“The Families Have Waited Long Enough!”
Kin of Cold War POW/MIAs Demand Action
(Memorial Day Weekend, 2016) The families of US aviators lost during spy flights near the Soviet Union, China and North Korea have fought for 60 years to learn the fate of their loved ones -- some captured alive according to intelligence reports. Now time is running out for the aging wives and sisters of the missing and they’ve grown tired of what they call indifference, stone-walling and secrecy from the U.S. government.
“The U.S. government has approached the investigation of its missing cases in a most ineffective way,” says Dr. Beverly Deane Shaver, 83, who learned decades after the loss of her husband Jim Deane that classified intelligence reports indicated he and a fellow crewman had been captured alive and tracked in Chinese captivity for at least two years after their plane was downed.
Sam Busch was on a plane attacked by the Soviets in 1952. The State Department later informed Moscow the United State was “compelled to believe” some of the plane’s crew were imprisoned in the Soviet Gulag, and more information has surfaced in recent years that Busch and some of his fellow aviators were captured. But Busch’s wife Ruth recently died without ever learning his fate, which his sister Charlotte Busch Mitnik, now 82, blames in substantial part on indifference by the U.S. government. “There has been nothing new for years (from the Pentagon). Every year the same b.s.”
The Pentagon has recently been forced to admit its much-publicized agreement to pay China for research in Beijing’s archives has failed to resolve the case of even a single American known or suspected to have been in Chinese hands during the Korean and Cold Wars. Beijing in effect pulled a “bait and switch” on the U.S., admitting years after signing the archives agreement that it considered files on Americans in its prisons “classified” and not part of the deal. Meantime, the US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs has essentially ground to a halt due to the tense relationship between Washington and Moscow. Former insiders say Moscow has played a “shell game” on U.S. investigators, providing access to some documents and sources but protecting files from the KGB/GRU (military intelligence) that could probably reveal the fate of many Americans.
A Russian team from the Commission is now visiting Washington, we’ve been told, but the Pentagon has kept the visit under wraps and failed even to inform POW/MIA families now meeting near Washington, mere miles from Russian officials who might be able to account for their loved ones. “It’s just another way they (Pentagon POW/MIA officials) do things, not including family members,” says Janella Rose, sister of a Vietnam War POW/MIA and chairperson of the National Alliance for the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen. “It’s a pretty sad situation that the government keeps stonewalling families.”
“It’s scandalous,” asserts Norm Kass, the former executive director of the U.S. side of the Commission, who notes the Pentagon has even removed from its web site large volumes of information Kass and his investigators obtained in the former Soviet Union. Kass, a Russian linguist and Vietnam veteran, compares the removal of the information and Pentagon failures to follow up on it to “Soviet revisionist history.” He attributes the situation to persistent bureaucratic infighting at the Pentagon that has impeded efforts to account for the missing, including those reported by former senior Soviet officers and other witnesses to have been shipped to Siberia.
Perhaps most infuriating to many family members is the continued classification of America’s own POW/MIA-related information, much dating to the 1950s, and the failure of Pentagon leaders to locate and then act on intelligence information obtained at the time the aviators were lost.
“I cannot fathom why this is still happening, other that there is still so much we are not being told,” says Terri Mumley, whose grandfather Lloyd Smith was reportedly captured by the Chinese in 1953 after he and another Naval aviator drifted ashore near Shantou, China. The Associated Press reported a manhunt for the survivors and U.S. intelligence received multiple reports they had survived and been captured, including one from a foreign missionary. A classified Navy report concluded: “It is the opinion of this command that Smith and his companion survived the ditching without injury and were probably taken prisoner by the Chinese Communists.” But the men were declared dead anyway. “Why did they ever consider him dead?” asks Mumley.
“We have no conclusive proof U. S. POWs were held after their loss incident or are living
in those countries,” says a recent statement from Michael Linnington, the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the most recent incarnation of the long scandal-ridden Pentagon POW/MIA operation.
decision by leaders of the Pentagon’s POW/MIA bureaucracy, who typically rotate through rapidly in association with a continued strong of scandal and Congressional investigation.
At first the government simply covered up, telling the families their loved ones had died on training missions.
“It’s just another way they (DPAA) do things, not including family members,” says Janella Rose “It’s a pretty sad situation that the government keeps stonewalling families.”
