THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412150019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Recently, news services reported that the Hoa Lo prison camp in Hanoi (known as the ``Hanoi Hilton'' by the hundreds of Americans held captive there from 1965 to 1973) was being torn down, quietly, and turned into a hotel or resort.
As the psychologist attached to the Navy's Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) school, I became a student of prisoner-of-war history and became acquainted with many former POWs. The Americans (mostly Navy and Air Force aviators) held at this complex of prisons were treated brutally. Their stories are heart-rending and their will to resist and survive is inspiring.
It is well-documented that many of the American POWs were tortured into writing statements in which they were forced to thank the North Vietnamese government for ``lenient and humane treatment.'' Some prisoners found humor in this great irony.
The quiet attempt to dismantle the Hanoi Hilton - this monument of inhumanity - is disturbing. If we are to normalize relations with this government, at the very least we should require individual letters of apology to each American POW who was held in Hanoi. These letters should include an acknowledgment that the brave Americans were not treated humanely or leniently, but were treated with great inhumanity and brutality.
BRYCE E. LEFEVER, Ph.D.
Virginia Beach, Dec. 7, 1994
Editor's note: Dr. Lefever's views are expressed as a private citizen and do not represent the policy of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government. by CNB