Out of the Shadows

Tito relaxed his talons, and the three American G.I.s and their mongrel mascot, which had shared their Yugoslav captivity with them, marched back to freedom. The Yugoslavs made the snatch last week while feeling out how far they could bluff the thin line of U.S. troops into bending back the new Yugoslav-Trieste frontier which they were guarding.

In Trieste, once more in the world of free men, the three released Americans, Lieut. William Van Atten, Pfc. Glen A. Meyer and Pfc. Earl G. Hendrick Jr., told their story of five days in the Yugoslav shadows.

The Yugos had quizzed them for hours, harangued them on Russia's power, vainly tried to make them talk about U.S. military strength and U.S. political intentions in Trieste. To such questions, the Americans gave a routine, unenlightening reply: their name, rank and serial numbers.

At one point, the Yugoslavs whipped out pictures of Lenin, Stalin and Tito and asked the Americans to identify them. Later they brought their captives a table, chairs and a chess game.

Said Lieut. Van Atten: "The most surprising thing about the whole incident was the extreme belligerency of the Yugoslavs in seizing us and then the contrasting careful way they treated us before our release. Boy! They really handled us with kid gloves during our detention."

Perhaps moderating orders had reached Belgrade from Moscow. For if Vishinsky's U.N. tantrum (TIME, Sept. 29) proved anything, it proved that Russia did not want war now, and was trading vituperation for time. What the seizure of the three Americans at Trieste proved was that Russian aggression had made several frontier situations in Europe so hair-trigger that a hotheaded act on either side could cause shooting which might be very hard to stop again.

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