Amputations.

This is coolbert:

At the very end of the Korean war, in 1953, there occurred two prisoner exchanges between the combatant powers.

These were called "Little Switch" and "Big Switch".

Simultaneous repatriation of captured prisoners. At the time many tens of thousands of prisoners were held by U.N. forces, thousands of U.N. troops in turn being held by the communist forces.

And during one of these prisoner exchanges, newsreel photographers captured a spectacle that created somewhat of a world-wide controversy. Somewhat similar in nature to the photos taken of the much more recent Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.

What was photographed by the newsreel cameras [and shown in movie houses all over the world] was hundreds of communists POW's being repatriated by hobbling on crutches to their own forces. These men, many hundreds of them [up to five hundred at one time] had either one foot amputated, or both feet amputated in many cases. This made for a very sorry spectacle. [anyone seeing this newsreel, including myself, will agree that it does really look bad!!].

And this did create questions world-wide in the minds of all those that saw the newsreel. How was this possible? So much misery! Did the American forces mistreat these people that badly?

The truth of the matter is that these amputations, as severe as they were, were a sign that U.S. Army doctors had not so much mistreated the communist prisoners [I think these were primarily Chinese communist troops], but that they had received such good treatment. These amputations were done TO SAVE the lives of these prisoners, not abuse them.

During the Korean winter of December 1950 and January 1951, very brutal cold temperatures were encountered by U.S. forces.

Obviously for the communists forces as well.

Both sides did NOT provide their troops with footwear adequate for the climate. U.S. troops had a leather boot.

Chinese communist troops were equipped with what can be best described as a low-cut, canvas gym shoe time of footwear [Chinese communist troops were better prepared with the rest of their uniform. Mittens, padded down filled pants and coats, and a pile type of cap with ear flaps].

Neither form of footwear was adequate for the low temperatures encountered in the bitter, hard fighting of that winter. Troops on BOTH sides suffered terribly from frost bite, trench foot, and just plain FROZEN feet.

American doctors DID have to amputate a LOT of toes and feet of American troops.

And DID the SAME for a LOT more captured communist troops.

Given an injured soldier suffering from frost bite, trench foot, or frozen feet, a military doctor will just cut. They do NOT have the time for alternative, sophisticated, long-term care. Alternative care that may or may not be successful. Dead tissue MUST be removed. The alternative for the injured troop is a slow and terrible death. Amputation MUST be done. This is what happened to all those hundreds of communist troops filmed during the repatriation process.

RATHER THAN BEING A SIGN OF MISTREATMENT, THE AMPUTATIONS WERE A SIGN OF VERY GOOD TREATMENT. TREATMENT THAT SAVE THE LIVES OF A LOT OF COMMUNIST SOLDIERS.

Of course, none of this was made apparent by the newsreel. Persons seeing the newsreel in all probability reacted in an emotional way to the spectacle, not realizing or understanding what exactly they were seeing.

[Wilfred Burchett, an Australian "journalist" and member of the Aussie Communist Party, was very instrumental in presenting this newsreel to the world as "proof" that communist prisoners in Korea being held by American forces were being "mistreated". Burchett himself participated in the interrogation of American POW's during the Korean War and later wrote glowing articles describing the North Vietnamese communists as real "humanitarians"].

coolbert.