Soldiers of Misfortune
Soldiers of Misfortune is a well-documented book about thousands of abandoned American POWs. They were held captive by the USSR while the U.S. government officials lied about their fate.
Under the Geneva Convention, for example, a POW is required only to provide name, rank, and serial number and cannot receive any benefits for cooperating.
John Yoo
Foreword
The book Washington’s Secret Betrayal of American POWs in the Soviet Union: Soldiers of Misfortune (1992) documents how thousands of America’s best men serving in uniform were enslaved and left to die. Buried in the dustbin of history is the sad reality concerning troops in Soviet gulags deep in the Siberian wilderness after WWII, Korea, and the Vietnam wars.
Soldiers of Misfortune, Review
Soldiers of Misfortune details the United States government’s role in the alleged betrayal of American and British POWs in the Soviet Union during and after World War II.
In the mid-1980s, James D. Sanders started researching the USSR’s liberation of American POWs near the end of World War II in Germany and Eastern Europe. Later, Mark A. Sauter and R. Cort Kirkwood joined the search (the authors). They analyzed thousands of formerly classified documents. The authors interviewed military brass and escapees from Russia and evaluated eyewitness accounts.
As the authors neared the truth, top-level Pentagon officials worked to silence them to bury the facts from the public. Operatives from a covert group entered Sander’s auto and a newspaper office. Sander’s apartment got ransacked, with crucial documents stolen.
The authors begin by providing historical context about the nature of World War II and the Soviet Union’s involvement in it. They argue that the United States and the Soviet Union were not true allies during the war. The West and USSR were engaged in a series of evasive maneuvers and backroom deals, with the fate of American POWs swept under the rug.
During the 1945 Yalta Conference, the western alliance agreed to a secret pact with the USSR. There, Britain and USA decided to return Soviet citizens, and in exchange, Stalin promised to return western soldiers liberated by his troops. The western alliance breached that agreement by secretly permitting the Soviets to remain. When Stalin learned about the deception, he retaliated by holding 23,500 American and 30,000 British soldiers captive in the vast Soviet gulag system.
Evidence points to the U.S. government betraying American POWs incarcerated in the USSR. The authors show us that the U.S. government was aware that large numbers of American soldiers were being held in Soviet prison camps but failed to take any significant action to secure their release. They also argue that the U.S. government covered up these prisoners’ existence and actively discouraged family members’ attempts to learn the truth about their loved ones.
Colonel Philip Corso (1915-1998),1 an intelligence aide to President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) revealed to the authors that the president had decided to abandon Korean War POWs. Here is a video of Corso testifying before congress:
The authors claim that hundreds, perhaps thousands, never got back home. In an infuriating display of hubris, Rear Admiral Ronald F. Marrynot (1934-2005), the man who, as Deputy Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, told a congressional subcommittee in June 1990 that the Pentagon had “no such” evidence that the Soviet Union had kidnaped American POWs.
One of the critical elements concerns the U.S. government’s focus on maintaining a positive relationship with the USSR during and after the war rather than securing the release of American POWs. The authors cite various examples of diplomatic agreements, trade deals, and other actions made at the expense of the welfare of American prisoners. They also claim that the U.S. government actively suppressed information about the fate of American POWs in the Soviet Union and worked to silence those who spoke out about the issue.
The authors also traced where American POWs from the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold Wars languished after World War II. Hundreds of POWs faced transfer to the USSR and China during the Korean War. The authors provide evidence that Vietnam War MIAs also ended up in the Gulags. At the start of the Cold War, USSR kidnapped civilians and troops who faced brainwashing. They also ended up in the Gulags.
Soldiers of Misfortune provides accounts from various family members of the soldiers and soldiers who were held as prisoners. It gives graphic detail about the inhuman condition they faced inside the camps. The authors also detail accounts of torture, starvation, and other mistreatment inflicted on American prisoners by the Soviet authorities. Below is a small sampling of the detailed reports of betrayed POWs:
Maj. Wirt Thompson’s family was told he died in a plane crash in 1944. A German returnee saw Thompson in a Moscow prison in 1948. His family was never informed.
Olen Taylor’s snapshot was smuggled out of the gulag in 1947. Taylor was a slave laborer with 200 other Americans at a tank manufacturing plant.
Sergeant Edward Reitz was shot down over Romania, was taken from Gulag 3A, and transferred to the USSR, where many witnesses saw him.
Major Robert Brown was shot down over North Vietnam in 1972 and immediately sent to the USSR. Brown was an expert in the space program, and within two years of his capture, his expertise appeared in the Soviet space program.
As time passed, the evidence associated with the POWs and MIAs got lost under the weight of the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, copious denials consisting of deceptive letters and press releases form a psychological operation to dumb down the average citizen. Like the Covid Plandemic, officials, when confronted, deny or downplay evidence. It is infuriating to realize that U.S. POWs in the USSR were never considered a high priority. The coverup is akin to a multi-headed hydra monster that relegated our very own into captivity under Communist terms.
