ALL the plans for their homecoming were aimed at protecting and pampering some fragile survivors. The exuberance of the 143 American prisoners making their way home last week indicated that the official solicitude may have been unnecessary.
Elaborately bland hospital menus were torn up as the men wolfed down their first American food in years. Some were painfully limping as they returned, most were gray-faced and underweight, and a few seemed a little dazed. But the majority of the men, on first inspection, seemed physically fit, emotionally taut and almost boyishly delighted by...