Maj. Gen. Winant Sidle, 88; Advisor on News Coverage of Military

Army Maj. Gen. Winant Sidle, 88, who came out of retirement to head a commission assigned to recommend guidelines for news coverage of military campaigns, died Saturday in Southern Pines, N.C., of complications from a stroke.

Sidle was asked by Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to head the panel after the press outcry following the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983. Journalists had been barred from the first two days of the invasion and had their access severely curbed over the next few days.

The Sidle Commission recommended that the Defense Department consider news coverage part of the overall planning for military operations. The panel also recommended that pools of reporters be created to protect operational security and journalists’ safety.

Sidle had long experience dealing with news coverage of military campaigns. He was the Army’s chief of information in Saigon during the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1969 and later was the Army’s overall chief of information from 1969 to 1973. From 1974 to 1975, he served as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Sidle graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin. His National Guard unit was called to active duty during World War II, and he served in France, Germany and Austria. He joined the regular Army after the war, retiring in 1975. After leaving the Army, he worked in public relations for Martin Marietta and was the firm’s first director of corporate ethics.