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POW's

By VVAW

The Nixon Administration has become expert in the technique of attacking its opponents for its own crimes. Now, after years of imprisonment, the POWs are being manipulated into accusing Hanoi of war crimes and blaming the peace movement for their detention by the liberation forces of Vietnam and Laos.

To begin with, the peace movement did not send hundreds of thousands of GIs into Indochina, nor did we bomb cities, harbors or dikes. On the contrary, we opposed the Johnson and Nixon administrations for their policies in Southeast Asia. If the peace movement had had its way, no one would have been killed or captured neither American servicemen nor Vietnamese civilians.

The so-called 'mistreatment' of the POWs has been contradicted by statements from POWs themselves. Navy Captain Walter Wilbur, shot down in June of 1968, stated "I never heard anybody scream out, either from nightmares or injury or being threatened. They sounded convincing (talking of POW torture), but no one had any evidence to show." Wilbur said he was threatened 'just orally' during the 20 months he spent in solitary confinement at the 'Hanoi Hilton'. H also stated that he made anti-war broadcasts while in solitary, but that it was voluntary. These statements of non-torture have been confirmed by other POWs but they have not gotten the headlines.

Most of the POWs making statements about torture are career officers, shot down prior to 1969, and are still living in a time period of 5 to 9 years ago. The tenor of the nation then was a lot more hawkish; more pro-war. The military was not in revolt. They do not know or understand the changes that had ten place in the nation during those years. They are also the POWs who made the anti-war statements.

They would have to put a lot on the line to admit to making voluntary anti-war statements--their careers; their friends; and possibly their lives, through court martial for treason.

If the POWs were not tortured, then why are they now making statements condemning the Vietnamese for inhumane treatment? A look at the POWs making these allegations and a look at history answers this. After the Korean War, those former POWs who made anti-war statements were tried for treason.

There is one statement made by a released POW that bears some contemplation. Former Air Force Captain Chambers asked, "Had a North Vietnamese bomber bailed out over Pittsburgh, Pa., and just gotten through bombing some of the steel plants.. what do you think those steel workers would do to him...?"