GERM WARFARE: FORGED EVIDENCE : Nov. 09, 1953

From Time Magazine
Nov. 09, 1953

Since the Russian purges of the late '30s, the civilized world has marveled uneasily at Communist ability to extract confessions from Communist victims. In the last months of the Korean war, Chinese Communist propaganda began distributing motion pictures and tape recordings of detailed confessions by U.S. airmen—mature, trained Air Force and Marine officers—that they had participated in germ warfare in North Korea. The recent return of these ex-prisoners offers the U.S. the best chance it has ever had to understand some Communist techniques for destroying truth.

Last week the Defense Department released a transcript of some of the bogus germ-warfare confessions, along with testimony given by the U.S. officers after they got back home. Excerpts:

Lieut. Floyd B. O'Neal, an Air Force bomber pilot, confesses to a Communist interrogator:

Communist Voice: The members of the International Scientific Commission interrogate Floyd Berlin O'Neal, 2nd lieutenant, USAFR.

O'Neal: The instructions which I have received in regard to bacteriological warfare consisted of two lectures. One lecture was given at Luke Air Force Base, which is in the United States at Phoenix, Arizona, on December ist, 1951 . . . The second lecture was at K-46, the base of the 18th Fighter Bomber group in Korea here. This lecture was given on the 22nd of January 1952.

Communist Voice: What did you feel like—what was your state of mind when you carried out this germ-warfare mission?

O'Neal: Frankly, I was, I think, the most nervous I have ever been in my life. I also felt like it was a funeral rather than a usual mission ... I know I was wondering myself why on earth we were using this terrible weapon in Korea even while the peace talks were going on at Kaesong . . . When I think of my future, when I think of some day—though I am not married yet, I intend to be—when my son asks me what I did in Korea, how can I tell him that I came over here and dropped germ bombs on people, destroying them, bringing death and destruction? How can I go back and face my family in a civilized world? How can I tell them these things, that I —I am a criminal in the eyes of humanity?

Back in the U.S., Lieut. O'Neal is interviewed by a U.S. official:

Q. Would you care to make a statement regarding charges?

O'Neal: I most certainly would. I would like to state that these charges are false and absurd. I did sign a confession relating to germ warfare, but the statements contained in this confession were false. They were obtained under duress from the Chinese Communists . . .

Q. Would you describe the method used by the Communist interrogators to secure these statements?

O'Neal: Yes. I would put these methods into two categories : physical torture, of a sort, and mental torture. The physical torture is not actually what we usually think of as physical torture, such as the rack and whippings. It consisted mainly of standing at attention, having my face slapped once in a while when I failed to respond to what they wanted me to. It consisted of being confined in a very close area; of being denied sanitation privileges at all times; of being fed very poor food, being fed unclean water, being denied medical facilities when I was ill ... In the end, I decided it was a case of my breaking down mentally, or perhaps physically, and so I decided I would give them the false confession which they wanted so very badly, apparently."

1st Lieut. Bobby E. Hammett, U.S. Air Force, back in the U.S., explains his germ-warfare confession to a U.S. interviewer:

Q. When were you captured, Lieutenant?

A. I was captured the eighth of June, 1952.

Q. Did they use any other methods to obtain your cooperation?

A. Well, they continued threatening me with death, never going home, and always being in solitary confinement. They made it pretty rough on me ... At Christmas time, they took me near a prisoner-of-war camp and they had all the boys singing Christmas carols, and they played up all the Christmas spirit, and, well, while the boys were singing Christmas carols on Christmas Day, an interrogator came in and started talking to me about home and family, and said I'd never be repatriated, never go home, and he even made me believe I was going to be killed if I didn't make this so-called confession. And—well, after he started telling me about my wife and family, and I was listening to the boys off in the background singing Christmas carols, it just got me. I couldn't stand it much longer, and I broke down and I cried for quite a while. I just couldn't control myself, and he just broke me down and worked on me mentally so much until I just couldn't stand it.

A Marine pilot, Colonel Frank H. Schwable, was shot down July 8, 1952, near Hwachon Reservoir. His analysis of Communist techniques is the clearest and most detailed:

Schwable: In attaining this false confession from me, I believe the Chinese Communists followed a definite preplanned pattern to break me down and condition me for this farce . . . The steps consisted of degrading and humiliating me, exhausting me physically and mentally, conditioning me to creative or false writing, intimidating and threatening me, and finally trying to contaminate my mind with wild slanders against my country, giving me false hopes or promises, and trying to instill in me a sense of war guilt that could be eradicated only by confessing . . .

During the preparatory period. I wallowed in the dirt and filth; I was purposely kept unshaven and denied haircuts to the point where I was filthy as a tramp. I under the constant surveillance of a guard who was never more than perhaps ten yards away, and who at night would awaken me at least hourly by shining his flashlight in my eyes until I woke up ... During the exhaustion phase. I was made to write continuously, over a period of about three weeks, from early morning until dark, always against a deadline, under pressure of two interrogators working on me simultaneously, writing largely on matters of military insignificant nature, such as our system of decorations and medals, or on out-of-date material that they knew I could not remember with any accuracy had I tried, such as describing in detail my flight instruction, which I had taken 21 years before.

I believe they were merely trying to wear me out completely, which they did. and to break down my natural repugnance to lies, since the only way I could satisfy most of their demands was to create in my mind answers to their questions . . .

When the Chinese Communists first broached me on the subject of germ warfare in Korea and China, I could not believe they were serious, since I was certain that I would have had some inkling of it had any U.S. forces actually employed this means of warfare . . . When they insisted beyond all reason and logic and just plain common sense that germ warfare was being used in my own units, then I was convinced that everything they said on the subject was an utter lie, that they didn't believe it themselves, but that they were going to carry out orders from higher authority to extract a false statement from me one way or another.

And upon this false, fraudulent and, in places, absurd confession, I now stand formally convicted by the Korean Democratic People's Republic as a war criminal, being notified of this fact at a solemn ceremony conducted before four Chinese and one Korean officer on September 3, 1953, just prior to my departure from the Yalu River area for Panmunjom and freedom.

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