Broken Soldiers

Drawing on some 60,000 pages of court-martial transcripts Lech secured through the Freedom of Information Act, Broken Soldiers documents the appalling treatment and the sophisticated propagandizing to which American POWs fell victim during the Korean conflict. Three thousand American soldiers perished in North Korean camps over the winter of 1950-51, most from starvation. Through the unsentimental testimony of survivors, Lech describes how these young men, filthy and lice-infested, lost an average of 40 percent of their body weight. Many also lost their powers of resistance and their grip on soldierly conduct.

After six months of starvation, the emaciated, disoriented prisoners were subjected to a relentless campaign to educate them on the virtues of communism. Bombarded with propaganda, the Americans were organized into study groups and forced to discuss and write about communism and Marxism, even to broadcast harangues against capitalist aggression and appeals for an end to the war.

Lech traces the spiral of debilitation and compromise, showing how parroting certain phrases came to seem a small price to pay for physical safety. Threatened with starvation and indefinite confinement in Korea, many POWs succumbed to pressure to mouth communist slogans and provide information far in excess of the regulation "name, rank, and service number."

Of the thousands of American soldiers who, while prisoners in North Korea, spoke and wrote favorably of communism and disparaged their country, a handful were charged with collaborating with the enemy. Why were so few singled out? Why did each branch of the armed services judge parallel circumstances differently, and why were American soldiers not realistically prepared for capture? A powerful indictment of justice miscarried, Broken Soldiers raises troubling questions that remain unanswered decades after the events.

About the Author:
RAYMOND B. LECH, a commercial mortgage broker in Brooklyn, New York, and a past national director of the Navy League of the United States, is the author of All the Drowned Sailors, a main selection of the Military Book Club.

Traversing the no-man's-land of political loyalty and betrayal, Broken Soldiers documents the fierce battle for the minds and hearts of American prisoners during the Korean War. In scorching detail, Raymond Lech describes the soldiers' day-to-day experiences in prisoner-of-war camps and the shocking treatment some of them received at the hands of their own countrymen after the war. Why, he asks, were only fourteen American soldiers tried as collaborators when thousands of others who admitted to some of the same offenses were not?

Drawing on some 60,000 pages of court-martial transcripts Lech secured through the Freedom of Information Act, Broken Soldiers documents the appalling treatment and the sophisticated propagandizing to which American POWs fell victim during the Korean conflict. Three thousand American soldiers perished in North Korean camps over the winter of 1950-51, most from starvation. Through the unsentimental testimony of survivors, Lech describes how these young men, filthy and lice-infested, lost an average of 40 percent of their body weight. Many also lost their powers of resistance and their grip on soldierly conduct.

After six months of starvation, the emaciated, disoriented prisoners were subjected to a relentless campaign to educate them on the virtues of communism. Bombarded with propaganda, the Americans were organized into study groups and forced to discuss and write about communism and Marxism, even to broadcast harangues against capitalist aggression and appeals for an end to the war.

Lech traces the spiral of debilitation and compromise, showing how parroting certain phrases came to seem a small price to pay for physical safety. Threatened with starvation and indefinite confinement in Korea, many POWs succumbed to pressure to mouth communist slogans and provide information far in excess of the regulation "name, rank, and service number."

Of the thousands of American soldiers who, while prisoners in North Korea, spoke and wrote favorably of communism and disparaged their country, a handful were charged with collaborating with the enemy. Why were so few singled out? Why did each branch of the armed services judge parallel circumstances differently, and why were American soldiers not realistically prepared for capture? A powerful indictment of justice miscarried, Broken Soldiers raises troubling questions that remain unanswered decades after the events.

About the Author:
RAYMOND B. LECH, a commercial mortgage broker in Brooklyn, New York, and a past national director of the Navy League of the United States, is the author of All the Drowned Sailors, a main selection of the Military Book Club.

Library Journal

The 4000 POWs who returned from the Korean War were intensively interviewed, and Lech (All the Drowned Sailors), a former director of the Navy League, has researched all 80 volumes of testimony released by the government. Here he recounts eyewitness testimony of capture, psychological and physical torture, and life in the camps, giving readers excellent insight into the circumstances of a Korean War POW. Few readers realize that during the first year of captivity, over 40 percent of the prisoners died--a greater percentage than in any modern war except for the Eastern Front in World War II. Of the 4000 returning POWs, only 14 were court-martialed, although the author feels that as many as a third of the returnees cooperated with the Communists. Lech details the court-martials and subsequent sentences these prisoners received. Surprisingly, only 23 soldiers refused to return home. Readers may wish to consult Harry Spillers's American POWs in Korea (McFarland, 1998) for additional information. Recommended for all library collections, this work should be considered the ultimate reference work on this topic.--Richard Nowicki, formerly with Emerson Vocational Lib., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.