The story did not appear in print until May1986, and even then, Bradlee said, many of thedetails were omitted.

Post editors, unaware of Pelton's leaks to theSoviets, believed that they "had the highestnational security secret any of us had everheard," Bradlee said.

During the intervening months, Post editors metwith the CIA director, the national securityadviser, and the head of the National SecurityAgency in an effort to determine how damaging thestory would be.

At times, The Post shared draft versions of itsreport with the officials, Bradlee said.

Government officials argued that the story, iftold, would strike a blow to the nation'ssecurity, and they threatened to prosecute thenewspaper.

But during Pelton's trial, the governmentpublicly disclosed more information about its mostsecret intelligence gathering capabilities than atany time since World War II, including informationthat was news to The Post, Bradlee said.

Critical of Casey

Bradlee, who attained celebrity status as aresult of his paper's Watergate coverage,criticized CIA Director William Casey'sparticularly outspoken efforts to silence thepress on sensitive stories.

In an interview after his speech, Bradlee saidthat although the current administration has beentrying "slightly more desperately to plug leaks,"the amount of leaking has not decreased. "Whatthey've been extremely successful at is whippingan anti-press attitude in the public, reallypress-bashing," Bradlee said.

In December 1984, it took a Post reporter onlythree telephone calls to learn about the secretmilitary cargo aboard a space shuttle mission,Bradlee told the Kennedy School audience.

Although that information was no longer secret,Bradlee said, The Post's story on the subjectelicited a stern denunciation from the secretaryof defense--followed by 4000 letters to theeditor, some of which contained death threats