Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-04
0verhoIser Believes
SchWabIe Had No
Will as Reds POW
By |. Edgar Prino

DR.. Wlnfred OverholSer, one
of the Nations leading psyche
artists. today said he believes
Marine Col. Frank H. Schwable
was a man without a will" when
he signed a false germ-warfare
confession under Communists
pressure.
Testifying before a Marine
Corps board Of inquiry looking
into the Schwable action, DR..
Overholser, who has been super
intendent of st. Elizabeths Hos
pital here for 16 years, said the
45-year-old Arlington aviator
could not be considered a nor
NAL person" when he confessed"
in Korea last year.
Couldn't Resist Indefinitely.
He told the court that he
could not conceive of any
body who could resist indefinitely
the sort of stresses" to which Col.
Schwable was subjected. He
added that the colonel'S judg-
ment at the time certainly was
seriously impaired.
DR.. OverholSer, in reply to a
question from the court, said:
II believe firmly that steps
ought to be taken to condition
our military personnel to enable
them to better resist Communist
techniques."
He added that there are very
few poisons that don't have some
antidote.
The eminent psychiatrist said
the Reds capacity to extract in
formation from their prisoners
is almost diabolically great"
He said their techniques are ex-
trenely difficult to resist when
used over a long period of time.
Says PressuFes Varied.
Asked why. he thought some
prisoners had been able to resist,
Dr.. Overholser pointed out that
individual capacities vary-"no
two. people are equally COM
parable" and the duration of
presSureS also were. not equal.
Il wouldn't say that there is
a completely indestructible man.
In the case of some prisoners,
the pressures simply were not
sufficient to reach their maxi
mum stress"
Asked by court counsel
whether he believes Col. Schwa-
BILE was able to tell right from
wrong at the time of his con-
finement in Korea, DR.. Over
holSer said he could not give
fiat answer. He said simply that
the colonel's ability to tell the
difference between right and
wrong was badly impaired.
John Pratt, counsel for the
colonel, asked the witness
whether Communist techniQueS
were any less effective because
they did not resort to physical
beating. DR.. Overholser replied
that probably quite the contrary
was true, that the. reaction to a
beating would be aggressive and
might add bit to a persons re-
solve.
Earlier, DR.. Overholser had
stated that l out of 10 Ameri-
can adults wind UP in a mental
hospital at some time during
their lifetime and that many
more need psychiatric treatment
short of disqualification. He
added:
The reports in the newspa-
pers show also that a great
many people might be better off
in hospitals"
Cites Need for CT Data.
Yesterday DR.. Alan M. G.
Little, a teacher at the State
Departments Foreign Service In
stitute. teStifying on behalf of
Col. Schwable, said the armed
services should learn everything
possible about the 81 Americans
who stayed with the Reds in
Korea.
DR.. Little said American SOL
diers in Korea were unprepared
for Communist techniques which
resulted in some extorted con-
LESSONS. some squealing on fell
low prisoners and in the fact
that 81 Americans turned traitors
and refused to come home.
The professor, who once served
in the American Embassy in