special
feature
the
Sunday
daily
by
linda
dreeben
f
Number 64 Page Four
Sunday, October 15, 1972
Prisoners
of
war:
Three
home
from
Hanoi
v
THE WAR in Indochina has already
been in the headlines too long.
Between the major shock waves of
the Cambodia invasion, the mining
of North Vietnam's ports, and most
recently the bombing of the French
mission in Hanoi, it has been too easy
not to think about the war and those
inextricably tied to it.
In the past month the war has
been in the headlines-but not in
statistics, charts or battle reports. In-
stead, the war came home with three
American prisoners of war, a more
personal dramatization of the Viet-
nam conflict. For two weeks, Ameri-
cans listened to three military men
asking for the war to end so that the
over 500 American POWs in North
Vietnam could come home. Human-
itarian considerations, however, were
all but overshadowed by the push
and pull of international diplomacy
and domestic American politics.
What did the North Vietnamese
stand to gain from the release? Why
did the U. S. government respond the
way it did? Did the peace movement
hope to draw impetus from the ne-
gotiated release of the prisoners?
And what about the American elec-
torate? What did the release and
the trip home mean to voters in the
states? And the rest of the POWs?
Each party to the affair has been
criticized - even the three POWs:
Hanoi for allegedly exploiting the
POW issue, insisting on "conditions"
before future releases can be ar-
ranged, and for using the release to
parade the POWs around devastated
areas near Hanoi; the U. S. govern-
ment for refusing to allow the POWs
to come home directly to their fami-
lies and friends, and issuing threats
of possible military punishment; the
peace activists in the liaison group
who went along on the trip, for using
the POWs to push their own con-
cerns, and for getting involved in
petty wrangling with U. S. officials;
and the POWs, for not keeping quiet,
and for announcing they hope the
war ends soon.
PERHAPS MOST important about
the release is its impact on the
Americans who watched the whole
drama unfold on television-direct
from Hanoi, Peking, Moscow, Copen-
hagen and New York.
The utilization of the "POW is-
sue" by the Nixon administration and
the unprecedented ability of Ameri-
can media to record the events in
North Vietnam combined to make
for the spectacular coverage the re-
lease received.
American television viewers saw
the three officers - Maj. Edward
Elias, Lt. Mark Gartley, and Lt. Nor-
ris Charles - released from North
Vietnam come home via Peking and
Moscow. They observed four peace
activist escorts from the Committee
of Liaison with Families of Service-
men Detained in North Vietnam -
David Dellinger, William Sloane Cof-
fin, Cora Weiss, and Prof. Richard
Falk-engineer a circumvention of
the U. S. government, turning down
U. S. military hospitality in embas-
sies and air transport.
For the home viewer, the trip
ended at Kennedy Airport where the
three pilots emerged from the plane
in full military dress. Mark Gartley's
mother engaged in a shouting match
with a military official, and Weiss
hurled accusations at officials that
the government had jeopardized fur-
ther releases, by taking the pilots
back into the military fold.
Most significantly, the American
public got a well publicized, first
hand description of North Vietnam's
prisoner of war camps. For years, be-
hind the American government's
criticism of the North Vietnamese,
have been suggestions of brutality
and torture. As Falk, a professor of
international law at Princeton, sug-
gested in an interview last week,
"This release should put to rest the
allegations of cruel and barbaric
treatment in the camps. That con-
tention should be put to rest by the
statements made by Lt. Gartley."
Gartley, the first of- the three to
hold a news conference after his re-
turn, called his treatment in North
Vietnam "humane" and said prison
camp conditions were "steadily im-
proving."
"My treatment during captivity has
been humane. I have not been mis-
treated," the 28-year-old ,lieutenant
said of his four years as a prisoner.
"Prisons anywhere in the world are
no bed of roses. This was no excep-
tion. But when you take into account
the standard of living in the country
in which we were confined and. ex-
amine the conditions, you'd have to
say we were treated very well."
While treatment of American pri-
soners varied, Gartley added, "gener-
ally speaking," good treatment had
been on the increase.
,I
civilians. Never, however, did the re-
lease receive anywhere near the mas-
sive publicity or attention that the
latest move did. And for a number
of reasons.
Thanks to President Nixon the
POW issue has grown in dimension
since the Johnson administration.
The constant insistence by the Nixon
administration that Hanoi imme-
diately release the prisoners - while
the war continues - contrasts sharp-
ly with the less vocal enunciation
that U. S. support for South Viet-
nam's President Thieu will continue
even after a cease fire.
