Friend in Dresden

Day after day, solemn, black-browed Seymour ("Top") Topping, 36, chief of the Associated Press Bureau in Berlin, pestered officials of Communist East Germany for a seemingly impossible story: an interview with the nine U.S. soldiers held incommunicado in East Germany since their helicopter was forced down last month (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). One night last week Topping's phone rang, and a voice said with no explanation: "Please come to the East Berlin Foreign Ministry tomorrow morning at 0845."

At the ministry next morning, Topping was greeted by a press officer: "I am happy to advise you that your request to see your countrymen has been granted." Then, disconcertingly, in walked eight other journalists, representatives of various Communist newspapers in East Germany and Western Europe. Topping was the only American present. Bundled into four limousines, the party whisked over the Autobahn south of Berlin, while the Communist hosts shrugged off questions on their destination.

When the caravan stopped 100 miles away before an aging villa in Dresden, Topping, as a "guest," was allowed to lead the way inside, came suddenly face to face with the nine American prisoners. Some were dressed, some were in underwear, and all were obviously startled to find they had visitors. Before any loaded question could be asked or rash answer given, Topping quickly dug his Defense Department credentials card from his hip pocket, flashed it before the eyes of his suspicious compatriots and said: "Topping, Associated Press. May I see your senior officer?" Out of the group stepped Major George Kemper. Topping, a World War II infantry captain, promptly warned the major that the other newsmen were Communists and added: "I suggest you and your group get together and decide whether you want to hold a press conference and, if so, what you would like to say."

Topping's tactic worked. The Communists left the prisoners alone. Wisely the armymen agreed that Major Kemper would be their spokesman.

It was quickly evident that Kemper had no idea the Communists were using the Americans as hostages to pressure the State Department into recognition of the East German government. When Topping asked permission to present the facts of the case to Kemper so he could answer questions intelligently, he was cut off with: "No statements." But a Communist official promptly made a statement of his own: "The German Democratic Republic is making no political conditions for your release. It is the American side that is making the conditions."

Topping tried to get some data to Kemper by asking rambling, fact-studded questions. Then, while the Red cameramen changed film, Topping moved close to Kemper and quickly briefed him sotto voce on the case and the State Department's protests to the Communists. The major was clearly relieved that he and his men had not been forgotten, and Topping had his exclusive story--one that both the A.P. and his countrymen could view with pride.

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