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The Missing. The Communists said they were returning 12,763 prisoners, including 3,313 Americans. Were they holding out on others? Major John Daujat, the officer who had shouted out his identity to reporters from the truck, said that the Communists, since the truce, had sentenced an American officer to a year in prison for "instigating against the peace." Other returning prisoners said that a few of their fellow Americans had refused repatriation. Others were being held for "war crimes" trials. At week's end, the State Department said it was "gravely concerned" at these reports, and announced that it expects all prisoners in Communist hands to be repatriated or turned over to the neutral repatriation commission, where they will have a chance to tell their own story. "If those prisoners don't get back," said John Foster Dulles, who watched the repatriates arrive at Freedom Village, the U.S. will "adopt reciprocal measures."
The Pentagon lists 8,705 servicemen missing in action. No one yet knows how many of them died anonymously on the battlefield, their bodies never found; how many died of cold, disease, neglect or ill treatment in Communist camps; or how many may still be held by the Communists alive and unlisted. General Mark Clark said he does not know for sure, but information "leads us to believe they have more."