Word: vliet
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Army Colonel John H. Van Vliet Jr., who made a forced visit to Katyn as a German prisoner in 1943, testified that, despite his hatred for the Nazis, he formed an immediate "unshakeable opinion" that the Russians were guilty. Henry Cassidy, former Associated Press correspondent in Moscow, testified that he suspected the Russians of rigging the evidence when they took him to view the mass graves at Katyn in 1944. An exPolish diplomat said that his exile government in London asked Moscow fruitlessly more than 50 times about the fate of the missing officers. Two former Polish soldiers testified that...
...Missing Report. One of the first things they investigated was a report made by Lieut. Colonel John H. Van Vliet Jr. As a wartime prisoner in Germany, West Pointer Van Vliet had been one of four Allied officers forced by the Germans to go under guard to Katyn. When he was liberated in 1945, Van Vliet promptly made a report to Major General Clayton Bissell, chief of War Department Intelligence in Washington. Bissell had him dictate a full account of the trip, marked it "Top Secret," and swore him to silence. Then, somehow, the Top Secret report disappeared. Bissell said...
When this was discovered, five years later, the Army asked Van Vliet to reconstruct his report from memory. His conclusions: "I believe the Russians did it. I hated the Germans, I didn't want to believe them. I realized the Germans would do their best to convince me that Russia was guilty ... It was only with great reluctance that I decided finally that it must be true...
...Vliet admitted that no single piece of evidence provided absolute proof, but particularly, Van Vliet noticed the condition of the uniforms and boots. If the officers had been killed after two years in prison camp, these would have shown much more wear, Van Vliet thought. Lieut. Colonel Donald B. Stewart, another U.S. prisoner of the Germans, told the committee that he agreed with Van Vliet. Other investigators have pointed out that many officers were dressed in fur coats and woolen scarves-dress suitable for Smolensk's cold spring but unlikely for August when the Russians claim the Poles were...