As World War II ended in 1945, our “leaders” decided to abandon U.S. and British POWs. Under the tutelage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), VP Henry Wallace (1888-1956), Harry Hopkins (1890-1946), Harry Dexter White (1892-1948), and Alger Hiss (1904-1996), a moral and diplomatic debacle erupted. FDR’s pandering to Stalin and the above-named communist sympathizers embedded in the U.S. helped to birth a perpetual lie. When the Chinese and North Koreans demanded the repatriation of their prisoners, president Truman’s “Psychological Strategy Board” in 1951 studied the situation.
Our treatment of Soviet and satellite expatriates has an unfortunate history, as you will recall. As a result of an agreement at Yalta, the United States in the years immediately after World War II assisted the Soviet Union in the repatriation of various categories of Soviet bloc persons chiefly prisoners of war, escapees, and displaced persons. The result of our cooperation was that more than four million Soviet citizens were returned to the Soviet Union and that thousands were executed or punished in other ways without regard to the conditions which caused their displacement from Soviet controlled territory. In addition, persons escaping from the Soviet area after World War II were forcibly returned to Soviet control as a matter of U.S. policy up until well into 1948. This treatment of Soviet expatriates became well known to the populations within the Soviet area and, as has been well documented, became the cause of widespread despair. It practically stopped the flow of defectors, and it would make it very difficult to wage effective psychological warfare against the Red Army in event of war.2
George Orwell (1903-1950)3 and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)4 wrote about the plight of U.S. and British POWs.
The authors also outline the political implications of the alleged betrayal of American POWs. They argue that the U.S. government’s actions had far-reaching consequences for the soldiers and the country. The betrayal of American POWs in the USSR weakened the United States in the eyes of the world, undermined public trust in the government, and contributed to a climate of cynicism and distrust that persists to this day.
Every U.S. president since World War II has lied or been mute about the fate of our fighting men. Despite the march of time, we must find out how many Americans perished and are still alive in USSR (Russia), China, and North Korea.
In summary, Soldiers of Misfortune is a well-documented book about thousands of abandoned American POWs. They were held captive by the USSR while the U.S. government officials lied about their fate. Our leaders have shamefully written off America’s POWs and MIAs, secretly held hostage in Russia, China, and North Korea.
Analysis
Despite the evidence in Soldiers of Misfortune, some will remain skeptical. Healthy skepticism is a good thing. In that regard, here is an excerpt from the Foreword of the book by General William C. Westmoreland (1914-2005):
Soldiers of Misfortune is impressively documented. I can't say that agree with all of the conclusions the authors have drawn, if only because my 40 years in the Army give me a different perspective on how and why officials make the decisions they make. The word “betrayal,” for instance, which the authors use in the subtitle, stings the heart and soul, especially for someone like me who took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and this nation from their enemies. It's hard for a professional soldier to believe that a comrade-in-arms, either civilian or military, would knowingly be a party to a “betrayal.”
One can say this, however: The Russians have admitted they took prisoners, and the United States government, after many years of alleged stonewalling, is finally pressing the Russians for answers about missing Americans from wars in which the Soviet Union was involved on the side of our adversaries.
It is impossible to predict what findings will emerge from the U.S.-Russian POW Commission’s deliberations,5 but it seems fairly obvious that in the six years it took to research this book, the authors may have encouraged our government along the right path, and for that, the families of American POWs and MIAs and the general public owe them their thanks.6
Others will remain skeptical because of an elusive explanation of why the government abandoned or had a policy of abandoning its soldiers. To help in that regard, here is an excerpt from Soldiers of Misfortune:
Only now, decades later, is it possible to explain why the U.S. abandoned the prisoners. A full revelation of the POW-hostage crisis in 1945 would have illuminated the dark crevices of the U.S.-Soviet relationship, including the scandalous complicity of the Roosevelt administration with Joseph Stalin, who had been sold to the American public as good old “Uncle Joe,” a great and virtuous leader.
Later, during the Korean War, the White House feared that public disclosure of the Soviet Union's massive effort in the war-including the capture of American POWs-could have escalated the war into a deadly superpower confrontation. Similar factors appear to have pertained during the Vietnam War.
Revealing the truth would have invited the disgrace of the incumbent political power structure. And, especially during the 1950s and 60s, it could have increased the risk of war between the superpowers.
So it was politically impossible to get the men back7 and because the government would not admit to a problem that could not be resolved, it covered up the hostage crisis and lost Americans in the gulag.
By the time the Soviets were willing to reveal the truth, the American prisoners had been forgotten by their own government. Even as detente led to major U.S. assistance for the U.S.S.R., there was no significant attempt to use the new superpower relationship to recover the secret prisoners. And when the lost prisoners did become an issue in recent years, the Bush administration treated it not as the “highest national priority” — the phrase used by Bush officials and many other administrations since World War II-but rather as a nuisance to be covered up.