In fact, the administration has
made release of the prisoners one
of the primary justifications for con-
tinued American presence in Viet-
nam. Secretary of State William
Rogers, for example, has stressed
that U. S. forces will remain in South
Vietnam for the dual purpose of help-
ing that nation "determine its own
future" and also to gain the release
of American prisoners held by North
Vietnam.
As far back as 1971 the President
made the ultimate withdrawal of U.
S. combat troops contingent upon the
prisoners' release. "As long as the
North Vietnamese have any Ameri-
can prisoners of war,"Nixon told a
press conference, "there will be
Americans in South Vietnam and
enough Americans to give them an
incentive to release the prisoners."
Nixon invoked the POW issue again
in May when he ordered North Viet-
nam's harbors mined - until the
prisoners' release.
Meanwhile, thousands of Ameri-
cans wear bracelets, each engraved
with the name of a POW or soldier
missing in action. Organizations of
POW families receive headlines when
they criticize the President or direct
{
The civilian escorts brought their anti-war message to the American people on the six
o'clock news. Rev. William Sloane Coffin shakes hands with captured American pilots in
A
"My treatment during captivity has been humane. I have
not been mistreated. Prisons anywhere in the world are no
bed of roses. This was no exception. But when you take into
account the standard of living in the country in which we
were confined and examine the conditions, you'd have to
say we were treated very well."
-Lt. Mark Gartley
'....:,.',:....'', ~. . .....................
Elias, the only one of the three who
intends to stay in the military, also
said he was "treated humanely"
through five months of captivity. He
said the food and clothing were ade-
quate.
Both men reported American
bombs falling within earshot. Elias
said he "felt no fear" because he and
fellow prisoners were adequately
sheltered. Gartley said that although
the men had no underground shel-
ters, they were confined to their
buildings, "which were protection
enough," during the air raids.
THE RELEASE last month, however,
was not the first release of Amer-
ican prisoners of war negotiated by
American peace activists. Three times
before, the last time in early 1969,
Hanoi released POWs to American
their attention to North Vietnamese
negotiators at the Paris Peace Talks.
All the while, the number of POWs
increases, as the North Vietnamese
capture more and more downed U. S.
pilots - since May more than 50 men
have been reported captured and 114
others have been listed as missing.
The North Vietnamese will main-
tain their refusal to release the pri-
soners until the war is over or a po-,
litical settlement reached. And his-
tory is on their side, offering no re-
cent examples of a general prisoner
release before final settlement be-
came imminent.
DESPITE THE priority the adminis-
tration places on the repatriation
of the POWs, it has been unable to
bring any of the men home. All
twelve men released by Hanoi to date
were escorted home by civilians. Falk
emphasizes that the North Vietna-
mese made "a point of the fact that
they were releasing the men to their
families and the American people,
not to the United States govern-
ment."
As the released POWs toured
bombed out Vietnamese villages, and
traveled to Peking and Moscow,
American spokesmen could do little
but offer the services of the military,
and quietly insist that the officers
don their uniforms and come back to
a blanket of security upon their re-
turn.
White House Press Secretary Ron-
ald Ziegler noted that "these men
have been through a terrible ordeal.
Our interest is their safe arrival back
home." But some officials suggested
other considerations. Secretary of
Defense Melvin Laird criticized the
pilots for not accepting a military es-
cort. He announced he would not rule
out formal charges against the men,
annarently for "statements" made
Hanoi.
the three be granted 30-day fur-
loughs. Reporters were thwarted in
attempts to interview the pilots -
informed that for health reasons the
officers could not undergo "the
strain" of a short news conference.
Gartley and members of the Com-
mittee protested, and Gartley's mo-
ther exploded. In tears, she told a
Pentagon official that "we just want
him to ourselves, free of the gov-
ernment, free of the Navy, free of the
press, free of the North Vietnamese."
Weiss charged that the prisoners
were being sent from one internment
to another and that future releases
were "absolutely" endangered by
what she termed the "military's in-
terference."
Charles and his family had a simi-
lar clash with military officials at
the airport. According to the pilot's
brother, military officials apparent-
ly agreed to let the family spend a
few hours together, but then whisked
the family onto a plane bound for
San Diego. The family, the brother
says, "flipped out - we screamed
and hollered" until the military au-
thorities let the family enjoy a small
celebration."
Falk later described the scene at
the airport as an "ugly" one, which
"displayed to me the level of cynical
unconcern that the United States
government has displayed toward the
POW issue despite all its rhetoric."
