Taiwan Today

Prisoners who gained freedom at the end of the Korean War want to join missions to liberate Americans in N. Vietnam

Last November's U.S. commando attempt to rescue war prisoners from a North Vietnamese prison camp at Son Tay stirred up considerable excite­ment in Taiwan. Chinese who were POWs in Korea during the 1950-53 war got together and discussed plans for submission of a petition that they be per­mitted to volunteer for any further such missions of mercy.

One of them, Wang Fu-tien, who is now working with refugees and freedom fighters, said thousands of his fellow former POWs would sign up without hesitation if they had a chance to try to rescue any of the nearly 400 Americans held in North Vietnamese camps and prisons. Wang admitted that the Amer­icans probably would not agree to include free Chi­nese volunteers, but said those who chose freedom in Korea should volunteer anyway. He said an in­stant and enthusiastic response is certain.

On November 25, Thanksgiving Day eve, President Nixon quoted Admiral Thomas Moore, chair­man of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, as having told him that thousands were ready to volunteer for an operation to pluck American prisoners from their cells in North Vietnam. Admiral Moore had American volunteers in mind, Wang said, but added that the ex-POWs of Taiwan are just as concerned as Amer­icans.

Thanksgiving Day of 1970 was just 20 years after the Yalu River crossing by some 200,000 Chinese Communist "volunteers" to fight in the Korean War. Two decades is a long time. Nevertheless, the more than 14,000 Chinese who chose freedom in Taiwan at the end of the Korean conflict have forgotten noth­ing. These "witnesses of freedom" still have vivid recollections of the Chinese mainland as they knew it under Communist rule. Their hatred of the Reds, often expressed in words tattooed on their bodies, has been further sharpened by knowledge of the sub­sequent atrocities of Mao Tse-tung and his followers.

These men spent months in detention camps. They know what it is to be deprived of liberty. Today, as in 1953-54, they view the restoring of liberty to enslaved fellow countrymen on the Chinese mainland as their sacred duty.

They have not forgotten the high price paid by others for their freedom. Four million military and civilian casualties were suffered during the 37-month Korean conflict. Included were 33,629 American battle deaths - 23,3000 killed in action, 2,501 dead of battle wounds, 5,127 missing and presumed dead and 2,701 who died as captives of the Communists.

None of the ex-POWs has forgotten that the United States and other United Nations forces gave them their chance for freedom. Not all of the 14,000 are wealthy. Not all are happy and satisfied. But to a man they are convinced they made the right de­cision. 1bey had seen Communist slavery clamped on their homeland. To go back to the mainland would have meant slavery at the best or torture and death at the worst.

According to compilations from Communist sources, more than 43,400,000 Chinese had been liquidated by the Chinese Communists on the mainland in the four years up to November of 1953, when the POWs in the hands of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission were undergoing the brainwashing of Communist "explainers."

Chinese Communists entered the Korean War a year after establishing their illegal regime at Peiping. Mao was just getting a good start on home front atrocities when his so-called volunteers were pushed across the Yalu. These soldiers were better fed and clothed than the majority of mainland people. Yet many of them, including Wang Fu-tien, surrendered as soon as they encountered U.N. forces. Of the more than 20,000 captured Chinese Communist soldiers, nearly three quarters refused to be sent back to the mainland.

Ignoring Communist enticement and defying intimidation, they chose a new life in the free China island bastion of Taiwan. Ninety per cent of them signed up for service in the armed forces in order to take part in mainland recovery operations against the Communists. Of those who joined the military, about 3000 have now retired. However, all of the 14,000 ex-POWs, many of them now only 40 years old, arc still actively contributing to the free Chinese cause.

Once a year on January 23, thousands of these freedom fighters take part in a Freedom Day rally to mark their release from detention camps in 1954. In this way they renew and strengthen their adherence to the anti-Communist cause and their determination to continue to play a role in rescuing those who had to be left behind.

