Spycraft - Melton [175]
Stockdale’s first priority was to construct a list of the names of every POW known to be alive and send it back to the people “in intelligence.” On January 2, 1967, he prepared his first letter containing forty names of confirmed POWs, using the carbon technique along with the “darling/adoring husband” phrases.45 The message was then unknowingly returned to the United States by a leftist anti-Vietnam organization named Women Strike for Peace.
Two weeks later another opportunity to communicate arose when Reverend Muste, a Presbyterian minister and frequent Hanoi visitor, passed through and offered to take mail back with him. Stockdale used the carbons for a second secret message, adding more names of confirmed POWs along with information on the camp’s location and a list of potential nearby targets.46 Its secret writing, when developed, revealed ominous content: “Experts in torture . . . hand and leg irons—16 hours a day.”47
Commander Robert Boroughs of Naval Intelligence, who worked with Sybil, attempted to expand communications with other POWs, but the project stalled. One Agency officer who became aware of the project later on said, “What I understood was that more senior Pentagon officers took the position, ‘Absolutely not. These guys have got it tough enough right now, they’re being tortured to death. They’re in the most miserable situation in the world. The last thing we need to do is make them spies.’”
At that point, the Navy turned to the CIA. “It’s my understanding that after the Pentagon decided not to continue communicating covertly with Stockdale, the Navy decided to do it ‘under the table,’ because they believed their guys needed it. They also had a senior pilot [Stockdale] who asked for it,” said a TSD officer who served at the time. “The Navy request came in from outside the normal chain of command, but we had a Director or Deputy Director who accepted their request and TSD was directed to assist.”
Unfortunately, there had also been private attempts by some of the families of POWs to communicate clandestinely with their loved ones. In one well-meaning but failed effort, the wife of a POW secreted a transistor radio in a jar of peanut butter without telling anyone. The North Vietnamese guards stole the peanut butter for their own use and discovered the radio, leading to thorough searches of all packaged material. For example, candy bars were crushed into small pieces and toothpaste tubes squeezed empty before being given to prisoners.
Then, in April of 1967, Commander Boroughs introduced Sybil to an “expert from Washington,” Bruce Rounds, from the State Department. Sybil recalled the way Rounds laughed when he said he was a State employee—it made her think he really worked for the CIA.48 Rounds suggesteda new code that would allow Stockdale to communicate even if guards were dictating each word he wrote. Rounds taught Sybil the code, which she then used in a May 25, 1967, letter that included a photograph of the roses she received on Mother’s Day. The picture with the roses was intended to be “soaked.”49
Fourteen months passed before Stockdale was allowed to send another letter. He inserted a phrase of special interest, “I often think of Red and wanted to include a message, but it is impossible; tell him next time.” His reference to Red alerted the intelligence community that he was unable to send a covert message. “Red” was Retired Vice Admiral William F. “Red” Rayborn who, until June of 1966, had been Director of Central Intelligence.
As more letters with coded information were received, the few people who knew about the project were hard pressed to explain how they were getting access to POW information, such as prisoner names and camp locations.
“Over the time that I worked at night on the project, I had the deeply satisfying personal pleasure of seeing how grateful the military was that they had this channel. For years, it had been unknown what happened to