Discredit Who?

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (AP) — Senator Stephen M. Young, Democrat from Ohio, said Thursday that he had learned that the Central Intelligence Agency hired persons to disguise as Vietcong and discredit Communists in Vietnam by committing atrocities.

The C.I.A. and Representative Cornelius E, Gallagher, Democrat of New Jersey, said it was not so.

Thursday night Senator Young denied having said that the report came from a C.I.A. man. but he said that he got it from an American military officer whom he did not name.

Nevertheless, Mr. Young said, “I confirmed through the C.I.A. today that it employed some South Vietnamese nationals to pose as Vietcong--and I take a dim view of that.”

Mr. Young who recently returned from Vietnam, had at first said to newsmen that a C.I.A. man told him the C.I.A. hired South Vietnamese who dressed as Vietcong, then committed such acts as killing men and raping women.

Mr. Young, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would ask that group to investigate C.I.A. activities.

Mr. Gallagher has also recently visited South Vietnam.

NOTE; The above article is reprinted exactly as it appeared on Friday, October 22 in The New York Times. Because of reproduction difficulties, the article has been retyped. Nothing has been changed or edited.