The Chronicle: 7/13/2001: 2 Other Scholars' False Vietnam Tales

From the issue dated July 13, 2001

2 Other Scholars' False Vietnam Tales

By ANA MARIE COX

Not every professor who lies about Vietnam experience becomes a media sensation.

A tenured professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Larry E. Cable, went even further than Mr. Ellis in his fabrications. In his classes, Mr. Cable presented himself as an expert in counterinsurgency, giving lectures based on his supposed experiences as a Marine special adviser to the "Quang Ngai Special Platoon" in Vietnam. His popular courses and charisma earned him a teaching award in 1993.

In addition to teaching courses at Wilmington, Mr. Cable was a guest lecturer at the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy.

In 1998, the local newspaper in Wilmington planned to publish an article based on evidence indicating that Mr. Cable had no military record. Mr. Cable resigned the day before the investigation hit the newsstands, even though college officials stood by him at the time. "We haven't heard from him since he left," says a Wilmington spokesman today.

In May, a business professor at the University of Oklahoma admitted that he had lied on his resume, as well as to students in his classes and to those he advised in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, about having been a Navy SEAL. His classes were on business administration, but he talked about his "experiences" in his lectures and used them as examples.

The professor, William T. Whitely, had served in the Navy, but not in the elite SEAL group. The administration took no action on the matter. Mr. Whitely resigned as R.O.T.C. adviser and apologized. "I never claimed being a SEAL in the beginning," he said. "It just kind of happened."

Though the Cable scandal generated a week of news coverage in Wilmington, and Mr. Whitely's fabrications resulted in a denunciation by the Graduate Student Senate, the rest of the country didn't hear much about either fall from grace.