THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1965 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1905 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THREE War GENEVA (IP)-Communist North Viet Nam has served notice that captured American and South Vietnamese pilots will meet the fate of war criminals. The announcement, sent to the International Red Cross Commit- tee here, was seen as implying the death penalty for men shot down in raid over North Viet Nam. Although dated Aug. 31, the iannouncement followed execution by the Viet Cong guerrillas of two American servicemen. The Red Cross Committee dis- closed the tone of the letter in careful terms yesterday, saying it constituted Hanoi's reply to an earlier Red Cross appeal for ob- .servance of international rules on prisoners and civilian population in the bitter conflict. rime Privately, sources said the letter contained "unusually violent lan- guage." ' The United States warned North Viet Nam yesterday against "war crimes trials" of captured Ameri- can pilots, saying such trials would be merely a smokescreen for re- prisals prohibited by a 1949 treaty on prisoner treatment. U.S. officials are privately con- cernei about the threat of the Hanoi government. At least a half dozen American pilots are held in North Viet Nam. In South Viet Nam two captured American fight- ing men were executed by the Viet Cong two days ago and one ear- lier in the year. The U.S. de- nounced the executions as brutal murders. Some authorities in the U.S. Trials: capital believe Communist tactics may be moving the war into a more savage stage. Executions of captured U.S. flyers in the north would raise serious questions of possible counteraction by this government, which could further expand the conflict. The threat of war crimes trials was contained in a letter which North Viet Nam sent to the Red Cross. State Department Press Officer Robert J.. McCloskey said yester- day, "Any effort to brand the pilots as war criminals and try them in kangaroo fashion would be a smokescreen for reprisals." He said he meant reprisals for the execution by the South Viet- namese government of Commun- ist Viet Cong terrorists captured A New Communist Tactic? in South Viet Nam McCloskey said war crimes trials "would be a transparent attempt to evade the clear prohibition on reprisals, which is contained in the 1949 Geneva Convention. "Any effort to cloak such ac- tions as so-called war crimes through the device of mock trial would be utterly unwarranted and a deliberate evasion of the ob- ligations undertaken by Hanoi when it adhered to the 1949 con- vention," he said. Thus an apparent attempt by Hanoi to create a legal basis for action against American pilots was rejected by the United States with a warning that such action would be considered illegal and a violation of the treaty to which both countries subscribed. McCloskey said that if the North Vietnamese take the threat- ened action, the United States "will continue to press the in- ternational committee of the Red Cross to bring its influence to bear." In the letter the North Viet- namese government c h a r g e d American and South Vietnamese pilots with bombing "deliberately" objects marked with the sign of Red Cross. The U.S. State Department has previously denied such bombings. The letter also charged that hospitals, schools and villages in North Viet Nam had been targets of air and naval attacks and, consequently, all captured enemy pilots would be considered as war criminals and tried. The letter was in reply to a Red Cross appeal to both sides to ob- serve the Geneva convention for the protection of prisoners and civilians.: The Communist government also told the Red Cross it has stopped the prisoners' privileges of writing home because of "violations of the regulations." Hanoi added that the ban was temporary, subject to eventual change. The North Vietnamese regime thus far has failed to reply to a Red. Cross request to permit a visit to prisoner camps or sub- mit a list of prisoners held in North Viet Nam. The hint of execution for Amer- icans captured by the Viet Cong came from the official Hanoi daily, Nhan Dan. The Communist pub- lication said Capt. Humbert R. Versace of Baltimore, Md., and Sgt. Kenneth M. Roraback, whose wife lives at Fayetteville, N.C., and who were shot by the Viet Cong Sunday, "would have been put to death long ago had it not been for the lenient policy" of the Viet Cong. In Saigon, U.S. officials said 38 American military personnel are missing and many of them are believed prisoners of the Viet Cong. Air Force records in Washing- ton list six pilots as prisoners and 29 other oficers as missing. The Navy does not acknowledge that any of its pilots are captured but three of them listed as missing have appeared in Communist pho- tographs or films in the North. tI - - _- House *Backed Defeats [ Home Johnson Self-Defense Plea Entered by Slayer Rule Bill .-^ t' ; f . .. - 1 ! 1.0 I 1 a.....y .I. ..." , f .