“We have no conclusive proof that remains of POWs from the above wars were imprisoned in
those countries. It follows that no cases of Americans held in the Soviet Union, FSU (Former Soviet Union, or Warsaw Pact have been resolved by the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission,” Linnington asserted in his statement to us (obtained with the assistance of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and his indefatigable staffer Lillian Cruz.)
This assertion amazes and infuriates Kass, the former Commission executive. “I don’t know who’s writing Linnington’s scripts, but they should be fired,” he said, citing multiple cases in which the Commission’s had helped led to the recovery of U.S. remains in the Former Soviet Union and even Vietnam. These include celebrated cases such as the recovery of the Capt. John Dunham, a downed Cold War aviator secretly buried on Soviet territory in 1952, six members of a U.S. reconnaissance plane downed over then Soviet-Armenia in 1958 and other cases not widely publicized.
The comment also implies that no American POW/MIA were ever in the Soviet Union, so the Joint Commission should not expect to find any -- a position that contradicts available intelligence and numerous previous Pentagon and Commission statements, plus sends a message to Moscow that America’s top POW/MIA official may not expect tangible results from the Commission. Kass suspects the Pentagon may even be conducting an “intentional campaign” to downplay the Joint Commission.
“There have been no cases of Americans last known alive in Chinese custody resolved by files
provided under the Department of Defense China archival program. China has not provided any classified files associated with Richard Desautels, Gerald Glasser, Harry Moreland or other
Americans.”
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. George OrwellRead more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_orwell.html
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” ― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.
"In Front of Your Nose," Tribune (22 March 1946)
At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
"The Freedom of the Press", unused preface to Animal Farm (1945), published in Times Literary Supplement (15 September 1972)
The Cold War cases began in earnest during April 1950, when a Navy PBY4 “Privateer” was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Baltic Sea. During the following years, reports of surviving crewmen from the plane began to escape the Soviet Union.
One of the aviators aboard was Joe Danens, who had married a couple years before. “Can you imagine? Its 1948 and the Jewish girl Ruth Feinberg from Passaic, NJ and Joe Danens part Native American (Blackfoot) from Cutbank, MT got married,” recalls Ruth’s daughter Gail Miney. “Not all that common in those days.”
U.S. investigators from the Joint Commission uncovered reports the spy plane had been salvaged, but Stalin himself ordered that fact kept secret from the U.S. These facts were supported by previously classified U.S. Navy intelligence files that concluded the Soviet Navy was operating captured US electronic equipment similar that that on the Privateer. “In view of the successful salvaging and operation of the electronic equipment, there exists the possibility that some or all of the crew were taken into custody and are being held by the Soviets,” the Navy concluded.
“There exist a number of reports from released Gulag inmates indicating that there were indeed survivors from this flight who were imprisoned in the Gulag. There are enough of these reports over the years to suggest that they cannot be ignored,” U.S. investigators concluded in the 1990s, adding” the frequency, content, and timeframe of these reports at a minimum suggest that some American aviators were detained in the Gulag.”
After Joe’s death, Ruth married Robert Miney, a Navy flyer. Several years later Miney’s plane disappeared during a routine flight over the Atlantic; no survivors were found.
“Once again, no bodies, no plane recovery, no explanation of what happened.,” recalls Gail, her daughter. “Honestly, I don't know how my mother coped with these tragedies.” But the 92-year-old continues to request answers from the government for which she and her two lost husbands sacrificed so much.
“My grandfather’s legacy and what he gave for his country is why I wear a uniform, and why four of my sons wear a uniform,” says Terri Mumley, a full-time non-commissioned officer with the National Guard. “We have all answered the call just as my grandfather did and by answering that call we expect that our country will not leave us behind in a foreign land to suffer. It is time we demand accounting for those that were left behind. This Government owes that to them!”
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To American families, some of the most important missing people from the Cold War are US aviators lost while conducting missions against the Soviet Union and China. A number of these missions were so-called “ferret flights,” designed to trigger enemy radar and then collect the signals. Around 40 of these flights were shot down during the Cold War, leaving more than 100 Americans missing, some last reported alive in enemy hands.
