The story of the longest-held American POW

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/09/john_t_downey_cia_agent_captured_by_china_during_the_korean_war_the_story.single.html

by dctoedt • 12 years ago

35 9 12 years ago

slate.com

junto• 12 years ago

The CIA documentary, initially made exclusively for the agency, was eventually released in 2011 through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Mh7EiXRJI

This paragraph at the end is particularly poignant (considering that Downey is now a judge in the youth courts):

  In one instance, for example, Downey recalls watching a
  young girl, about 15 or 16 years old, passionately object to 
  her prison sentence. “She got up in court and gave an 
  eloquent speech as to why she should go home and not be in 
  prison. And then she said, ‘You don’t know what it’s like. 
  You can’t imagine.’ ” Downey, quietly resisting the 
  temptation to correct her, remembers sympathizing. “I do 
  feel I know the restrictions on a prisoner’s life,” Downey 
  says. “Prison is a lousy experience, whether you’re there 
  for a month or 20 years.”

cperciva2• 12 years ago

The title "... American POW" is inaccurate, since Downey was never a POW: He was engaged in espionage, and spies have no right to POW status (https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule107).

The wording in the title in the article, "... American captive of war" is better, and should be used instead.

dctoedt2• 12 years ago

The wording in the title in the article, "... American captive of war" is better, and should be used instead.

Poster here --- that's how I posted it, with the original wording.

cperciva2• 12 years ago

I guess a moderator missed the nuance and thought they were improving the title. Hopefully another moderator can restore it now that I've pointed it out...

brudgers• 12 years ago

Two long, bloody years would pass before the war ended

The article shows how easily Americans slip into the mythology of the Korean War. There's still an armed border at the 60th Parallel 60 years later, US troops standing at the ready south if the DMZ with reserves in Okinawa and logistics and strategic air support in Diego Garcia.

Korea has been in continuous civil conflict since the Japanese colonization in the 19th century. Over the last 20 years. the standoff has escalated to nuclear armed

The Korean War: a History by Max Cummings delves into the narrative America has constructed for itself and how far it differs from a more circumspect view.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/081297896X/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=...

_sword• 12 years ago

I visited the DMZ in the summer of 2013 and the militarization was astonishing. Beyond the military checkpoints, soldiers everywhere, secret tunnels dug from the north into the south, and relics of past failed relationships such as a bullet riddled locomotive, the signs along every non-paved spot of earth warning "DANGER MINES" and the overpasses rigged to detonate and drop immense concrete blocks onto the roadways (to prevent passage by invading tanks) really brought home the feeling that the two states were still at war. Not to mention having to sign a hefty waiver to visit the Joint Security Area for any injury or death that we could incur if North Korea decided to attack us while on the tour. We also had a surprise at the Joint Security Area when a tour of several dozen military officers on the north side appeared and stared back at us while we took photos of them and a semi-hidden photographer on the north took photos of all of us tourists to potentially use as propaganda.

Yardlink• 12 years ago

Ronald Pelton was an NSA spy who's been in prison longer for participating in war. Except he's being held in the US and is still locked up today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Pelton

dctoedt2• 12 years ago

The circumstances are a bit different: Mr. Pelton is indeed a former U.S. NSA intelligence analyst, but he's in an American prison for selling U.S. military secrets to the Soviet Union in the 1980s during the Cold War. The Wikipedia article says he'll be released in November 2015, which is surprising inasmuch as he was given three concurrent life sentences.

TallGuyShort• 12 years ago

> The United States, the communists insisted, would have to admit to the world that it had been lying about Downey all these years. For the time being, however, the U.S. government was unwilling to lose face.

... and he remained in prison. That is disgusting.

The story of the longest-held American POW

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