ARMED FORCES: One Changed His Mind

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"He Ain't No Communist." He was afraid that Ed would face Army punishment or social contempt in Cracker's Neck. Neither fear seemed justified. Pentagon policy will be to treat Dickenson just as any other repatriated P.W., and Cracker's Neck (three stores, a church and a few houses) was resolved to welcome Ed as a hero. Learning of this, Jim Dickenson calmed down and Dave Dickenson began to talk. As Dave roamed around the kitchen, swatting flies, he said: "This is about all I ever do now. Bessie does everything else. She does all the talking for us, but I've got this to say. I never heard the Communist name until this war started. Us mountain folks don't understand things and don't pay much attention to the papers and things. They say my boy is a Communist, but he ain't . . . Why, i'll bet if they had the President over there, they'd make him do anything they wanted. My boy ain't no Communist."

Only Ed Dickenson, 7,000 miles away in Korea, knew why he had wanted to try Communism—and he wasn't giving the real reasons. When he crossed the line at Panmunjom, he was smiling sheepishly and seemed eager to talk, but he was whisked away by helicopter to the 121st Evacuation Hospital at Seoul and later by plane to the Tokyo Army hospital. At press conferences, he was sullen and evasive, and told a story that was skeptically received. Why had he originally refused repatriation? "I wanted revenge against the Communists for what they did to my buddies and me," he said, his eyes darting nervously around the room. "I never intended to go to China, but I figured if I played along with them, I could get information against them and then expose them to the U.S. Government and the world." Having unburdened himself of this tale, he added: "I believed Americans would be intelligent enough to understand and believe me." He was more relaxed when he shifted the subject to home. "I'll be more than happy when I get back home with my mother and father and the rest of my family," said he. "I had a girl, but she sent me a Dear John letter,* if you know what that is."

"She Ain't Gonna Marry." One of Ed's girls had got married since he went into the Army. Another was blonde Kate Laney, 20, who lives in a cleared bottom section in Cracker's Neck. Last December Ed Dickenson wrote her a letter. It said: "Kate, I don't know how to say this, maybe you will call me crazy but I don't care. I would like very much to have you for my wife. I know that I never tried to go with you before, but I'm sure that we could be happy together." Kate wrote back to the boy she had never dated, reasonably suggesting that they wait until he returned home before making any such decision. But last week, when asked if she would marry Ed Dickenson, she had barely opened her mouth to answer when her mother, with an angry spit of snuff juice, snapped: "No, she ain't gonna marry him."