Here are the stories of two of these ill-fated missions and the American heroes still missing
The Missing Crew of the P2V
US Navy P2V
Jack Lively: Missing US Aviator from P2V
Reuben Baggett: Missing US Aviator from P2V
"Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid;" Crew of the MIssing RB-29
June 1956
The State Department said it was “compelled to believe” there were survivors from the RB-29 and another spy plane in the Soviet Union in a 1956 message it sent Moscow. Washington asked the Soviets for information on these prisoners; none was forthcoming.
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Mark there has been nothing new for years.
every year the same BS.
Sam was the eldest of 4 children . He was the boss Even my dad listen to to him,when they would talk about family issues.He learned to fly a plane before he learned how to drive a car. He told me never to be ashamed of the size if my hands and feet. (You are who you are. be proud of it).
And he taught me never to drink milk out of a bottle. He did so by being in back of me as I was drinking out of a glass bottle and hitting me on the head. "Ladies don't drink out of bottles." Also "don't reach across the table for food.Ask for it" The point was made by sticking a fork in my hand when I reached across the table for bread.
He was smart, He was studying to be a pharmacist at Temple Univ. when he was reactivated.His wife, Ruth just passed away never knowing the truth. Whatever that is! He had one son,Michael. Michael is an orthopedic physician in Allentown Pa Mike has three children, and three grandchildren
.
Mike ;was only two when Sam's plane went down. He only knows of his father,what he is told and what he has read Michael looks just like his dad.
Also, in Dodin's memoirs He mentioned that one of the Americans were beaten to death, because he was an" arrogant American"
That must have been Sam. He was short but tough
What do I think the U S government should be doing????? Get themselves back in to Russian archives, That's where the answers are. But I don't believe that will ever happen again. unless Puntin wants something from us.
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Lloyd Smith Jr, Birthdate August 21, 1922, Loss date 18 January 1953.
My mother tells me he was an amazing man that everyone loved. All the kids in their neighborhood in Texas and then in Hawaii loved to come ask if he could come out and play ball!! This carried over into his military service, I received a note from Mr. Harry Schuss, he served with my grandfather, and in that note, he spoke of my grandfather always trying to get a game together between missions!
I would like to know the full story of what the US Government knows in regards to my grandfather and McClure being held and used in an anti-American parade. I do not believe that I have received all the information in regards to what the CIA and other government organizations were able to uncover. It is time all this information was declassified and given to the families.
I have repeatedly asked for the last report from the meeting with the Chinese Government and have been promised it by DPAA, but still have not received it. I had not even known about the report from the Chinese that stated they had scuttled a plane and buried two bodies until I attended the 2013 Brief in DC. Why is this information not being shared with the families?
If a plane was scuttled and two bodies buried, why is the US Government not demanding more information, such as more significant information as to grid coordinates of the bodies. If the Chinese government has let out the info of burying two bodies then they surely know where they buried them!
My mother was only 9 when my grandfather was shot down and taken POW. It was heartbreaking to her. My mother had suffered from polio and it had affected her right arm, she with the urging of her dad had been attending daily sessions with a physical therapist, he also worked with her constantly on getting stronger. When they received word he was missing my mother stopped caring about using her right arm, she was so devastated by his loss that she even refused to talk about him for almost a year. To this day my mother has very little use of her right arm.
I started asking for more information from the US Government in 2004, the first info I received had much of it still blacked out. I cannot fathom why this is still happening, other that there is still so much we are not being told. My grandmother and great aunt (Lloyd Smith’s sister) sent many letters to our government asking for more info. They had a letter from a missionary that told them that this missionary had observed my grandfather and McClure in captivity. The US government had a copy of this letter in what they sent me. Therefore why did they ever consider him dead even when the Navy asked that he not be listed this way?
My grandfather’s legacy and what he gave for his country is why I wear a uniform, and why four of my sons wear a uniform. We have all answered the call just as my grandfather did and by answering that call we expect that our country will not leave us behind in a foreign land to suffer. It is time we demand accounting for those that were left behind. This Government owes that to them!
SSG Terri A. Mumley, granddaughter of Lloyd Smith Jr
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Beverly
b. Lt. jg James Brayton Deane, Jr. USN . Born 5/26/32 in Grand Rapids,MI. Graduated from NROTC program at Cornell University June 1954. Outstanding high school athlete - scholar and several leadership positions at Cornell. Naval aviation training in Pensacola, FL and Hutchinson, KS. Assigned to VQ-1 Electronic Countermeasure squadron based in Iwakuni, Japan June 1956. Married Cornell classmate Beverly Billinger May 19,1956, who accompanied him to Japan.
