The Journal of Military History

The Journal of Military History 67.2 (2003) 660-667

Letters to the Editor

We are always pleased to have letters to the editor because this shows that people are reading our Journal seriously. However, due to space limitations, we ask that you keep your letters under 500 words.

To the Editor:

I have recently been provided by one of my readers with a copy of your July 2002 issue, featuring an article by Timothy Nenninger entitled, "United States Army Prisoners of War and the Red Army, 1944-45: Myths and Realities."

I am the author of the book, Moscow Bound: Policy, Politics and the POW/MIA Dilemma which Mr. Nenninger attempts to discredit. In addition to disparaging my scholarship, Mr. Nenninger appears to question my motives and to defame my character by labeling me a perpetrator of a "myth."

I was required to fully document my published writing on the subject of American POWs in Soviet control by the Washington Post in 1990 and 1991, The Oregonian, the Disabled American Veterans, the VFW, the American Legion Magazine and other publications, in addition to the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Select Committee on POWs and MIAs from 1989 to 1993. Some, but by no means all of the documentary evidence which I supplied to the U.S. Senate was published as Volume II, POW/MIA Policy and Process, Hearings of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, United States Senate, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992, ISBN 0-16-038479-6.

Mr. Nenninger was not truthful in his article about the declassification of U.S. documents concerning American POWs of WWII remaining in Soviet control, and he is directly responsible for denying the declassification of many files containing large numbers of U.S. documents on this subject. Those files were mandated to be declassified years ago by both the Senate and the President. I met with Nenninger in the Archives and he denied my request for specifically identified files of priceless historical documents concerning U.S. POWs of WWII and other wars remaining in Soviet captivity. In this regard he has denied the sacrifice they made for our country and assisted those who committed this war crime.

It would appear that Mr. Nenninger is in fact the perpetrator of a "myth," in claiming that these events never occurred. In 1992 the President of Russia confirmed to a joint session of the U.S. Congress that the Soviets had secretly withheld American POWs of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The American POWs withheld by Stalin after WWII were, in fact, part of a chain of such secretly held American prisoners in Russia which began after the 1918-19 American Intervention in Russia, and continued after WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. In quoting me, in your magazine, Mr. Nenninger removed critical [End Page 660] words which accurately describe this historical sequence. (See pg. 8 Moscow Bound)

As a partially disabled combat infantry veteran of Vietnam, I take strong exception to having my character and motives assailed publicly for my efforts to uncover the fate of thousands of my fellow American soldiers who remained POW or MIA after four of our nation's major twentieth-century wars. I respectfully request that I be permitted to respond to Mr. Nenninger's accusations with a similar length article, in the interest of historical fairness and literary freedom.

I shall forward this letter by surface mail in addition to e-mail, together with a copy of my book and various letters relating to my work for the U.S. Senate and the American veterans community in this matter.

John M. G. Brown
Petrolia, California

To the Editor:

This is in response to the letter from John M. G. Brown regarding my July 2002 JMH article on American POWs and the Red Army. While Brown clearly disagrees with the thrust of my article, nowhere in his letter does he deal with the substance of my argument, namely that 23,000 American prisoners of war did not disappear into the Soviet Gulag as Brown and...