The Freedom Day movement to enhance human dignity and encourage mankind's struggle for freedom has countered attempts at enslavement and has won widespread support among free and democratic nations. Consequently, the World Anti-Communist League de­cided in 1968 to observe January 23 as "World Freedom Day."

In the words of President Chiang Kai-shek, the growth of this movement "bears witness to the rising unity of the world's anti-Communist forces" and the determination and fighting spirit of enslaved peoples "have been heightened immeasurably in their quest for liberty."

President Chiang has also said of Freedom Day:

"The triumph of freedom and defeat of slavery are immutably ordained. History supplies the un­deniable proof. However, peace is not to be obtained by procrastination. Freedom has to be won by apply­ing moral strength to the struggle. We need to unite all our brethren at home and abroad, military and civilian alike, and provide opportunity for every in­dividual to contribute his or her wisdom and strength. All of us must dedicate ourselves absolutely and heroically to the cause of the Anti-Mao and National Salvation Front."

Vice President-Prime Minister C.K. Yen is a Freedom Day speaker. "No one can deny that the Freedom Day movement has profoundly influenced the worldwide anti-Communist struggle," he has said. "Even so, humankind remains half slave and half free. Those of us who stand on the far frontiers of the world anti-Communist movement have responsibility for reminding all mankind of the necessity to heighten its anti-Communist viligance so as to safeguard world peace and human freedom."

Yen suggested the following three points of re­ference:

- The free world must be warned again that "both the Chinese and Russian Communists are pursuing the goal of global communization. With world peace and the freedom of humankind subjected to such imperilment, no single nation or people can exist in isolated security."

- The Mao regime's aggressiveness should be made known to all. "If any country now entertains the illusion of making friends with the Chinese Communists, it can only invite endless trouble for itself and prolong the suffering of the 700 million Chinese people shut behind the Bamboo Curtain. We have reason to ask that all free countries distinguish friends from enemies, recognize their own self-interest and dis­interest, and abandon any false hope that the Chinese Communists can be appeased."

- As pointed out by President Chiang, Chinese mainland recovery and annihilation of Maoists are the "common obligation and unceasing dedication of the Chinese people." Ail the Chinese people must "bring the totality of our strength together for the common struggle. "

This year's World Freedom Day rally in Taipei is of special significance because of the presence of Miss Juanita Castro as a speaker. The sister of Cuba's Communist dictator Fidel Castro, she helped her brother in his revolutionary activities but in 1964 chose the road of exile and now operates the Marta Abreu Foundation in Miami, a nonprofit organization to help refugees from Communist terror.

Miss Castro has been telling the world of Cuba's misfortune. She knew most of her brother's plans and is fulfilling a duty to her conscience in denouncing them. "Victory over Communism first and then world peace," she has been telling the citizens of many lands. Her presence in Taipei is an inspiring experience for the free Chinese and for the 14,000 ex-POWs.

The 37-month Korean conflict is generally divid­ed into three phases:

1. The war in the first five months—June 25 to November 25, 1950—was one of movement. The Reds' southward drive was checked by U.S. and allied troops. A brilliant landing was made by U.S. Marines at Inchon September 15. Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, was taken October 20. The U.S. 7th Division reached the Yalu River bordering the Communist-occupied northeastern provinces of China November 20.

2. Phase Two—6½ months from November 26, 1950, to July 9, 1951-brought an entirely new war and then a stalemate. Counterattack by 200,000 Chinese Communist "volunteers," who started crossing the Yalu on November 26, forced evacuation of 105,­000 U.N. troops and 91,000 Korean civilians at Hung­nam December 24. The Chinese crossed the 38th parallel and drove 70 miles into South Korea. The U.N. General Assembly on February 1,1951, named the Peiping 1egime an aggressor in Korea. U.N. troops pushed the Chinese Reds back across the 38th parallel on April 3 and stopped an offensive by 600,­000 Chinese April 22-30. General MacArthur was removed from command on April 11.

