2. Accumulation of evidence by surveillance and informers which takes approximately 4 weeks. 3. Arrest and detention resulting in isolation and interrogation which embraces a period of approximately 7 or 8 weeks. 4. Confession (12th week). 5. Punishment 12 Thus, the Russian system generally allocates a period of a few weeks to several months, during which time the interrogator must obtain a confession from the prisoner. The emphasis in Russia is placed on interrogation and not on indoctrination as it is in the Chinese system. During the first period when the KGB is deciding about an individual he is under suspicion and close surveillance. This period usually lasts about 4 weeks. The party has decided that this man is a political enemy of the state, and it is trying to collect evidence against him. The individual, becoming aware of the investigation and the surveillance, grows anxious and fearful. The suspect becomes worried and filled with apprehension.18 When sufficient evidence has been collected by an interrogator, the person is arrested. This is effected quietly, usually in the middle of the night. The subject is not told the reason for his arrest. He is merely informed that he has committed some crime against the state and he knows what he has done. As a matter of fact, during the entire period of his imprisonment he may not be informed of any charges." For a period of time, usually 3 to 6 weeks, he is detained in complete isolation. This is a very fearful experience His room is small, being approximately 6 by 10 feet. The light is apt to be burning in the ceiling at all times. He has no contact with anyone other than the guard. He has no opportunities to consult with anyone. Often he may sleep only with his hands exposed outside the covers, lying rigidly on his back and then only at fixed hours. Toilet arrangements are inadequate and are arranged to disgust and embarrass the prisoners. His cell may be purposely a little too cold or a little too hot. Many form nationals find the food distasteful, although it is adequate according to Russian standards. The prisoner may be caused to stand in one position for up to 20 or 22 hours in which case he gets very severe joint and muscular pains. He is allowed only a short time for washing up. Sometimes he must eat with no utensils or must sit in a fixed position. If the prisoner has behaved in what is deemed an uncooperative manner, he may be allowed toilet privileges only at arbitrary and fixed times.15 What is the effect of all this? The prisoner initially goes through a period of being bewildered, demanding explanations, wanting to see people, and complaining. This lasts for a few days when he becomes more and more depressed and humiliated. He is bothered by anxiety, sleeplessness, boredom, fatigue, and hunger. After about the third week he usually experiences intense fatigue, drowsiness, and craving for companionship. Gradually, his period of isolation develops in him a feeling of despair. Living in the filth of his prison with no activity often creates delusions and hallucinations. He has a great need for companionship, a great need to talk.16 1 P. 11. 18 Pp. 14, 15. 14 P. 15. 15 Pp. 15, 17, 18. 16 Pp. 15, 17, 18. પ Now the work of the interrogator begins. The interrogator is usually a young man in his 20's or 30's who has no special training in psychology, psychiatry, neurophysiology, or any of the so-called scientific mind-study procedures. He has very little formal education beyond high school. However, he has had some formal training in being an interrogator and most importantly he is an individual with strong convictions about communism. The interrogator has his own problems. He must obtain a confession from the prisoner, and that confession must have certain elements of plausibility. At the same time he realizes that the prisoner is probably not guilty of the severe crimes to which he, the interrogator, is attempting to obtain a confession. However, he rationalizes his own conduct on the ground that he is serving communism and the state.17 The first thing the interrogator does is to befriend the prisoner. He reviews the prisoner's life history in great detail, asks about all sorts of personal incidents in his early life. From the beginning he persuades the prisoner that his sole aim is to help him. He tells him they know everything already and if he will cooperate and confess they can close this case. The prisoner is anxious to talk. The interrogator is never completely satisfied with the information that he receives and asks for more and more. Unimportant incidents in the life of the prisoners are gone into in great detail. Any discrepancy in the life story of the prisoner is interpreted as the prisoner being unfriendly and attempting to mislead and lie to his friend the interrogator.1 18 In stage 2 of the interrogation, episodes and incidents of the life history of the individual which the interrogator has now learned are used to harass the prisoner. He becomes upset and disorganized. At this point the interrogator may threaten to withdraw his interest or may use punitive methods against the prisoner. Punishment by