Welcome to Freedom

Rain during the night had settled the dust of the Korean roads, and the buses and Russian-made ambulances lumbering down from Kaesong to Panmunjom stirred up no clouds. The first man on the U.N. side to spot them was a U.S. soldier in a front line observation post, outside the Panmunjom neutral area, who was watching through field glasses. Artillery whined and smacked in the nearby hills.

Seven Communist ambulances preceded by two jeeps arrived first at the exchange site. Red officers hopped out of the jeeps and handed over lists of the U.N. prisoners they were returning. The men inside the vehicles waited patiently, pressing pale faces against the glass. Several drank wine from bottles, some joked and shouted; most were silent. The Reds released 50 South Koreans first, and they walked stolidly to their reception center. Then a Chinese medical attendant in a white coat, surgical mask and black boots threw open the double doors of an ambulance, and the first Americans appeared. They were wearing blue jackets and jumper pants, blue caps, and they carried blue blankets--specially issued for the occasion. A big sign erected by G.I.s told them where to go: "Welcome gate to freedom."

The first U.S. soldier across the line was Private Carl W. Kirchenhausen of New York City, who was drafted two years ago, and whose father [now dead] had fled from Hitler's Germany to New York. He faced a battery of cameras with dull, bloodshot eyes, then ducked into the reception tent. Once there, he said stolidly: "I'm glad it came true."

Salute for a Pfc. By11 a.m. all of the 100 U.N. soldiers had been delivered. The non-Koreans included 30 Americans, twelve British, four Turks, one each from Canada, the Philippines, South Africa, Greece. Among these were four stretcher cases--three Americans and one Turk.

Medics, doctors, nurses and some among the 140 newsmen watched them with tears in their eyes. The stretcher cases were taken by helicopter to the advance base at Munsan, where a mobile surgical hospital had been erected; the walking patients went by ambulance. The first man to reach Munsan was Pfc. Robert Stell, a Baltimore Negro. General Mark Clark, who was waiting at Munsan to greet the returnees, saluted Stell and made a move to adjust his robe, but a medic beat the general to it. After medical and intelligence processing, the men were offered cigarettes, Cokes, milk shakes, steak. Some found steak too rich for them.

Red Contamination. Meanwhile, some 500 enemy prisoners, brought up by train from Pusan, were being handed over at Panmunjom to the Communists, who had set up eight large white tents and seven smaller ones to receive them. Among these there had been some disturbances--apparently a last attempt to throw mud on the U.N. A group of Chinese, most of them pitiful cripples, had momentarily refused to disembark from an LST at Pusan.

Others of the Red returnees had ripped their new clothing, slashed tarpaulins on trucks, refused to eat, thrown away soap, cigarettes and toothpaste wrapped in Red propaganda. But on the train a group of Chinese behaved well and even thanked the U.S. car commander for kind treatment. At Panmunjom the delivery was orderly, as the Communist prisoners vanished from the free world's ken.

The South Korean government, which feared Communist contamination among its returnees, announced that they would be sequestered for six months of "reindoctrination." Of the 30 Americans returned on the first day, nine were refused permission to talk, only one or two because of serious physical condition.

"Unbelievably Poor." The 21 U.S. returnees who talked told mixed stories.

Most said they had been reasonably well treated. One said the Communists had given permission to hold Bible classes and church services, and that in his compound there had been no forced labor. But a returned officer, Lieut. Roy Jones of Minneapolis, who was captured early in the war, said that Communist treatment of the prisoners was "unbelievably poor" before the truce talks began, improved later. "I refer in particular to food, housing, clothing and the conditions under which men were forced to travel. It certainly feels wonderful to be a free man again."

Had the Communists made attempts at indoctrination? Yes. Two returnees said that ideology classes had been compulsory for several months, were later made voluntary. Did some of the prisoners continue to attend on a voluntary basis? "Well," said the returnee, "some of them did."

No More Dreams. For the second day, the Reds promised 35 more Americans, twelve British, three Turks, 50 South Koreans. Some of the Americans exchanged on the first day wondered why they had been picked, when others suffering worse injuries or ailments had been left behind. They seemed unable to realize that they were free. When Pfc. David W. Ludlum of Fort Wayne, Ind. was asked what he looked forward to, he answered: "I haven't been doing much thinking lately. I did all my dreaming a long time ago."

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