751G.00/2–1053: Telegram
The Ambassador at Saigon (Heath) to the Department of State
1588. Rptd info Paris unn, Hanoi unn. Reuters correspondent Fawcett has given Embassy officer additional details concerning group of prisoners recently liberated by Viet Minh, as reported in Embtel 1477 January 26.1 Fawcett managed to gain access to returnees at hospital outside Saigon by combination of chance and ingenuity and later succeeded in getting his despatch passed by censor, in spite of almost pathological sensitivity of French military on this score. This attitude is not incomprehensible in light of fantastic comments made by returnees, who have obviously been subjected to intensive dose of “brain washing” along classic Communist lines.
[Page 391]Group in question was almost entirely composed insofar as French are concerned of ordinary soldiers or civilians and included no officers, professional men or people with background of higher education and training. Fawcett commented that they were obviously less well-equipped to withstand insidious pressure of Communist indoctrination and “re-education” than officers or representatives of professional and intellectual classes would have been. Result is that they apparently swallowed hook, line and sinker everything they were told over period of six years or more.
When asked, for example, how they felt about being liberated at last, several members of group replied that as early as first year of their imprisonment they knew they would never be liberated by French Army but only thanks to generosity of their captors. They proved to be remarkably well-informed about all events which could be interpreted as Allied reverses and Communist successes, such as eviction of British from Iran, and totally ignorant of strength of free world and France’s contribution thereto. They apparently were able to receive English lessons at some time during their long incarceration, but with the Daily Worker as primary text. L’Humanité likewise figured on their list of required reading. They expressed great interest in all they had been able to learn in this way and, according to Fawcett, seemed pathetically unaware of the monstrous hoax perpetrated upon them.
If such groups are to be liberated from time to time, they would pose serious problem for French, who can scarcely allow these returnees to be turned loose into waiting arms of French Communist Party without drastic re-indoctrination and relatively long period of moral and physical build-up to enable them to recover at least some measure of true perspective.
- Telegram 1477 from Saigon, Jan. 26, not printed, dealt with press reports of the release of a group of French prisoners by the Viet Minh. (751G.00/1–2653)↩