Congressman relives POW experience in Vietnam

Congressman relives POW experience in Vietnam

For Rep. Sam Johnson, seven years in the "Hanoi Hilton" were more than enough. He vowed never to return to Vietnam, and for 33 years, he never did. But Thursday, home from a congressional trip, he recounted an hourlong visit to the infamous prison.

It all came back, he said - the shackles, the cramped cells, the softly coded taps that kept the prisoners of war sane.

"I might have had a tear or two," he said.

He heard no apologies, nor even any overt acknowledgement of his POW status during meetings with top Vietnamese officials, though he said everyone seemed to go out of their way to be kind and make a good impression.

"They intimated that they were glad to have me back," Mr. Johnson said by phone from his office in Richardson. "I'm glad to leave and come back to the United States."

Mr. Johnson, R-Plano, was an Air Force major flying his 25th combat mission over North Vietnam when he was shot down in April 1966. His stooped back and mangled right hand testify to his treatment during the next six years, 10 months and 19 days. He endured beatings and spent more than three years in a dark, solitary cell for refusing to cooperate with efforts to squeeze out information or propaganda.

His wife of 55 years, Shirley Johnson, went with him on a weeklong congressional trip to Vietnam, India, Thailand and Singapore. She'd never expected to get the chance to see Vietnam. Mr. Johnson said he only changed his mind about returning because House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked him to join this group.

The speaker planned to lead the trip but dropped out at the last minute to cope with the lobbying scandal and leadership shuffle.

For Mrs. Johnson, the sight of a mannequin shackled to a bed, in a way that made standing impossible, drove her to weep.

"It was much more stark and depressing than anything I could think of," she said.

"He said many times that the Lord was with him all the way through, and I'm sure he was, because I don't know how you could get through it without having a strong faith."

Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., called the visit "intense." His Texas colleague mesmerized the group - and eavesdropping tourists - with stories of the inhumane conditions and escape attempts. At one point he crawled into a cell to demonstrate how prisoners would tap on tin cups, sometimes simply to pass results from the latest World Series.

"You couldn't have asked for a better tour guide," Mr. Jindal said.

The Hoa Lo Prison dates to 1887, built by the French. A dozen years ago, most of the building was razed to make room for apartments and offices. A guillotine stands in the courtyard, and the suffering of those who fought the colonial authorities is the emphasis of the museum left behind.

The Americans aren't overlooked entirely. Glass cases display flight suits of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who shared a cell with Mr. Johnson for 18 months, and Pete Peterson, the first U.S. ambassador when relations resumed.

Mr. Johnson said he found it irritating that the young tour guide referred only to the mistreatment of Vietnamese inmates by the French, while maintaining that the Americans were treated well.

"It's tough to listen to somebody distort history," he said.

Mr. Johnson did get a kick out of finding some old haunts, such as the officers club and the hotel where he lived in 1965 during his first tour in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City - though he called it Saigon, its name before the communist takeover.

"The country hasn't changed that much. There's more bicycles than motorbikes," he said.

About 1,800 U.S. personnel are still missing, and Mr. Johnson and his colleagues pressed for better cooperation from the Vietnamese, complaining that U.S. investigators are kept out of many regions, especially the central highlands, in their search for remains.

Arriving by Air Force jet from Bangkok, Mr. Johnson sat in the cockpit jump seat for the landing in Hanoi. It had been nearly 33 years since he left

Feb. 13, 1973, the day POWs lined up at Gia Lam Airport awaiting a flight to freedom.

Driving around the city, Mrs. Johnson would ask if he recalled any of the sights. He didn't. He'd spent his seven years in a windowless cell.

Seven House members went on the trip, including Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who was traveling Thursday and unavailable.

"It was a very moving experience to be there with Sam Johnson," said Rep. Paul Gillmor, an Ohio Republican who led the delegation. "It really is an awful place, and people who were kept in there were greatly mistreated and suffered a great deal. ... I think they were very nervous to have Sam there when they realized who he was."

When it came time to sign the guestbook, Mr. Johnson wrote, "Back where I was held for seven years." And he signed his name.

"That's an interesting place," he said.

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