Word: kasler
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...August 1967, the torturing of prisoners in Kasler's building began in earnest (he had been moved from the Hanoi Hilton to another prison in the capital, "the Zoo-that's what it reminded us of"). The Vietnamese had discovered that the Americans were communicating with each other by tapping on the concrete walls, and wanted to know who was guilty. Kasler certainly was. With the prisoners' special tap code, he said, he "could send a message through five rooms and get an answer back in ten minutes. We really got pretty fast at it." The price...
From the fall of 1967 through the spring of 1968, Kasler was tortured frequently by Magoo and an interrogator called "the Elf," because he was a wizened 75-pounder. Kasler was moved into solitary confinement, where he got little medical attention, even though his leg was still swollen and badly infected. But the worst was yet to come. The violent antiwar reaction in the U.S. that followed the Communist 1968 Tet offensive apparently convinced Hanoi that the war could be won by propaganda. A maximum effort was made at the Zoo to get prisoners to appear before various peace delegations...
...Kasler, the harshest treatment began on June 25, 1968. He was called before an interrogator nicknamed "Spot" (because he had a white spot on the right side of his head). "He was cordial. He asked me to sit down, gave me a cigarette, asked me about my family-I'd been allowed one letter at that point. He said he was trying to select a man to celebrate the downing of the 3,000th U.S. plane to tell the American people the truth about the war and appear on TV. I said I wasn...
...arms until I passed out again. They made me write that I had sabotaged the Geneva Accords-it was the whole Communist line. They had this big deal coming up for the Fourth of July with a delegation from somewhere and they badly wanted me to appear before it." Kasler firmly resisted. At one point during a torture session, yet another interrogator pulled out a bunch of newspaper clippings from the U.S. showing all the peace demonstrations. "In one of the pictures, I saw way in the background two guys with American Legion hats holding a sign that said...
Fidel grabbed Kasler by the shirt and demanded, "Who knows you are resisting?" Kasler answered: "Nobody." "Then why?" asked Fidel. "For myself." Fidel promised treatment for Kasler's leg, better food and conditions if he would go before the July 4 delegation. "I refused. He ordered me back on my knees. My broken leg was still killing me. My arms were in irons behind my back. He worked on them with the rope for a while. Then he got a thin wire and wired my thumbs and hands together. He tortured me, working on the rope and wire...