SOME OBSERVERS speculated that
the North Vietnamese had all
this in mind when they agreed to the
release, hoping to influence the
American presidential election. How-
ever, this theory does not explain the
earlier negotiated releases. Moreover,
according to Falk, "the basic mood
(in North Vietnam) is one of accept-
ing the re-election of Mr. Nixon as
inevitable, but not desirable, and of
reconciling themselves to a war that
may go on until 1976."
"They really were more interested
in talking about whether Agnew
could be elected in '76 than they
were in ,talking about whether Mc-
Govern could be elected in '72," he
comments.
The North Vietnamese would like
to see McGovern elected, but they
have all but resigned themselves to a
second Nixon term. "They're very
unabashedly pro-McGovern and say
if McGovern were elected he could
appoint some Americans to come and
receive the first American POWs on
inauguration day. He could have
them all home within 10 days, at
which time all the questions of the
war could be resolved," Falk adds.
It seems more likely, however, that
the North Vietnamese were motivated
by broad considerations of interna-
tional public relations, and not by
hopes that George McGovern be
elected president. Falk suggests a
third interpretation: "The Vietna-
mese made a noint that they were re-
very deep ethical component of Viet-
namese culture and the attitude of
their rulers toward enemies . . .
They',re very proud that they've al-
ways provided their departing ene-
mies with farewell banquets."
ALONG WITH speculation on Ha-
noi's motives, came discussion of
why these three men were chosen.
Since their return the three have
said little of substance publicly to
indicate their political views on the
war. Their response to what they saw
in Hanoi, according to Falk, was that
"it sure looks different from the
ground." But, he says, they were re-
luctant to reach conclusions about
the war on the basis of seeing the
damage first hand - both out of
personal prudence and because they
are not "politically sophisticated."
the release and the ensuing drama.
Already, Dellinger is on the campus
circuit spicing up his speeches with
observations from his most recent
trip to North Vietnam. Throughout
the release anl trip home, the anti-
war movement was sustained on the
front page of newspapers longer than
any rally or protest has been.
The trip provided a forum from
which the activists could report di-
rectly to the American people the
devastation and tragedy of the Viet-
nam war.
"It is hard to imagine what greater
damage could be done by additional
bombing other than to obliterate the
whole society," Falk comments. "My
most vivid impression is seeing the
children who are victims of the
bombing. Seeing one child torn apart
by anti-personnel bombs is stronger
than reading any book on the war
or even walking through a city dev-
astated by bombing."
The peace delegation, while in Ha-
noi, disclosed charges by Hanoi that
U. S. government packages mailed to
POWs have contained spying devices,
and said that Hanoi displayed the
evidence to them. Included, they said,
were radio - receiving apparatuses,
secret writing, Colgate toothpaste
tubes with equipment inserted, and
hollowed out peanuts containing es-
pionage mechanisms.
'Falk, conceding he is not an ex-
pert on such equipment, says that
the "evidence was so authentic it
couldn't be simulated." He added that
Coffin, who had been with the CIA
for three years, said "this was fa-
miliar stuff."
The Pentagon termed the charges
"too ridiculous to dignify" and the
American press and public didn't bat
an eye.
AND WHAT ABOUT the rest of the
POWs, the 539 still held in North
Vietnam and others held by the Na-
tional Liberation Front in the South.
Simultaneously with the release came
intense private talks between Presi-
dent Nixon's foreign policy advisor
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho,
North Vietnam's chief negotiator. The
administration has promoted spec-
ulation that, with each of these ses-
sions, a peace talks "breakthrough"
is imminent and quick release of the
rest of the POWs not far away.
Some observers even saw Hanoi's
willingness to release three prisoners
as a sign that it had reached some
understanding with Kissinger and
that agreement was near. However,
there has been no evidence that the
Kissinger talks have accomplished
anything. At the official negotia-
tions, U. S. Ambassador William Por-
ter even criticized the release as a
"cynical, exploitation."
t
LT. COL. JAMES O'Neil of Las Vegas,
Nevada, a pilot shot down over North
Vietnam last September, remains be-
hind.
Falk offers several reasons why
Hanoi chose Gartley, Elias and
Charles: They were all in good phys-
ical and mental health; they were
not hostile to the North Vietnamese,
but neither were they the most in-
tensely anti-war POWs; and they
represented a cross section of Amer-
ica - different ethnic groups, from
different parts of the country, cap-
tured during different periods of the
war.
Some anti-war activists reportedly
were concerned that the men would
end up as Nixon administration bark-
ers. (Two prisoners released in 1969
traversed the country making doz-
ens of speeches on behalf of the Nix-
on administration.) This fear is so
far unfounded, although Gartley has
smoothed over his mother's emotion-
01