National Affairs: Flipflop at Panmunjom

Claude J. Batchelor gobbled up the Communist line almost from the day in 1951 when he was taken prisoner in Korea. He quickly became known as a rabid "progressive," worked constantly to convert his fellow P.O.W.s, and, to anyone who would listen, proclaimed himself a "peace fighter." When other prisoners were repatriated after the ceasefire, 22-year-old Corporal Batchelor. 1st Cavalry Division, was a leader of the 23 Americans who chose to stay behind.

One night last week, the renegades gathered around a tiny stove in their barracks, sang Communist songs in competition with the whine of a wintry wind outside, joked, laughed and gulped down rice wine by the tin-cupful. Among these New Year's Eve celebrants was Claude Batchelor. He was not as happy as he acted. Red rule in the North Camp had begun to wear on the nerves of Peace-Fighter Batchelor. He had been receiving tender letters, supposedly from his Japanese wife (but the majority actually composed by Associated Press staffers in Tokyo), urging him to seek repatriation. Most important of all. Batchelor had started to worry about his own hide: the other Americans suspected him of wavering, and had taken away most of his powers as compound leader. He knew what might happen next. So Claude Batchelor, who had flipped like a trained seal from democracy to Communism, prepared to flop right back again.

At 1:30 a.m., after all the others had gone to sleep, Batchelor slipped from the barracks and ran to the barbed-wire fence surrounding the compound. He told an Indian guard: "I'm ill. I want to be taken to the medical-inspection room." Once there, he announced: "I'm all right. I want to be repatriated." Of the 23 original recalcitrants. Batchelor was the second to change his mind. The first. Corporal Edward Dickenson, had already returned to the U.S. and been married (TIME, Dec. 14).

Next day Batchelor held a press conference. He was smiling and cocky, waving off most questions with "I'd rather not answer that right now." Said Batchelor: "I just wanted to be a peace fighter. I just wanted to help the Communists advance some of their ideas—such as that America was an aggressive nation and the Soviet Union was peaceful."