Evening star., 1953-09-19
POW Finds Chinese Educated
mU.S S. GIibbest Propogondists
Called Opportunists
Who Had Learned
To Browbeut GIs

Some of the glibbest and most
tiresome propagandists in Ko-
rean POW camps were Chinese
graduates of American colleges.
They used the education they
had obtained in the United
States to browbeat, bore and at
tempt to indoctrinate their cap
tive audiences in the parrot-like
jargon of the Communists,
First 1t. Joseph A. Magnant.
81, of New York City, said here
yesterday that listening to these
enforced daily lectures was hard
er to endure sometimes than
starvation rations and total lack
of medical care.
1t. Magnant, who survived the
attack on Pearl Harbor. and
fought the japanese all the way
from Guadalcanal to the Phil
ippines, passed through Wash
ington yesterday afternoon with
a party of six other POWs en-
route to hospitals in their home
areas.
Finds Prime HypOcrite.
1t. Magnant, after "a months
in prison, recalled one Chinese
lecturer who impressed him both
as a hypocrite and bore not to
be suffered unless at rifle point.
He had been an exchange STU
dent who was graduated from
the University of Arizona before
the Chinese Reds crossed their
border into Korea.
This fellow, who had been an
honored guest in the United
States, told us over and over that
the only thing American college
students thought of was making
love and making money" the
lieutenant said. "We went to his
sessions because armed guards
herded us into the room. We had
to stay untR he and his kind
quit talking.
II got the impression that the
educated ones believed nothing
of what they were saying. They
were the opportunists, the turn
coats who would serve any
master in order to maintain a
privileged status over the igno-
rant, half starved masses"
His experience with the Jap
anese began with the attack on
Pearl Harbor, while he was sta
toned at Seofield Barracks, and
continued until the surrender.
The lieutenant was a sergeant
of infantry when he saw his first
action in Korea with the I'd
Division in July, 1850. BY Sep
tember of that year, he had won
a battlefield commission.
On November rs, 1850, the
new lieutenant's men were
making a push, and so were the
Chinese, then beginning to show
Up Ill lIOIlG VI 10.
My company was ordered to
withdraw, and I was told to take
three sergeantS and fight rear
guard action. We did all right
until our ammunition ran out.
The party of four was cap
tured with no casualties. The
story of the next "a months was
one often repeated in recent
weeks.
The prison camps near the
Yalu were never marked as such
until April, 1852, but the perils
the POWS ran during raids by
American bombers had their
compensationS.
Those Chinese recruits put
on a circus every time our planes
came over" 1t. Magnant said.
They were running all around
but getting nowhere, and there
was a lot of yelling. It happened
often.
Cities Flattened.
North Korean cities are about
as completely f1attened as any
I've seen. Not much of anything
has been left standing up there
If the North Korean troops are
disbanded, they'll have to go
home to holes in the ground
! The lieutenant hadn't seen his
wife and 6-year-old daughter
since the early summer of 1850.
He received the first letter from
his wife on October IA. 1851.
That was the happiest event
ment, in it's original form, has
been opposed by the admins