The Korean War of Prisoners

At 10pm on 26 July 1953 US president Dwight D. Eisenhower made a radio and television address from the White House announcing the signing of the Korean Armistice an hour earlier in Panmunjom (on 27 July local time), ending the fighting between the United Nations forces and the Communist armies of the People’s Republic of China and North Korea. Eisenhower first paid tribute to the killed and wounded US soldiers sacrificed ‘in that far-off land’ to ‘keep freedom alive upon the earth’. He then spoke of American prisoners of war (POWs): ‘Our thoughts turn also to those other Americans wearied by many months of imprisonment behind the enemy lines. The swift return of all of them will bring joy to thousands of families.’ The next paragraph in his original prepared statement continued: ‘We think, too, of the enemy prisoners in our hands. We have steadfastly sustained their right to choose their own future, to live in freedom if they wish.’ These two sentences, however, did not appear in the actual speech.