Miscellany

“Welcome to Freedom Village”

Helen Mears

Much has been written about the failure of the West to gain the “minds and hearts” of Asia. The major reason for this failure, however, is ignored: the extreme divergence of U. S. practice from U. S. ideology.

Consider the Korean prisoner-of-war episode. For two and a half years of war, negotiations for a truce were delayed ostensibly because the Western powers insisted on the humanitarian principle of “voluntary repatriation” which our press interpreted as meaning that prisoners of war, when released by their captors, should be “free” ; that they need not return to “death and slavery” ; that they should become civilians with a “free choice” for their future.

Well, the anti-Communist POWs are “free.” In the name of the UN, General John E. Hull issued a proclamation to that effect one minute after midnight on January 22, 1954. Praising these now free men for having resisted the Communist blandishments, General Hull said that they are “living symbols providing hope for freedom to millions who still suffer under Communist oppression.” James S. Wadsworth, deputy U. S. Representative to the UN, said that “the free world has proved that it will not break faith with those who stand for freedom against slavery,” and added that the release of the prisoners was “a beacon of new hope to millions now living under Communist tyranny.” In Washington Secretary Dulles declared:

The prisoners of war in Korea who do not desire to be repatriated are now being released and will revert to civilian status punctually in accordance with the terms of the Armistice Agreement. We can take great satisfaction from that fact. Oftentimes doubt has been expressed as to whether this release would actually happen. Now it has happened, and we can all rejoice that human dignity and the rights of the individual are being respected. A new principle of humanity has been written into the hard rules of war. We have stood fast for the right, and it has prevailed.

It seems not to occur to us to compare the actual fate of these released prisoners with our inspirational description. Has the U. S. actually “written a new principle of humanity?” Has it really provided “new hope to millions now living under Communist tyranny?”

What is to become of these newly “free” men, these “living symbols” of Western humanism? An AP dispatch from Seoul provides a clue:

“Only one-third of the anti-Communist Korean prisoners who were turned over to the UN command have expressed a desire to join the ROK army… This small number comes as a surprise to the ROK which estimated as high as 90 per cent would join the Army. A source that can not be identified said the Government was so shocked it was making al...