Close friend of Donald Rumsfeld during Pensacola training year.
While on a patrol mission with 15 others off the Shanghai coast on August 22-23-1956, his P4M plane was shot down by Chinese Communist aircraft. Declared deceased August 31, 1957.
In 1990, Dr. Beverly Deane Shaver (remarried in 1960) became aware of a series of multiple sourced intelligence reports of that era describing Lt. Deane and one other being rescued from the shoot down by the Chinese and imprisoned in a series of Chinese locations. Since this time, Dr. Shaver has been on a 26 year search for answers, including multiple FOIAS, in depth research at the National Archives, three trips to China, liaison with the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and vast networking with NGOs, retired intelligence personnel, and the DPMO/DPAA
While the PRC has yet to admit they held Lt. Deane, his widow's research has found very credible eyewitness reports of both his capture and imprisonment.
Link to Washington Post cover story “Truth and Lies” 2007 for further details of the above:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/02/AR2006050201384.html
Quotes:
l. “Missing" is very different from “Killed in Action”. The twisted hope, the pain, the guilt feelings of not having done enough to get answers follow the families forever.
2. The USG has approached the investigation of its missing cases in a most ineffective way. I have always felt the family informational meetings around the country were mainly to express sympathy and were little more than public relations junkets. What we needed desperately was a large team of archivists to search the overwhelming store of
classified documents at the National Archives, the NSA and the CIA. Every one of the documents dealing with the missing should be declassified immediately. The families have waited long enough.
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Family records place Joe and Ruth together in Casablanca on April 1, 1950, one week before the shootdown. My mom enlisted in the Navy and served 4 years and was a Yeoman 1st Class at her discharge. She went back to work the following day only in civilian clothes doing the same job for an additional 8 years. She met Joe, got married in Biloxi, MS. Can you imagine? Its 1948 and the Jewish girl Ruth Feinberg from Passaic, NJ and Joe Danens part Native American (Blackfoot) from Cutbank, MT got married. Not all that common in those days. When Joe was transferred to Port Lyautey French Morocco, my mom went as well and served as the secretary to the Commanding Officer of the base. This is the base Joe's Squadron, VP-26 was based out of. She was aware of the nature of the flights Joe was on. After the incident she stayed on at the base and married my father Robert Miney in 1952 in Tangier, Morocco. He was a Navy flier as well. They came back to the states and I was born at Ft. Dix, NJ in December of 55. Ten months later my father was part of the crew on a MATS flight and his plane when down about 200 miles off Lands' End England. Once again, no bodies, no plane recovery, no explanation of what happened. Honestly, I don't know how my mother coped with these tragedies. She gave marriage one last try and after my brother was born, she filed for a divorce and has been alone since 1961.
My schedule does not permit me to attend the weekend events. I'm disappointed but I am going to try to attend an update in DC in August. My mother is very with it for a 92 year old. Very hard of hearing but she has a Chromebook and does check her email, works the internet and pretty much is up to all hours of the night on Facebook. I'm sure she would love to communicate with Dr. Shaver. Here is her contact information.
Ruth Goldstein
1600 Augusta Dr #301
Houston TX 77057
713-463-5720
sailor.ruth@gmail.com
Re salvage: In Soldiers I note the 1956 State Department message that states the US is “compelled to believe that the Soviet Government has had and continues to have under detention crew members from the Privateer…” (p. 206) The message sites some of the alleged live sightings….BTW, also worth wondering at the lack of follow up on others sightings in that era, such as the Soviet captive reported to have “US Navy” and an anchor tattooed on his chest. [Did DoD ever see if any of the Privateer or other Navy crews had such a tattoo]
Anyway, I believe there is another reason the US government was “compelled to believe” some of the Privateer crew were captured. On p 204 I note declassified 1954 Navy dox that conclude the Soviet Navy appeared to be operating captured US electronic equipment. “In view of the successful salvaging and operation of the electronic equipment, there exists the possibility that some or all of the crew were taken into custody and are being held by the Soviets.”