As this book goes to press in July 1992, the Russian government has just admitted hiding the truth about American prisoners in the Soviet Union. In a series of dramatic revelations leading up to his June summit with President Bush, Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed that the Soviet Union had lied about the POW issue, secretly imprisoning U.S. servicemen from World War II to Vietnam.
Within days of Yeltsin's announcements, the White House claimed that it had never known about U.S. POWs in the Soviet Union. This book proves that the Bush administration, along with every administration since 1945, has been deceiving the American people.8
In addition to the above, the documentary Prisoners of War Betrayed collaborates the information in Soldiers of Misfortune.
Afterword
The facts associated with Soldiers of Misfortune, taken as a whole, is akin to a “Red Pill.”9 This book review scratches the surface, and readers are encouraged to obtain a copy. With this realization, we see a correlation: veterans commit suicide daily. Few in legacy media seem to care. Further, we get Déjà vu when reading about the December 2022 USA and Russia prisoners swap. We gave up a notorious Russian terrorist to free a uber-woke WNBA star rather than a Marine veteran. A disgusting ball of wax.
We can trace the story behind the story to the Military Industrial Complex. That has metamorphosized into a fusion of legacy media, woke big business, the medical industry, and academia. Best known as the corporatocracy, this unholy alliance cancels clear thinking, national sovereignty, sound money, and the incentive to work.
Despite the corporatocracy’s narrative projecting a 180-degree turn in its relationship with Russia, we cannot expect the truth to emerge. It is too embarrassing, and the corporatocracy will never openly admit its overarching corruption. Thus it is no surprise that the corporatocracy continues to push the massive mound of manure known as the COVID plandemic.
Here’s to the masters and their minions: grow up, get some empathy, and while you are at it, destroy the Booby Trap Boosters. Unlike the poison pushers, those who reject mRNA poison refuse to become compassionless Pavlovian transhuman robots. The poison rejectors still have a heart. 📕
Colonel Philip J. Corso was an enigma. He was a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and the Foreign Technology Desk in the United States Army. He was assigned to work at a strange crash site in Roswell in 1947. He had no idea that his work there would forever change his life and the course of history. Only in his fascinating memoir can you discover his claim that he helped remove alien artifacts from the site and used them to help improve much of the technology the Army uses today, such as circuit chips, fiber optics, and more. He wrote the book The Day After Roswell. Many find Corso’s alien claims to be science fiction, thus tainting Soldiers of Misfortune. For more information, please see Philip J. Corso's Department of the Army Form 66, Officer Qualification Record. Readers can decide for themselves.
Truman Library, unclassified records of the Psychological Strategy Board December 28, 1951. Cited in Soldiers of Misfortune.
George Orwell, In Front of Your Nose 1845-150: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letter of George Orwell (NY, 1968), p. 62. Cited in Soldiers of Misfortune.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (NY, 1973). Cited in Soldiers of Misfortune.
Absolutely nothing!
Soldiers of Misfortune, p. 12.
Soldiers of Misfortune, “Reports of female POWs held in the Soviet Union are extremely rare and unsubstantiated. Thus, this book, more because of the facts than for convenience, refers to the POWs collectively as men.”
Soldiers of Misfortune, pp, 16-17.
Red Pill refers to (becoming enlightened to) the truth about reality, especially a truth that is difficult to accept or exposes disillusion. Red Pill comes from the influential 1999 sci-fi action film, The Matrix. There’s a scene early on in the movie where the main character, Neo, is offered two pills: a red one and a blue one. The red pill represents an awakening that could be difficult and painful. Neo’s world will be changed uncomfortably if he takes the red pill, but he’ll be aware of the world's truth. The blue pill represents comfort and security. If he takes the blue pill, he’ll continue to live in blissful ignorance.
The State and Defense departments have been under control of the liberal-fascist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since WW2. Globalist political considerations always outweigh any concern over a few expendable POWs or other "collateral damage".
Eisenhower was a CFR member from 1949-68, including his term as NATO Commander and as President. Westmoreland was a CFR member from 1961-73 during his term as Army Commander in Vietnam, then Chief of Staff.
CFR Secretaries of State: Blinken, Kerry, Clinton, Rice, Powell, Albright, Christopher, Eagleburger, Baker, Shultz, Haig, Muskie, Vance, Kissinger, Rogers, Rusk, Herter, Dulles, Acheson, Stettinius, Hull, and Stimson.
CFR Secretaries of Defense: Austin, Esper, Carter, Hagel, Gates, Rumsfeld, Cohen, Perry, Aspin, Cheney, Taft, Carlucci, Weinberger, Brown, Schlesinger, Richardson, Laird, McNamara, Gates, McElroy, and Lovett.
What a sad and infuriating tale! There is a lot our "leaders" will have to atone for after this world!