Evening star., 1953-09-07

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from solitary.
But it was a deliberate plant" ,"
he explained.
Col. SchWable said he rewrote
his confession several times be-
fore the Communists would ac-
cept it and before they made
him record it for Peiping radio.
Col. SchWable said the Reds
later made movie of Communist
correspondent Alan Wilmington
interviewing him.
Even the Communist "propa-
ganda people" did not believe
their own "big lie," Col. Schwable
said, but Il am afraid their own
people believed it and nothing
we can do will ever make them
dlsbelleve the germ warfare
story"
i want to make clear I had
only one choice to make-con-
fesSion or death.
Expected Treason Charge.
'"To tell you the truth. when ]
was repatriated expected
to be met by military policemen
who would arrest me as a traitor"
Col. Schwable had not heard
then that the United Nations
command had angrily accused
the Communists of dragging out
their confessions by torture and
had expressed sympathy for the
captive airmen.
Il cannot adequately describe
how they beat man down." Col.
SchWable said, "but in the last
analysis you have to call them as
you see them. An individual has
to solve his individual problems
and choose the lesser of two
evils"
The story told by the 25-year-
old O'Neil was Just as brutal.
They told me they had posi-
tive proof that I participated in
germ warfare-that I must con-
fess and it would be the only
thing that would save me.
''It was my life for a bunch of
lies that could be disproved
easily by our Government"
He called the charges ridicu-
lous."
Tortured Three Months.
The F-51 fighter-bomber pilot
was shot down March 4, 1852.
near Sinmak, North Korea.
He said he signed the "confes-
sions" after thre months of tor
ture, mostly mental, but at times
at the point of a bayonet.
1t. O'Neal added that the
charges were so impossible that
they were funny"
He said the Communists
started work on him almost i'm
medlately after his capture. He
first was taken to a cave and
questioned there, with one Red
soldier standing over him with
bayonet.
1t. O'Neal said:
They were damned anxious
to get something to prove what
they were trying to prove
anything. They seemed des-
perate for any information
which might help them to
bolster their charges. And
they seemed to mean business
when they. threatened me with
death"
Asked by reporters how many
articles he had written on germ
warfare 1t O'Neal said God
only knoWs-dozens of them. F."
He said he madeswire record
ings for radio broadcasts twice.
once for four hours and the sec
cond time for about one nour.
"All of this was done under
Chinese supervision" 1t. O'Neal
said.
Il wrote them but the Chinese
were telling me what to say"
Lit. O'Neal related that after
three months of incessant inter-
rogation he was told to sign the
purported confessions within 48
hours on threat of death. He
said one of the Chinese soldiers
present pointed a bayonet at him.
1t. O'Neal asid he was forced
to appear before a group of
persons called the instrumental
scientific commission for investi-
eating archaeological warfare in
North Korea and North East
China"
He said the meeting took place
on the outskirts of Pyoktong.
near the Yalu River, on August
3, 1852.
There were men who called
themselves doctors from Eng
12 s.. RI.