IMO, there is a good chance more highly classified documents, not yet released, provide more info on this “electronic equipment” and its “operation.” This would appear to be sensitive equipment from the Privateer. How did the Soviets operate it? Test, or use in some sort of electronic warfare against the US? Did the way the equipment was used indicate a trained operator, such as a captured Privateer crewman, had trained the Soviets to use the equipment, or was being himself forced to use it? Could there even have been an American operator duress signal (subtle change in transmission used to show you are being forced by the enemy to transmit) or a American crewman’s “fist” detected in the operation (“fist” being the distinctive patterns made by individuals sending morse code)?
A DoD summary alludes to salvage operations and a Soviet decision to conceal them. More recent information may exist, and the record warrants a current answer from DoD.
M
From DoD (undated):
A CASE STUDY
8 April 1950
Baltic Sea
U.S. Navy PB4Y2 (Privateer)
On 8 April 1950, a U.S. Navy PB4Y2 Privateer on an electronic reconnaissance
mission was shot down over the Baltic Sea by Soviet fighters. Although the search and
rescue effort was unsuccessful, two unmanned Iiferafts from the aircraft were eventually
recovered, as well as some wreckage (found by commercial fishing vessels). None of the ten
crew members were recovered, dead or alive. All remain unaccounted for.
THE RUSSIAN POSITION ...
Shortly after the shootdown, the Soviet government acknowledged that its fighters had
attacked the Privateer. Further, Stalin's Foreign Ministry stated that the aircraft was attacked
because it was flying in Soviet airspace, and had fired on Soviet fighters when they attempted
to signal it to land. The Soviet government also stated at the time (and subsequently) that it
had no information about survivors from this flight.
Since the establishment of the Joint Commission, the Russian government has
provided considerable documentatoin on this incident, most of it contemporaneous to 1950.
Soviet documents, including after-action reports of the participating pilots and other air
defense officers, all appear to support the long-held position that the aircraft violated Soviet
airspace and opened fire on Soviet fighters. Another formerly classified document, a report
from the Soviet Navy to Stalin and Bulganin, describes in detail extensive, unsuccessful
efforts by forty-five vessels between 22 April and 14 June to locate the submerged aircraft.
A 1975 Central Committee document, classified SECRET, appears to be an information
· paper to reassure the Party that there were no survivors of the flight prosecuted or
incarcerated in the Soviet Union. This document seems to have been prepared in response to
a resurgence of interest in the case in the American press, with allegations that documents
received are interviews conducted in late 1992 by Task Force Russia and Jane ReynoldsHoward,
widow of LTJG Robert D. Reynolds, one of the unaccounted for crew members,
including discussions with retired General-Colonel Fedor Ivanovich Shinkarenko, who
commanded the Soviet fighter unit that shot down the Privateer. The Shinkarenko interviews
support some, but not all, of what the Soviet government had stated in 1950, as well as the
version of events described in the above-mentioned documents. Shinkarenko recalled that his
pilots did not actually see the plane crash due to cloud cover. In his opinion, "all pilots of
the plane died ... it's sad, we had no confmnation that we have found the bodies ... they were
washed away ... If there had been one member of the crew, dead or alive, after the search was
carried out. .. I should have known this ... " Shinkarenko also stated that the Soviets had
monitored an extensive American search and rescue effort; that the Soviet Navy had been
given orders to recover the aircraft, if possible, to show to the United Nations; and,
signifi~antly, that he had been told that "remnants of the plane" had indeed been recovered
(contrary to the assertions in the document described above"). General Shinkarenko also
recalled that Stalin himself had given the order not to show the recovered parts to the UN,
"once he knew what the plane contained.
Unlike some incidents from which there were either survivors or credible
eyewitnesses, the actual events of the 8 April 1950 shootdown itself are silriply insufficiently
clear to indicate whether or not there could have been survivors. We hare thus left with the
testim~ny· of the only eyewitnesses, the Soviet aviators themselves, testimony which is both
flawed and incomplete. For example, the fonnerly "top secret" statements of the four Soviet
pilots seem flawed. (They are uncharacteristically brief and similar, and they read as if their
contents were dictated to the aviators.) The statements are incomplete in the sense that they
do not answer the key question of the Privateer's ultimate fate (i.e. All four Soviet pilots
state merely that the aircraft "sharply descended, entered the clouds at an altitude of 500
meters," and "supposedly crashed into the sea 5-10 kilometers from the coast.") As a result,
we are left with the reality that no one saw the aircraft crash, while no "mayday" distress
calls were heard that might indicate whether there was a chance to bail out of ditch the
aircraft. Thus, to the question of the possibility of survivors, we are left with the following:
I. No one saw the aircraft crash or break up. Thus, we simply cannot rule out the
possibility of survivors, in spite of what General Shinkarenko believes.
