Download PDF of this full issue: v7n6.pdf (8.5 MB)

New Study: POWs Healthier

By VVAW

Who can forget the lurid tales of torture, isolation and starvation which flashed across America when the POW's were released from North Vietnam. In a simultaneous telecast, former POW's in major cities told how they had been tortured, how they had had bones broken in exactly the same places as they had previous injuries (so not leaving a trace to show anymore). Men with pot bellies sat against a wall telling how they had been made to sit like that for days without food. On and on and on they went.

Now, a study by the Navy's Center for Prisoner of War Studies in San Diego has disclosed that Navy pilots who spent time in North Vietnamese prison camps are actually more healthy today than their counterparts who spent the same time eating Navy rations.

John A. Plag, director of the center, reported that his researchers studied 78 POW's and 78 non-POW's and found "pronounced" differences in the physical well-being--and POW's came out better in every major category. Admitting that the findings were "contrary to expectations," Plag said it was probably attributable to the diet plus the exercises that most POW's followed during captivity.

How come the following headline wasn't splashed across TV and every major newspaper--

POW'S COME OFF BETTER IN VIETNAMESE PRISONS THAN MEN ON U.S. NAVY SHIPS!