3. The war thereafter was one of position. Negotiations for a truce started July 10, 1951, and the Armistice was signed 20½ months later, on July 27 of 1953, at the 159th and final plenary session of the Korean Military Armistice Conference.

Release of prisoners who refused to go back to their own side did not come until half a year later. peadlock over the POW repatriation issue at the Panrnunjom truce talks had prolonged the war by 15 months.

That POWs might choose freedom was a consistent principle upheld by the United Nations. This principle of voluntary repatriation became a ceasefire condition from which the U.N. Command would not retreat. All peace-loving peoples of the world gave support to the concept.

The world eventually came to know that in their Korean War aggression, the Chinese and Korean Communists employed the most barbaric of methods in dealing with captured U.N. and ROK personnel. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were shot in cold blood, bayoneted, starved or allowed to die of cold, disease and exhaustion.

There were at least 81 separate death marches, always in the depth of winter, and an estimated 1,940 prisoners died by the roadside or in camps. Thousands of civilians were massacred for political reasons.

Perpetrators of these atrocities disregarded all precepts of international law and the most elementary feelings of human decency. The Communists employ­ed mass murder as an instrument of policy. Theirs was a program of brutalization to terrorize free men into submission.

These were atrocities committed without refer­ence to the nationality or race of the victims. The rationale was wholly political. Citizens of Belgium, Turkey, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States were victims. Soldiers and civilians of the Republic of Korea were murdered by the Korean and Chinese Communists as well as Americans, Britains, Turks, Belgians and others.

From early 1951 to the end of the war, U.N. Command prisoners ill North Korea were subjected to brainwashing in an unending effort to convert them to Communism. Prisoners were told that the war was part of a historical process that would not end until the final and inevitable victory of Communism.

At Panmunjom, U.N. representatives insisted on voluntary repatriation, while the Reds demanded that POWs be forcibly repatriated. The terms finally ham­mered out under Article III of the Armistice Agreement included these provisions:

- Repatriation of all POWs desiring it within 60 days after signing of the Armistice.

- Turning over remaining POWs to the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission in the Demilitarized Zone and made up of one member each from Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia and India.

- NNRC arrangement for a 90-day "explanation" period in which "the nations to which the POWs belong shall have freedom and facilities to send repre­sentatives to the location where such POWs are in custody to explain to all the POWs depending upon these nations their rights and to inform them of any matter relating to their return to their homeland, particularly of their full freedom to return home to lead a peaceful life."

The exchange of prisoners wishing to be sent home started on August 5, 1953, a week after the Armistice became effective. In this "Big Switch," 75,799 prisoners were returned to the Communists but including only 5,640 of the 20,000 Chinese in U.N. hands.

At the same time, 12,760 U.N. prisoners were returned from the North, including nearly 3,600 A­mericans and 946 Britons. The full story of the Yalu camps and the extent of the indoctrination program at last became known. The sick and wounded - 6,670 Communists and 684 U.N. personnel-had already been repatriated in the "Little Switch" of late April.

Soon after the end of "Big Switch" on September 6, the U.N. Command completed transfer to NNRC and the Indian Custodial Force of 22,000 Chinese and North Korean nonrepatriates, while the Communists delivered 359 former U.N. personnel who did not wish to return home, including 23 Americans and one Briton. Explanations by the repatriation missions proceeded in a spirit of violence as anti-Communist prisoners attacked "explainers" from Peiping and Pyongyang.

The 90-day period for explanations should have begun on September 25 but did not get under way until October 15 because of wrangling over the facilities each side was to provide for explanation teams from the other side. By the end of September, Amer­ican engineers, under the eyes of Indian custodial: troops, had put up 16 large tents which could hold at least 25 POWs on one side of a barricade and 25 explainers and observers on the other. The Com­munists had constructed only 5 small huts, each 9 by 15 feet. While the U.N. Command demanded that the Red-provided facilities be moved to a new location, the Reds asked for 28 additional tents.

