From The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953
by Clay Blair, Jr.
Brainwashing: Simultaneously with the germ warfare campaign, the Communist launched an "indoctrination" program of UN POWs, designed to turn them against the West and even refuse repatriation. The program included not physical torture but rather a form of mental torture: endless repetition of Communist slogans, phrases, and ideas and the exploitation of grievances, especially among black POWs. Although no POWs were directly threatened with grave harm or death, they knew that thousands of UN POWs had earlier been tortured and murdered, and partly as a result of this knowledge, this Communist campaign (which came to be known as "brainwashing") was also astoundingly successful. Postwar studies were to show that only about 12% percent of American POWs (Bill Dean among them) "actively and consistently" resisted the program. The great majority "cooperated" in indoctrination and interrogation sessions in a passive sort of way, although there was a tendency to refuse to say anything obviously traitorous. Nonetheless, many UN POWs signed "peace petitions" and similar Pro-Communist testimonies, which were distributed in the West. Ultimately, twenty-one Americans and one Briton were to refuse repatriation.