the interrogator may be causing him to stand or sit in certain positions. The prisoner strives to please the interrogator and becomes increasingly suggestible. The prisoner then is alternatively rejected and befriended, which over a period of time causes a severe mental strain. It must be borne in mind that during this whole procedure the only contact that the prisoner has with any person is his inter.rogator.19 An important and vital personal relationship has been established for the prisoner. Now starts stage 3. The interrogator continues talking to the prisoner, suggesting half-truths and urging upon him that the only possible and correct solution is for him to confess. This particular technique is repeated until such time as the conversations between the interrogator and the prisoner convinces the latter that he should do as his interrogator suggests. The prisoner has become more and more amenable. He is tired, alone, and has no one to support him. He • rationalizes and accepts half-truths. With this rationalization he signs a confession and immediately is allowed rewards. He is permitted to sleep, to rest, and he is given better food. If, after this period of time, he recants on his confession, the case is reopened and he is again subjected to the entire series of treatments.20 17 P. 12. 18 P. 19. 19 P. 19. 20 Pp. 19, 20. The primary work of the interrogator has been to convince the prisoner that what he has done is a crime. With the advent of a successful confession the subject is now ready for trial and punishment." Testimony was received that well over 90 percent of the persons subjected to this treatment give confessions. There are those who never get to trial because they do not confess. These individuals are arbitrarily dealt with by the Russians or allowed to remain in detention for an unspecified period.22 Asiatic or Chinese methods Testimony revealed that the Chinese have adopted the methods used by the Russians with some modifications. The most important of these are as follows: 1. Under the Chinese system the timetable is quite different, as there is an attempt to produce a long-lasting change in the basic attitude and behavior of the prisoner. Thus, indoctrination plays a very important part in the Chinese methods. . 2. The prolonged isolation as used in Russia is not used in China. The Chinese emphasis is on group interaction as distinct from private isolation. Thus, in China, a prisoner is generally in a cell with 6 to 8 other political prisoners. 3. The Chinese use public self-criticism and group criticism for indoctrination as well as the use of diary writing as distinct from verbal discussions for the prisoner to give his autobiography.23 These are the main differences. However, there are some variations in detail. In China, after the period of surveillance and preparation for arrest, the individual is seized under most dramatic circumstances. The arrest is generally made by armed troops with a great amount of furor, and the prisoner is immediately taken before three judges who are also interrogators. At this time the prisoner gives them certain information.24 Because of the lack of facilities the prisoner may be subjected to so-called house arrest where he is kept under guard in his own home for weeks. Throughout this period of house arrest he is exposed to a certain amount of Communist indoctrination.25 Ultimately, he is taken to a detention house where he generally is. placed in a cell with 6 or 8 other political prisoners. This group is intensely competitive in attempting to bring to the newcomer evidences of his inadequacies and defects. He is exposed from morning until night to this hostile group which engages in self-criticism. He must participate. The prisoner has no privacy. The constant pressures leave him feeling defeated, humiliated, mentally dull, with a great need for talk and kindness. While he is rejected, reviled, humiliated, and brutalized by his fellow prisoners, he undergoes feelings of emotional nakedness and helplessness.26 During this period of time the prisoner is also subjected to interrogations by an interrogator. The writing of diaries and autobiographic material is one of the methods used by an interrogator in 21 P. 21. P. 20. 23 Pp. 23, 24. 24 Pp. 25, 26. 35 P. 26. 26 P. 26. obtaining information. Such writings are rejected numerous times. After a session with the interrogator the attitude of his fellow prisoners might be guided by the prisoner's appearance. Thus, if he is manacled the group bear down on him in an attempt to persuade him ⚫ to change his attitude and confess. In many cases, the group of fellow prisoners may beat him. There is increasing dejection, fatigue, sleep loss, pain, hunger, weight loss, mental dulling, and confusion. He is subjected to constant reading, discussion, and repetition of Communist material. All during this period of time he has intermittent sessions with one or more interrogators. He loses his capacity for making sharp discriminations.27 As a result of this constant treatment the prisoner ultimately prepares a confession. Its preparation to meet the demands of the interrogrator is extremely