European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 19, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March 19, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13commentarypete Williams press Gulf War coverage Best Ever Dod feels generals it has been said Are always preparing for the previous War. In operation desert storm the same might be True of journalists. The press arrangements for the persian Gulf War were not As some journalists claim the most restrictive Ever in combat. Some limitations were necessary to accommodate a huge press corps and one of history a fastest moving military operations. Even so reporters did get out with the troops and the press gave the american people the Best War coverage they Ever had. What Public in what other conflict pub can possibly have had As much information As the american people in this War people responded to that coverage. A Newsweek poll found that 59 percent of americans think better of the news Media now than they did before the War. Thanks to reporters the american peo pie could see what our troops our commanders and our weapons were doing. Partly because of the thorough Job the press did respect for the military was enhanced. According to a Washington Post Abc news poll 88 percent of those surveyed thought the military gained respect during the Gulf War. Ten years ago the Mili tar had Only half that Public Confidence. Another part of the reason for the military a High credibility of course is that Secretary of defense Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin l. Powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff  decision that we would say Only what we knew to be True. We were careful not to get ahead of our successes. We waited for initial Field re ports to be confirmed. Washington loves to talk about spin control. This was the first government operation i know of that had euphoria control. The least loved aspect of coverage arrangements in the Gulf was undoubtedly the press pools a groups of reporters that represent the rest of their colleagues and file stories for All rather than just for their own news organizations. But it was just such a Pool that got the first reporters to the scene. Following iraqis aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait . Forces began to arrive a few Days after Cheney a meeting with King fahd in saudi Arabia. While the saudi government studied whether to Grant visas to journalists they agreed to accept a Small number of reporters if the . Military could get them in. So we activated the department of defense National Media Pool to ensure initial coverage of the . Buildup. At the time there was no other Way to get Western reporters into saudi Arabia. The number of journalists grew to nearly 800 by december. Those reporters filed their stories independently directly to their own news organizations. After president Bush in mid november announced a further buildup in . Forces to give the coalition a True offensive option the department of defense began working on a plan that would allow reporters to cover combat while main taming  Security necessary to ensure tactical Surprise and save american lives. News organizations worried last fall that they would not have enough staff in. The persian Gulf to cover hostilities. They did not know How the saudi government would respond to their request for More visas. They  predict what restrict Lions might be imposed upon commercial air traffic in the event of a War. They asked us for a military plane to bring in journalistic reinforcements and we complied. A . Air Force c-141 cargo plane left Andrews fab on Jan. 17, the morning after the bombing began with 126 news people aboard. A in formulating the ground rules and guidelines for covering operation desert storm we looked at the rules developed in 1942 for world War ii at those handed Down by Gen. Dwight d. Eisenhower a cleared by penk3dn censors chief of staff for the reporters who covered the a Day landings and at the ground rules established by Gen. Douglas Macar thur for covering the korean War. And we carefully studied the rules drawn up for covering the War in Vietnam. The ground rules were not intended to prevent journalists from reporting on incidents that might Embarrass the military or to make military operations look sanitized. Instead they were intended simply and solely to prevent publication of details that could jeopardize a military operation or endanger the lives of . Troops. Some of the things that were not to be reported were a details of future operations. A specific information about. Troop strengths or locations. A specific information on missing or downed air planes or ships while search and Rescue operations were under Way. A information on operational weaknesses that could be used against . Forces. A a reporters understand the reasoning behind these ground rules. Of All the aspects of the coverage plan for the War in the persian Gulf they were the least controversial. The least understood was probably the system for copy review. Reporters covering world War ii wrote their stories and submitted them to a military censor. The censors Cut out anything they Felt broke the rules and sent the stories on. The decision of the censor was final. There was no such system of censorship in operation desert storm. There was instead a procedure that allowed us to Appeal to news organizations when we thought material in their stories would violate the ground rules. But unlike a system of censorship the Gulf rules left the final decision to publish or broadcast in a the hands of journalists not the military. While the pools were in existence 1,351 print Pool reports were written. Of those Only five were submitted for our review in Washington. Four of them were cleared within a few hours. The fifth Story dealt in considerable detail with the methods of intelligence operations in the Field. We called the reporters editor in chief and he agreed that the Story should be changed to protect sensitive intelligence procedures. This