CNN producers in the report, April Oliver and Jack Smith, were fired while senior producer Pam Hill resigned. Reporter Peter Arnett was reprimanded. Some sources allege that The Pentagon pressured CNN to fire Arnett; in any case he soon left for NBC.
External link
- CNN Retraction (http://edition.cnn.com/US/9807/02/tailwind.johnson/)
- The Department of Defense report (http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/21/pentagon.tailwind.report/)