that the co’cr-up has been much worse in Britain because ofrnthe absence of a Freedom of hiformation Act and the use of HIxdrnlaws to silence historians and journalists seeking to exposernthe saage treatment of women and children b British forces.rnThe cnormitv of Operation Keelhaul is staggering; it is astoundingrnthat American officials authorized it.rnThe Geneva Concntion of 1929 clearh implied that prisonersrnof war were not to be repatriated against their will. ThernHague Conention of 1907, to which the United States was arnsignator, fodjade the abuse of surrendered soldiers. In addition,rnthere is the long American tradition of political aslum forrnictims or potential ictims of tyrannical regimes. Despite allrnthis, the United States began forcibly repatriating So ict prisonersrnin 1944. On September 17, the Roose’elt administrationrnissued a directic. Joint Chiefs of Staff order 1067, whichrnnotified General Dwight Kisenhower that Soviet citi/ensrnwould be repatriated regardless of their indiyidual wi,shes.rnhnplcmcnted between 1944 and 1947, this polic resulted inrnthe return to the Soviet Union of at least two million unwillingrnand terrified people, that is “to jail, sla e labor camps, ruthlessrnpersecution, and death,” notes l^’pstein. The perpetrators ofrnthis crime “were not the Nazis, nor the communists, but thernmilitar- authorities of the Western allies.” Operation Keelhaulrnser ed onl the interests of Josef Stalin and world communism.rnhi October 1944, acting Secretary of State F.dward R. Stettiniusrntold Soiet Ambassador Gromko that the War Departmentrnhad issued instructions that prisoners be turned oyer as the Sonetsrndemanded, hicidentally, the United States continued torndrop leaflets that promised humane treatment for all who surrendered.rnOperation Keelhaul had nothing to do with humane treatment.rnI’.pstcin discloses that So’iet representatives “were admittedrnto POW camps (in both the U.S. and Europe), pickedrntheir own ictims, and British and American authorities acceptedrntheir choices.” Those who were repatriated were handledrnwith the most appalling brutalit”. American soldiersrnwho were forced to take part in the handoyer have describedrnthe liorrors of the action. 4 he prisoners sought b’ the Sovietsrnwere beaten and loaded on cattle cars in Kurope and herdedrnonto Soviet .ships in American ports.rnBertram Wolfe, another Hoover Institution scholar, recallsrn”the deportation . . . of refugees who had reached the apparentrnsafetv of our Fort Dix and our city of Seattle, hi Seattle Harborrnwe watch American soldiers, some of them weeping,rndumping Russian bodies into trucks, subduing them withrnblackjacks and bayonets, fishing them up when tlicv leap intornthe water, dumping them on a Soviet ship.” Those at I’brt Dixrnwho resisted were beaten, gassed, and drugged so that tlievrncould be loaded on a Soviet ship for dispatch to Stalin’s hangmen.rnI low could this happen in /’Vmerica at the hands of Americans?rnIt is important to understand the atmosphere of thoserndas. Ihe same vear Operation Keelhaul coniiiieiiced, VicernPresident IIenr Wallace toured Siberia, where the prisonrncamps were located. I Ic sent a telegram to Stalin, praising thernbl()od dictator for his administration of the region. Accordingrnto Arnold Bcicliiiian of the I loov’er Institution, Wiillacc “describedrnMagadan |one of the more notorious Ckilags| as arncombination T’Aand Iludson’s Ba Conipam.” “Wallace hadrnthrown in his political lot with the communist apparat whichrnoperated sueeessfulh in Va,sliington, D.C. throughout thernwar—-Alger Hiss, I.,auchliii Currie,” and others.rnThere were powerful forces at the highest level of the Roosernelt administration who were bent on carrying out Stalin’srnwishes. Alger Hiss was at Roosevelt’s right hand during thernPresident’s Yalta conference with Stalin. The desire to appeasernthe dictator colored American policy and made possible thesernviolations of American tradition. To this day, these influencesrnand the horrors that resulted from them remain outside thernconsciousness of the American people. The chief appeasers remainrnnameless, their evil deeds locked awav’ in vaults markedrn”Top Secret”—hidden from the American people.rnAt the same time, similar ugl events were unfolding inrnterritory under British control. These events were docunientedrnfor the first time by Count Tolstoy in his books Victimsrnof Yalta and The Minister and the Massacres. A distinguishedrnBritish historian and man of letters and a descendant of one ofrnRussia’s most famous families, Tolstoy described the turnoverrnto the Soviets in May 1945 of tens of thousands of Cossackrnmen, women, and children who had never been Soviet citizens.rnAs soon as they were turned over in a brutal roundup, somernwere machine-gunned h the Soviets. Those who escaped immediaternexecution died en route to or in the forced laborrncamps in Siberia. 4’his operation was carried out as the resultrnof a verbal directive issued by Harold Macmillan, British ResidentrnMinister in the Mediterranean and later Prime Ministerrnand head of the Conservative Party. His agents were GeneralrnSir Charles Keightley and Brigadier lbb I ,ow, whom Macmillanrnlater made Lord Aldington.rn’mplemented betweenrn1944 and 1947,rnthis policy resultedrnin the return to the Soviet Union of atrnleast two million unwilling and terrifiedrnpeople, that is ‘to jail, slave laborrncamps, ruthless persecution, andrndeath,’ notes Epstein. The perpetratorsrnof this crime ‘were not the Nazis,rnnor the communists, but the militaryrnauthorities of the Western allies.’rnIronically, the turnover violated orders issued by WinstonrnChurchill and Field Marshal Alexander. Keightley and hisrnstaff tricked Cossack officers into believing they were to be pro-rn idcd safe haven in Italy. Scores of thousands of Yugoslavs werernsimilarly dispatched to Fito, also on Macmillan’s secret andrnunauthorized orders, and suffered torture and mass slaughter.rnKeightlcv- and Low deliberately disobeyed F’ield MarshalrnFEBRUARY 1995/11rnrnrn