aspect of the coverage plan also worked Well. As the number of troops in the desert grew so did the number of reporters rising to More than 1,600 on the eve of the ground War. With hundreds of fiercely Independent reporters seeking to join up with combat units we concluded wed have no Choice but to rely on pools once combat started. Before the air phase of the operation began in january news organizations were afraid that we  get the pools out to see anything. But we did. Reporters were on an aircraft Carrier in the red sea to witness the launching of the first air strikes aboard a battleship in the persian Gulf that fired the first cruise missiles Ever used in combat at the air bases where fighter planes and bombers were taking off around the clock and with several ground units in the desert. Those Early Days were not without problems. For example the first stories written about the stealth fighters were sent All the Way Back to the Al 17�?Ts Home base in Nevada to be cleared. Now that the War is Over. . H. Norman Schwarzkopf has described the plan its Clear Why the press arrangements for the ground phase of the Campaign weren to like those in world War ii. This was not an operation in which reporters could ride around in jeeps going from one part of the front to another or like Vietnam where reporters could hop a helicopter to specific Points of action. American ground units moved quickly a some of them by air. To cover the conflict reporters had to be part of a unit Able to move with it each commander had an assigned number of vehicles with Only so Many seats. Whereas he could take care of the reporters he knew were coming he could not have been expected to keep absorbing those who arrived on their own unexpectedly in their own rented four wheel drives a assuming they could even find the units out West once the War started. Nonetheless by the time the ground War began 132 reporters and photographers were out with the army and marines on the ground. Reporters were out with every division and 27 More were on ships at sea or on air bases. The ground War Wasny to like Vietnam either with minor skirmishes Here and there and a major offensive every now and then it was As the world now knows a set piece operation with divisions from the army and Navy moving quickly supported by air Force and Navy planes and All of it carefully orchestrated. In this sense it was like something from a previous War cd Day. Back then 461 reporters were signed up at the supreme Headquarters Allied expeditionary Force to cover the Normandy invasion. But of that number Only 27 . Reporters actually went ashore with the first wave of forces. Now that its Over its be to look Back. There Are clearly some things we could have done  Here Are some preliminary observations a we could have done a better Job of helping journalists in the Field. Judging from what in be heard from the reporters who went out in the pools we had some outstanding escorts. But we must improve that process. A escort officers  throw themselves in front of the camera when one of the troops utters a forbidden word. We need to teach Public affairs personnel How to do their jobs so that reporters wont feel their subjects Are intimidated. A our first obligation is to get reporters out with the action so that journalists Are a eyewitnesses to history. In be seen some excellent examples of that. A we must do better at getting stories Back to the press Center. Some units did Well using computer modems and tactical Telephone fax machines. Others did no to do so Well. In be heard from reporters who said their stories were delayed for Days. While delivery problems would have existed whether the press worked in pools or not we need to do better. But fart of the problem was the sheer number of journalists to a conto Date. Richard Harwood the Washington posts ombudsman raised this Issue in his column last weekend when he said a the communications Industry Well endowed financially dispatched far too Many peo pie to cover the War a a the government cannot decide who goes to cover the War and who does no to. Maybe its too much to expect As competitive an institution As the press to limit its nun Ibers in a War especially when local papers want to provide coverage to the hometowns where the troops come from. But its Worth raising. Several Bureau chiefs told me last fall that in planning for War coverage the Security of reporters was their concern not mine. But that a not realistic because we  ignore that even if we wanted to. Its not morally possible. When a group of . Journalists was captured in Iraq after the cease fire four news Industry executives wrote to the president saying that no . Forces should withdraw from Iraq until the Issue of the journalists was resolved. The . Government raised the Issue with the iraqis and we succeeded in securing their release. Everyone is relieved they were freed. But we must drop the pretence that the safety of journalists Isnit the governments concern. Whatever else the press arrangements in the persian Gulf May have been they were a Good Faith Effort on the part of the military to be As fair As possible to the Large number of reporters on the scene to. Get As Many reporters As possible out with troops during a highly Mobile modern ground War and to allow As much Freedom in reporting As possible while still preventing the enemy from knowing what we were up to. This was after All an enemy that had virtually As much Access to american news reporting As people had Here at Home. From what we be been Able to learn so far iraqi military commanders did no to have a clue As to which coalition forces were out there where they were or what they were up to. They appear to have been caught totally off guard by the Quick move of the 18th airborne corps West of Kuwait deep into Iraq. For the Sake of the operation and the lives of those troops we could not afford to let the enemy learn that. William la assistant Secretary of Dafena i or Public affairs. A Wrol this report for the Washington Post