BBC: The American POW (Korean War) who chose China

[pampango]

At the end of the Korean War, thousands of prisoners from both sides faced a choice - whether to return home or remain with their captors. David Hawkins was one of a handful of American GIs who chose to go to China. "My reasoning was, they really have embraced this socialism so let me see what it is like - let me check it out," says Mr Hawkins, now 78 and living in California.

After university, he obtained a commercial driving licence and moved to the city of Wuhan. There he drove a Czechoslovakian truck for a factory. He was the only non-Chinese in the city, he says. "People were not shy," he recalls. And he says people would treat him as a celebrity when they learned he was American.

His wife, a Russian woman he married in Beijing, joined him a year later and the couple eventually had two children, but Mr Hawkins had a difficult time readjusting.

He was also surprised he faced no personal animosity when he returned. In fact, Mr Hawkins was sought by universities to lecture about his experience, and was even invited as a guest on TV news programmes such as The Mike Wallace Interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15453730

[Peregrine Took]

1. Interesting. Thanks for posting. My brother was in Korea back then and

one of his jobs was to interview ex POW's before they were sent home. I sent this article on to him.

[brooklynite]

2. How did the Socialism work out?

Might have looked good on paper, but I'm not sure I'd have wanted to live through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.