When everything was ready, this was the way the anti-Communist Chinese POWs faced their ex­plainers:

- As POWs shuffled toward "explanation" tents, compatriots banged pans and canteens and shouted "Death to Mao Tse-tung."

- On their way to the assigned tents, POWs held by the UNC shouted out that they didn't need ex­planations and that they were determined to join the anti-Communist side.

- Once in the tents, they covered their ears with their hands, refused to sit down and stood with their backs toward Communist explainers. Many of them ridiculed, cursed and insulted the Communists.

NNRC said on November 16 that 942 Chinese POWs had undergone the process of explanation on October 15 and 17 and November 4 and 5, and that 24 of them had changed their minds. As late as December 19, the Communists demanded the NNRC conduct inmates to a hand-picked explanation compound. In three days-December 21 to 23-they faced 742 Chinese POWs but only 92 were intimidated into returning to Communism.

In total, only 11 per cent of the nonrepatriates were subjected to brainwashing and less than 7 per cent of these changed their minds. For the Communists, the explanation sessions were successful in a fraction of 1 per cent of cases. The Communists finally had no alternative except to give up.

Pledging loyalty to the Republic of China, the Chinese POWs had anti-Communist slogans and pictures tattooed on their arms and bodies and sent President Chiang a foot-wide Chinese national flag painted in blood. They also sent petitions bearing bloody fingerprints to the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Command.

On August 2 of 1953, President Chiang sent a message to the POWs to assure them the Republic of China would continue to fight for their freedom on a basis of voluntary repatriation. He asked the POWs to be patient and to cooperate with the U.N. Command.

Riots and demonstrations were instigated by the Communists. On October 1, in quelling a riot touched off by a Czech and Polish inspection team, the Indian custodial troops fatally shot one North Korean anti-Communist POW and wounded five others. Another riot in which two Chinese were killed and five wound­ed erupted the following day.

The Free China Committee for Aiding Anti­-Communist Chinese POWs in Korea, composed of 448 civic bodies in Taiwan, held a mass rally in Taipei on October 7 to protest against treatment of anti-Communist prisoners. The committee and member units cabled their views to the United Nations, the U.N. Command and the Presidents of the United States and the Republic of Korea. Visiting groups and relief goods were sent to Korea. By mid-December, mo than a million people in Taiwan had pledged support of the anti-Communist POWs.

In a broadcast on December 17, Madame Chiang Kai-shek said:

"For our country and for the cause of freedom, you have gone through a long, dark life-and-death struggle in Korea. During brainwashing by the Communist enemy, you have demonstrated to the whole world by your heartbreakingly heroic actions and firm determination our national spirit and the sense of righteousness. You have further verified the truth and your faith in what President Chiang has said: 'The traitors will be annihilated and the anti-Communist fight will triumph."

Madame Chiang said "the bitter winter will soon pass and spring is on its way." She added that all the people in free China are "praying for you and arc solidly behind you."

Under the Armistice Agreement, explanations supervised by the NNRC came to an end December 23. The Indian chairman of the commission, Brig. Gen. K.S. Thimayya, decided that as the scheduled political conference had not met, he would return nonrepatriates to their previous custodians on January 20.

The U.N. Command said that in accordance with the truce agreement, all prisoners had been promised civilian status 180 days after the Armistice signing and that nonrepatriates would be released at midnight January 22, 1954.

Despite Communist protests, 21,809 prisoners­ - 14,227 Chinese and 7,582 Korean - marched out of the demilitarized zone and across "Freedom Bridge" over the Imjin River to freedom on January 20. At one minute after zero hour on January 23, the nonrepatriates became civilians. The Chinese prepared to sail to Taiwan from Inchon and the Koreans reported to ROK authorities.

More than 100,000 persons gathered at a "Freedom Day" rally in Taipei January 23. On the same day, 111 sick and wounded Chinese ex-POWs arrived in Taiwan to receive a rousing welcome. Two days later, on January 25, the first group of 4,687 newly freed ex-POWs reached Taiwan. The second group of 4,515 arrived on January 26. Operation "Come Home" was completed on January 27 and an official announcement said 14,556 persons had been set free.

