The cable network and Jack Smith, one of two producers of the report about the 1970 mission, Operation Tailwind, confirmed the settlement yesterday.

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

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.

"CNN should retract the broadcast and apologize to the public and, in particular, the participants in Operation Tailwind."

Culturebox poses this paradoxical question apropos of the continuing fallout from CNN's controversial newsmagazine segment on "Operation Tailwind."

Operation Tailwind was a covert incursion into southeastern Laos during the Vietnam War, conducted between 11-13 September 1970.

Two other soldiers from Operation Tailwind who appeared in the CNN report, Jim Cathy and Jay Graves, said they believed nerve gas had been dropped.

There were only two documented American defectors in the Vietnam War, the report said, and neither was in Laos at the time of Operation Tailwind.

Code-named Operation Tailwind, the mission was to attack the village and kill the defectors, according to the CNN-Time account.

Veterans who had taken part in the mission, called Operation Tailwind, bombarded the Internet and news media with furious rebuttals.