June 24, 1962 - A U.S. soldier was released today by Communist guerrillas who had held him captive six months. He told military interrogators in Saigon that he had successfully resisted attempts to brainwash him. Newsmen were not allowed to see the soldier, S4-C George F. Fryett Jr. A U.S. military spokesman said that Specialist Fryett had denied any knowledge of letters supposedly written by him and mentioned two weeks ago by a guerrilla broadcast. The broadcast indicated that, as the price for his freedom, Specialist Fryett had turned against the U.S. and accepted the Communist point of view. The spokesman said that although the Viet Cong had made repeated efforts, “often at gunpoint,” to brainwash the American soldier, he “never accepted their statements.” He said that Specialist Fryett had not been tortured by his captors but had lost 25 pounds. He said Specialist Fryett had been ill most of the time and unable to eat, that he had been “bound constantly during his first four months of captivity and was never without a Viet Cong armed guard.”