In a statement of January 24 President Chiang said:

"The spontaneous outbursts of joy and triumph on Freedom Day throughout free China bespeak the warmth and admiration with which all freedom-loving Chinese welcome their brethren back from Korea. These stout-hearted men made history when they rejected Communism in favor of freedom at the risk of their lives. The vehemence and determination with which they objected to being returned to Communist enslavement leaves no room for doubt that, were the people on the mainland given the same chance, they, too, would not hesitate to fight for their freedom in the same heroic manner as has been demonstrated by these compatriots.

"The U.N. General Assembly is to be congratulat­ed for having adopted the principle of voluntary repatriation for the POWs in Korea in accordance with the spirit underlying the U.N. Charter. The successful implementation of the U.N. resolution clearly shows that in the struggle between Communist totalitarianism and democratic freedom, the initiative has been wrested from Communist totalitarianism through the firmness and united effort of the democracies.

"The test of world statesmanship lies in the ability to hold that initiative and to develop it in the interests of world peace. Firmness, strength and solidarity are the only means with which we can deal with the Communists. It is my conviction that the Communists would come to our terms if only the democracies had unity of purpose and immediacy of concerted action. On this memorable day, I pledge once again that my government and people will continue to contribute our share towards the unity of democracies and the eventual victory of our common cause."

Newspapers throughout the free world editorially praised the heroism of the anti-Communist POWs. These are some examples:

- New York Times: "A new principle of explosive potentialities for the Communist world was established and affirmed by irrevocable precedent, when nearly 22,000 cheering, singing, flag-waving Chinese and Korean anti-Communists marched out of their prison camps to freedom and a warm welcome from the free people they had been forced to fight .... The liberation of these prisoners is a great victory for the U.N. and the U.S., which fought for this even at the price of prolonging the Korean War. It is a great blow to the Communist world, for it means that the Communist obligarchs can never again be certain of their hold over subjects who now know that they can find freedom in the free world."

- New York Herald Tribune: "It was a strange and moving sight as thousands of blue-clad Chinese and Koreans began their march to freedom from the camps at Panmunjom. There were songs and cheers, improvised banners and makeshift drum and bugle bands-neither the lowering clouds nor the drifting smoke from burning tents could mar the day…. " There was something more than mere joy at impending release in the march of the prisoners southward from Panmunjom. A distinct note of triumph was in the air-rightly so. Communism had received a heavy blow in the eyes of all the world."

- Philadelphia Inquirer: "Thousands of Chinese and North Korean anti-Communists yesterday came to the end of a trail that goes back more than two years to the Korean Armistice negotiations at Panmunjom. At the end of that trail was freedom for 7,600 North Koreans and more than 14,000 Chinese Communists. At the trail's end, too, were new achievements in humanitarianism, a thundering propaganda victory for the free world."

- San Francisco Chronicle: "The Communists have lost face, and the champions of freedom have gained stature. If the Communists will not soon forget it, neither will those who have yet to choose between the two ideologies competing in the world market­place."

The Korean War was no ordinary war. It was one in which the stake was a way of life. The cost was great but a new principle was written into history.

The more than 14,000 Chinese ex-POWs who of their own free will elected to be received by the gov­ernment of the Republic of China in Taiwan rather than return to Communism represented a cross-section of the hundreds of millions of people on the Chinese mainland. Seventeen years ago this meant that the mainland was not irretrievably lost to Communism as some people were already imagining. This is even more true today, after all Communist evils and main­land misery.

Appeasers of the free world should rub the dust out of their eyes and realize that the Communists have been holding the Chinese mainland not by the will of the people but by sheer brute force. Recognition of Peiping would allow aggressors to determine the course of civilization and eventually destroy civilized society.

Those who cherish the spirit of freedom and seek the right to determine their own destiny should re­member the 22,000 Chinese and Korean ex-POWs who could not be bought with the most lavish promises of the Communists.