(FORTUNE Magazine) – RJR Nabisco Chief Executive F. Ross Johnson says it isn't so. He wasn't trying ! to punish Saatchi & Saatchi DFS Inc. for creating antismoking ads when he threw the agency off his company's U.S. account, worth more than $84 million a year in billings. No, Johnson says in his first interview about the flap, he was lit up because he found out about the campaign ''at the same damn time as the rest of America.'' Northwest Airlines, the client for the antismoking ads, swore Saatchi to secrecy, and the agency honored the promise. Had RJR known in advance, Johnson says, the company and Saatchi might have had a little chat and worked something out. This was no ordinary client conflict. For starters, DFS already had another cigarette account, Lorillard, and, Johnson says, ''we had no complaints.'' The folks who make RJR's Winston and other brands groused about what Saatchi's admen were doing, though. Johnson backed them up: ''Your people turn to you and say: 'We're making these guys profitable, we're building their infrastructure, so that they can use that talent to take a whack at us.' ''