2. There exist a number of reports from released Gulag inmates indicating that there
were indeed survivors from this flight who were imprisioned in the Gulag. There are enough
of these reports over the years to suggest that they cannot be ignored. Certainly the U.S.
government, by 1956, placed sufficient credibility in these reports to send the abovementioned
demarche to Moscow. More recently, Task Force Russia interviewed a Lithuanian
citizen who stated that he was an inmate in a Soviet prison in Irkutsk in the summer of 1950
with an American intelligence officer named "Robert." The Task Force has confinned
through official Russian sources in the Irkutsk Oblast that this man was indeed an inmate at
the time he claims. thus, while we do not dismiss his statement, we note that he was unable
to identify Lt. Reynolds when we showed him a photo lineup. While we had been unable to
confinn that these sightings or reports were necessarily members of the Privateer crew, the
Task Force believes that the frequency, content, and timeframe of these reports at a
minimum suggest that some American aviators were detained in the Gulag.
3. The recovery of the Privateer's intact lifeboats may not necessarily indicate
survivors, however, we cannot ignore that lifeboats were found, and that this could indicate a
soft landing rather than a catastrophic mid-air destruct of the aircraft. The Task Force has
been unable, however, to confmn a persistent report that John Noble, after his repatriation
from the Gulag, was shown a copy of a photo by his U.S Navy debriefer that showed the
intact Privateer floating on the water with a Soviet patrol boat moored alongside. Nothing in
the "Klaus File" or other U.S archives supports the existence of this photo, and we cannot
place credence in its existence absent any corroborating infonnation. 4. From infonnation obtained from interviews of family members and fonner
participants in these reconnaissance flights, it is obvious that the crew was awar~ of the
dangers inherent in their mission, and that they were well-drilled in emergency action
procedures (ditching and bailout).
5. The aircraft went down within a relatively short distance from Soviet maritime
facilities, which could have dispatched patrol craft that could have reached the site of the
crash within 1-2 hours from the time they were alerted. The massive Soviet search for the
wreckage, as well as open-source Russian articles on Soviet air defense, clearly indicate that
In view of the above information, we believe that further efforts are called for in
investigating this incident. The Task Force notes that' one Soviet document (referred to
above) that describes the search of the crash site deals with salvage operations directed at
locating the submerged Privateer, operations that only commenced two weeks after the
incident. We believe it appropriate to direct our research at locating any possible records that
would indicate po_ssible patrol boat search and rescue operations in the 8-21 April time
frame. Our study of other Cold War incidents in waters adjacent to the Soviet land mass in
the proxmity of Soviet naval bases indicates that such operatoins to recover survivors were
routinely mounted.
In particular, we note that a colleague of General Shinkarenko, retired Colonel
Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhov, told Task Force Russia interviewers in 1992 that, although he had
personally supervised the destruction of local files on this incident, more information could
probably be located about it in Soviet Air Force "Bulletins on Lessons Learned from the
Downing of U.S. Aircraft Violating Soviet Borders." In addition, Col Ryzhov suggested that
it was normal for the KGB to prepare "parallel reports" on such incidents, "since the KGB
was directly involved in the prevention or resolution of border violations." The Task Force
concurs with Col Ryzhov's suggestion, while noting that his statement is at odds with the
assertions to the Commission by the intelligence services that they had no part to play in such
events.
Wo
Russian exile Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1970s
If the government of North Vietnam has difficulty explaining to you what happened with your brothers, with your American POWs who have not yet returned, I, on the basis of my experience in the Archipelago, can explain this quite clearly There is a law in the Archipelago that those who have been treated the most harshly and who have withstood the most bravely, the most honest, the most courageous, the most unbending, never again come out into the world . They are never again shown to the world because they will tell such tales as the human mind cannot accept. A part of your returned POWs told you that they were tortured. This means that those who have remained were tortured even more, but did not yield an inch. These are your best people These are your first heroes, who, in a solitary combat, have stood the test. And today, unfortunately, they cannot take courage from our applause They can't heat it from their solitary cells where they may either die or sit 30 years, like Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who was seized in 1945 in the Soviet Union. He has been imprisoned for 30 years and they will not yield him up.