difficult. On many occasions the confession is rejected by the interrogator. A new confession must be prepared. This might be rejected. Actually, various confessions might be prepared from 3 to 6 times. Finally, by rationalization and partial beliefs he is able to properly prepare a confession which is accepted. During this entire period of time he must continue his study and discussion of Communist materials. He is now tried and punished. His imprisonment may have already lasted for an unusually long period of time, as much as 5 years. Unlike the Russian system, he may be given credit for his pretrial detention when he is officially tried and sentenced.28 The timetable as to Chinese prisoners is vastly different from that ✰ of the Russians. They are not only interested in getting a satisfactory confession, but they want to produce a different ideological attitude. They, therefore, through this rather long and arduous treatment attempt to convert the prisoner to communism.29 The Chinese interrogators are generally far less experienced and less knowledgeable about American and European people than the Russians.30 As soon as individual prisoners are released they, rather quickly, fall into a place in society not very different from that which they originally held. The effects of the imprisonment are transient, and the released prisoner nearly always rejects communism and all those connected with it.31 Dr. Wolff testified that it was his conviction that knowledge of the process and the steps involved in either the Russian or Chinese system is the most effective weapon against them. ARMY In December 1953 this subcommittee held hearings on "Korean war atrocities" wherein testimony was heard from a large number of soldiers who had been prisoners of war. Those prisoners who were not deliberately murdered at the time of capture were beaten, wounded, starved, and tortured. They were humiliated, molested, publicly displayed and ridiculed before the civilian populace. They were forced to march long distances without benefit of adequate food, water, P. 27. Pp. 27, 28. Pp. 30, 34. 85761-57 shelter, clothing, or medical care. Testimony during those hearings developed the circumstances surrounding the Hill 303 massacre, the Sunchon Tunnel massacre, the Taejon massacre, the Bamboo Spear Case, the Naedae murders, the Chaplain-Medic massacre, the Kaesong massacre, as well as forced marches of prisoners of war. The present investigation supplements those hearings. It has to do with the treatment afforded American prisoners by the Chinese Communists from the standpoint of interrogation, indoctrination, and exploitation. Testimony was received that 6,656 prisoners of war in the Korean conflict were members of the United States Army.32 Only 3,323 were repatriated to this country. The rest of the prisoners died, were murdered, or are still prisoners of the Chinese Communists. It is the official position of the United States Army that the procedures and practices employed by the Chinese captors were not brainwashing. In a pamphlet entitled "Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War," issued by the Department of the Army in May of 1956, the following appears on page 51: Reports of the treatment of American prisoners of war in Korea have given rise to several popular misconceptions, of which the most widely publicized is "brainwashing." The term itself has caught the public imagination and is used, very loosely, to describe any act committed against an individual by the Communists. Actual "brainwashing" is a pro longed psychological process, designed to erase an individual's past beliefs and concepts and to substitute new ones. It is a highly coercive practice which is irreconcilable with universally accepted medical ethics. In the process of "brainwashing," the efforts of many are directed against an individual. To be successful, it requires, among other things, that the individual be completely isolated from normal associations and environment. Several celebrated cases of authentic "brainwashing" have been reported during the last decade in Communist Europe and recently in China. However, it is obvious that such a time-consuming, conditioning process could not be employed against any sizable group, such as a prisoner-of-war group, because of the excessive time and personnel required. In Korea, American prisoners of war were subjected to group indoctrination, not "brainwashing." Many POW's were put in solitary confinement for various reasons, such as punishment for infractions of camp rules. However, this type of isolation was not used in conjunction with any "brainwashing" process. The exhaustive efforts of several Government agencies failed to reveal even one conclusively documented case of actual "brainwashing" of an American prisoner of war in Korea. [Italic supplied.] Essentially, the Chinese had four goals with regard to their prisoners of war. The first was to secure propaganda materials for psychological warfare efforts.34 The second goal was to extract 32 P. 8, "POW" The Fight Continues After the Battle, published by Department of Defense, August 1955. 33 P. 80. 34 P. 88. |