Peter Arnett - Operation Tailwind

Operation Tailwind

In 1998 Arnett narrated a joint venture between CNN and Time magazine, NewsStand, which described what he called "Operation Tailwind".

The report, titled The Valley of Death, claimed that the United States Army had used Sarin against a group of deserting U.S. soldiers in Laos in 1970. The men allegedly involved were an elite Green Beret A-Team. The report was expressly approved by both CNN Chairman Tom Johnson and CNN President Rick Kaplan. In response, The Pentagon commissioned another report contradicting CNN's. CNN subsequently conducted its own investigation which concluded that the "journalism was flawed" and retracted the story. In the event, all 12 men of the Green Beret A-Team were wounded in action during Operation Tailwind, which had absolutely nothing to do with sarin.

Three or more of the individuals responsible for the flawed report were fired or forced to resign. Arnett was reprimanded.

The co-producers of the report, April Oliver and Jack Smith, were dismissed. They sued Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, claiming they had been wrongfully fired and Time Warner ultimately paid millions of dollars to settle their law suits, along with other suits brought by military personnel who claimed to have been libeled in the Oliver/Smith report. Senior producer Pam Hill and others resigned. Oliver was later quoted by the World Socialist Web Site (International Committee of the Fourth International) as saying that: