(3 of 3)
The committee was gratified that few indeed of the P.W.s became Communist converts, but found that many more of the P.W.s who were not "progressives" nonetheless "went along." The committee concluded that these men weakened because they lacked sufficient knowledge of U.S. democracy. The committee therefore recommended, and President Eisenhower agreed, that U.S. fighting men must henceforth be fully grounded in the principles of U.S. democracy before they go to war, because "the Korean story 'must never be permitted to happen again."
Trial by Interrogation. The committee inquired into cases of Communist torture, into the effect of psychological pressures like the simple denial of food and sleep—perhaps the most effective tongue-looseners of all. The committee found that for the P.W.s of Korea "the ordeal was never easy. But things weren't easy either for the combat troops battling out there in the trenches."
The committee could detect no rigid pattern of Communist interrogation, and was often impressed by the inconsistencies of the Communist enemy. "Sometimes he showed contempt for the man who readily submitted to bullying. The prisoner who stood up to the bluster, threats and blows . . . might be dismissed with a shrug ..." Some of the P.W.s who appeased the Communists by giving them "biographical sketches" later found that the Communists used the documents against them, punishing them for "lying"; many of those who signed confessions were later informed that they were liable for new prosecution as war criminals.
The Safeguard of Character. In the course of its inquiries the committee came across a lot of evidence to confirm what every experienced serviceman and ex-serviceman knows: that pride in one's unit is the cement, whether at base, in the line, or in P.W. camps of Korea. "Many servicemen exhibited pride in themselves and their units," the committee reported, discussing the one encouraging portent of the P.W. camps. "This was particularly pronounced where they had belonged to the same unit for years. They stood by one another . . . If a soldier were sick, his fellow soldiers took care of him. They washed his clothes, bathed him, and pulled him through. These soldiers did not let each other down. Nor could the Korean Reds win much cooperation from them."
The committee thereupon concluded: "War has been defined as a contest of wills. A trained hand holds the weapon. But the will, the character, the spirit of the individual—these control the hand. More than ever, in the war for the minds of men, moral character, will, spirit are important. As a serviceman thinketh, so is he."
*The highest death rate among U.S. prisoners since the Revolutionary War. During the Civil War, 14% of the Union's P.W.s died in Confederate captivity, including 26% of the 49,485 prisoners at Andersonville, Ga. During World War I, 4,120 U.S. soldiers were captured, but only 147 died in the German Kaiser's prison camps. During World War II, the toll was 14,090 out of 129,701 U.S. prisoners —a cruel 10.9%; 10,031 out of 26,943 U.S. Army and Air Force prisoners died in the hands of the Japanese—37%—while only 1,238 out of 96,321 Army and Air Force prisoners died in the European and Mediterranean theaters.