MILITARY AND CIVILIAN PRISONERS 79951 HEARINGS BEFORE THE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS EIGHTY-FOURTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 19, 20, 26, AND 27, 1956 Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Operations UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1956 13. Chart, Some Features of People Who Have Been Especially 16. Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 30-101, Communist 17. Two books, Brainwashing and Brainwashing in Red China, 18. Document, Communist Patterns of Coercive Interrogation, *May be found in the files of the subcommittee. COMMUNIST INTERROGATION, INDOCTRINATION, AND EXPLOITATION OF AMERICAN CIVILIAN AND MILI TARY PRISONERS TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1956 UNITED STATES SENATE, PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS, OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10:20 a. m., pursuant to Senate Resolution 188, agreed to February 16, 1956, in Room 357, Senate Office Building, Senator John L. McClellan (chairman) presiding. Present: Senator John L. McClellan, Democrat, Arkansas, chairman; Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican, Wisconsin; Senator Karl E. Mundt, Republican, South Dakota; Senator George H. Bender, Republican, Ohio. Present also: Robert F. Kennedy, chief counsel; James N. Juliana, chief counsel to the minority; Donald F. O'Donnell, assistant chief counsel; Ruth Y. Watt, chief clerk. The CHAIRMAN. The subcommittee will come to order. This morning we are beginning a series of public hearings concerning the treatment of prisoners, both civilian and military, by various Communist governments. The subcommittee further expects to show the techniques that are employed by the Soviet Union in the handling of those of its prisoners accused of crimes against the state. All aspects will be fully explored, including the arrest procedure, the detention of the suspect, the imposed physical isolation, and the mental pressures that are applied. Because of the large number of prisoners, both civilian and military, that have been held by Communist China over the past 5 years, the subcommittee expects to place particular emphasis on the treatment of these individuals. During the 3 years of the Korean war some 7,190 Americans were captured by the Communists. Approximately one-third of this number died while in Communist hands. Of the 4,428 that survived and were repatriated, over 95 percent were subjected to a well-planned and well-organized campaign to destroy their belief in God, their loyalty to the United States and their faith in the democratic way of life. We expect to establish that the Chinese Communists, by their immoral, unethical and illegal methods of interrogation and indoctrination, attempted to create in the prison camps an environment of fear, confusion, and mutual distrust. By these series of hearings we expect to expose not only for the people here in the United States, but for the people throughout the 1 |