Big Switch operation

“But in 1953, diplomats and soldiers alike still attempted to permit the communists a certain degree of latitude. This plan of voluntary repatriation worked to the advantage of the communists, according to the author, by simply stating that …”

“In a secret memo written by Hugh Milton II, Assistant Secretary of the Army in January 1954, four months after the conclusion of the big switch, a clandestine plan to recover lost Americans held by the communists is mentioned. And I'll read…”

“Written by Major General Robert Young, Assistant Chief of Staff to the G1 of the Army, he said the following. Under the provision of Public Law 490, the Department of Army, after careful review of each case and interrogation of returning PO…”

“As with World War II prisoners, most appear to have been evacuated out of the war zone. According to several documents, the majority of missing men went to China and to the Soviet Union. One report from the OSO of the CIA said the following…”

“As with World War II prisoners, most appear to have been evacuated out of the war zone. According to several documents, the majority of missing men went to China and to the Soviet Union. One report from the OSO of the CIA said the following…”

“Although State did have some exploratory discussions with the British in an attempt to get at the problem, the situation was relatively dormant when, in late November 1954, the Peking Radio announced that 13 of their political prisoners had…”

“but there were many more than the 13 airmen reported. Canadian Squadron Leader Andrew McKenzie, who had been captured, reported to China and held in the same camp for two years, reported after he was exchanged that he had been held with a n…”

“American POWs reported en route to Siberia, it read. A recently arrived Greek refugee from Manchuria had reported seeing several hundred American POWs being transferred from Chinese trains to Russian trains near the border of Siberia and Ma…”

“to have been transported to the Soviet Union and that they are now in Soviet custody. The U.S. government desires to receive urgently all information available that the Soviet government has concerning these American personnel. The reply fr…”

“The U.S. assertion contained in the indicated note that American POWs who participated in military action in Korea have allegedly been transferred to the Soviet Union and at the present time are being kept under Soviet guard is devoid of an…”

“As for the years went by, the issue of Korean POWs rose on occasion. Each time it was addressed with official voices of concern and sympathy. But in one memo dealing with Korean War and Vietnam POWs dated January 21st, 1980, written by Mich…”

“As for the years went by, the issue of Korean POWs rose on occasion. Each time it was addressed with official voices of concern and sympathy. But in one memo dealing with Korean War and Vietnam POWs dated January 21st, 1980, written by Mich…”

“Even though the Chinese in 1973 released two American POWs that had been captured during the Korean War, along with an American pilot shot down during Vietnam, little action was taken to ascertain if the Chinese held any more. Those two peo…”

“tactics during World War II was privy to highly classified intelligence reports that not only mentioned the number of prisoners being held, but exactly where they were, specific names, ranks, units, hometowns. In several instances, gulag in…”

“trainloads of U.S. servicemen being transported to the Soviet Union, but described one particular train as containing over 400. Corso continued to investigate, and by the time his report was completed, it stated that, quote, the conclusion …”

“Colonel Philip Corso, an intelligence advisor to Eisenhower, was ordered to investigate the POW issue in regards to information that hundreds of Korean War soldiers were still being held inside Russia. Corso, working on the behest of Eisenh…”

“of Life magazine concluded that the most expedient way to approach the subject would be to interview someone who had recently been released from the gulag. He found that the CIA had just that person, a Soviet defector named Yuri Rasvorov. C…”

“And when their usefulness was passed, they'd just disappear. They were, as far as the outside world would ever know, dead men walking. And it would be the government's best interest to consider them so and to hide the knowledge of their exi…”

“because they didn't want it to work. There were behind-the-scenes intervention of clandestine services, and the North and U.S. finally agreed on voluntary and non-forcible repatriation that would permit each side to release only the prisone…”