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Show Family Weekly I February 1, mo S V. or Alive? formation, work together, and try to help one another. It's one organization that nobody wants to join, and new members are never welcome. After trying so long to be patient and unobtrusive, it felt good to be making ourselves heard, to know that voices were being raised on our behalf. I had thought for some time about going to Paris to ask the Communist delegates to the peace talks whether they couldn't please give me some word of my husband. I watched the Paris trip of four women from Texas the first of 22 relatives who would visit the North Vietnamese delegation and when I read that they were assured by the Communists that they would receive word of their husbands, my mind was made up. I Caniace Parish packs items into gift box for her Navy husband she thinks is held captive in North Vietnam. She never knows if packages get to him. Their Hunter joins Si V7 hit-- : 4. ' i ' J..itf r ' VjT i i 5 to . fk I 1 moved home from Virginia Beach, and on Sept. 28 I flew from New York to Paris in the company of four other wives and the father-in-laof one of the missing men. We arrived on a Sunday night. On Monday we obtained the number of the North Vietnamese delegation's headquarters and telephoned them. They promised to call back and let us know when we might be received. At 10:30 Saturday morning, Oct. 4, we were told we had a 4 :30 appointment. We were there at 4:20. Four men received us and began taking information : pictures for identification, birth dates, service number, rank and branch, date shot down, and w bo on. We sat in a large room that I vaguely recall was decorated with some Oriental art and were served several cups of Oriental tea accompanied by North Vietnamese candy and French cakes. I was told that Ho Chi Minh's picture was hanging just above where I sat, but I was so nervous I never saw it. All I could think of was that these men could tell me about Chuck and deliver to him the letters and pictures of me and of the baby that I had brought all this distance. This is the closest I've been to him since he vanished, I thought, and I was terrified that I might do or say something to ruin our chances his and mine. Everyone was being very polite and formal during the two hours and 15 minutes we were there. The North Vietnamese spokesman was Xuan Oanh. f We were asked what instructions the Pentagon had given us, but we explained that we were acting entirely on our own, with no guidance from the Defense Department. Xuan Oanh suggested that the Pentagon was intercepting our mail and that was why we hadn't heard from our husbands. But one woman refuted this by saying she had received eight letters and four postcards from her husband in North Vietnam in the four years since he was taken prisoner. They were addressed to her home and were delivered. We said we felt certain that if more letters were mailed from the prison camps, they would be delivered. We sat through two films, one showing damage from napalm bombing and the other showing the release of three American prisoners in August, 1968. We had brought with us letters and pictures from relatives of other missing servicemen, which we gave to our hosts. We asked if it would be necessary for each of these women to come to Paris to learn of their men's fate, and the North Vietnamese said it would not be necessary, that relatives could just write. When we asked whether we could do anything to help our hurbands, we were told we should join Dr. Spock and Women Strike for Peace and demonstrate against the war. But I don't know of a single wife or parent of a man who is missing or captured in Vietnam who has done this. On returning from Paris, I really thought that I would get word of Chuck. When someone makes such a direct promise, on a matter that is so important, I tend to believe him. Perhaps I believed because it meant so much to me. But with each week, I'm less confident. North Vietnam said in 1968 and again in 1969 that we could send packages to our husbands. Both times I sent Chuck medication ointment for ringworm, body lice, infections and vitamins, candy, letters, pictures, books, cards. But I don't know whether he received them. I keep active, for busy days pass quicker. I went to the United Nations when Mrs. Rita Hou) America's representative to the Human Rights Commission, raised the issue of the prisoners in November. I've been interviewed on television, and I speak to church groups, women's clubs, civic groups, any assembly that is interested in hearing about the plight of the captives in North Vietnam: how they are awakened at 5 :30 a.m., listen to 30 minutes of "Hanoi Hannah's" version of the news, are fed pumpkin soup at 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., the only meals of the day, and are kept isolated and idle in order to break their spirit. To interested groups, I suggest that they write to the President of North Vietnam and ask for humane treatment for our men. We make no demands on Hanoi. We are just asking, really we are begging, for word of our husbands and sons. Even were I to hear from Chuck before this is published, this nightmare will have lasted far too long. Family Weekly, February 1, 1970 7 |