wonderful neighborhood. primarily italian. with some jewish but primarily italian. large families. we had lots of activity because of the abundance of males. all kinds of sports were involved. softball, basketball, touch football. no baseball. no baseball fields. professor han: how many siblings? mr. conte: two more. an older brother. they are both deceased. professor han: all boys? mr. conte: yeah. professor han: what school did you go to in new york city? mr. conte: ps 112 was my grammar school. professor han: ps 112? mr. conte: yeah. professor han: your grammar school. mr. conte: in brooklyn. junior high school was shallow junior high school from the 9th to the 12th grade. no, the junior high school was seventh until ninth. and high school was the 10th to the 12th. professor han: what's the name of it? textile what's the name of it? mr. conte: shallow was the junior high school and then the high school was hi. it was a school sponsored by some industrial, textile guy. part of the curriculum is you had to take one season, one semester of textile. professor han: kind of internship? mr. conte: right. professor han: when did you graduate? mr. conte: 1946. professor han: what did you do? that was right after the end of the world war ii? mr. conte: yeah. right after the end of world war ii. i was at the time. 18 had the war gone on another year i probably would have enlisted in world war ii at 17. but it ended. in september 1950, no, 1948, i enlisted in the army with some dear friends of mine. two other guys with me. professor han: that happened a lot, right? buddies going together? mr. conte: yeah. one of the guys that enlisted with us, he did not stay with us. he was transferred to another camp. me and this other fellow, we were childhood friends since pre-school. we managed to stay together even in basic training and all the way to korea. professor han: where did you receive the basic military training? mr. conte: edgewood arsenal. it was army chemical center in edgewood maryland. ,professor han: chemical center? mr. conte: army chemical center. professor han: what kind? mr. conte: it was the headquarters for army chemical center. professor han: did you get any chemical weapons training? mr. conte: we were trained with smoke, the smoke screens. we made smoke for the smoke screens. the chemical smoke company. professor han: i see. in general, it was infantry? mr. conte: we took basic infantry training. but after that we took specialized training with all kinds of weapons and smoke generators. professor han: smoke generators. wow. kind of an advanced military training? mr. conte: yeah. professor han: i never heard of that he four. -- before. professor han: well, they had a unit like that in world war ii you know, smoke screens for particular battles like that. i don't think they used any smoke. after i got captured, i didn't what they did. i found out later on they used one smoke screen when they were drawing from the reservoir area to go to hungnan, and they had to lay a smoke screen down. professor han: did you learn anything about korea or any asian countries in high school? mr. conte: no, no. the only thing i knew about korea was that elizabeth taylor had gotten engaged to one of the west point famous place -- i think his name was davis, and he was stationed in korea. and i never had heard of korea before that. professor han: you came to know korea because of elizabeth taylor's marriage? mr. conte: well, engagement. it was the first time i heard of the country of korea. later on, we got more informed about it. the japanese annexed korea in, what was it 1903? ,professor han: 1905 and then 1910 fully occupied. it ended in 1945. mr. conte: most of the koreans we knew for the older koreans we , met in the north and south they all spoke japanese. professor han: what happened to you after basic military training? where did you go? mr. conte: i played baseball for the army. professor han: what? mr. conte: i was supposed to go to officer candidate school. we had just had two new noncommissioned officers transfer to our company. professor han: yeah. mr. conte: pre-world war ii guys. and one in particular didn't like me too much, and he was always picking on me. professor han: why was it? mr. conte: he was getting very offensive about my heritage and everything. professor han: oh. mr. conte: so i threatened to slap him. so he turned to me and said to the company commander with my ocs papers, going in the orderly room there was a sign on the wall that said baseball tryouts. i tried out for the baseball team and i made it. for two years i played baseball for the army before we went overseas. professor han: what position? mr. conte: third base. professor han: you were the official army baseball player? mr. conte: yeah. professor han: what was your record? mr. conte: i batted about 276. i was a good third baseman. i had a strong arm. professor han: where did you play most? mr. conte: we played all the military bases in the area. in maryland and virginia and parts of pennsylvania, all the military bases, naval bases, army bases, marine bases, so we played all over that area. professor han: how much were you paid at the time? mr. conte: pay. well, army pay. professor han: what was that? mr. conte: as a pfc, i think i was making $95 a month. they had just raised it -- professor han: are you sure? $95, that sounds a lot. mr. conte: when i was first in it was $55 when i was a recruit. when i was a private it went up to $75. i may be wrong. i'm not sure. professor han: maybe special salary for the baseball players -- mr. conte: no, there was no special salaries. the only special privilege was weighted not have to get involved with the regular military duties. -- we did not have to get involved with the regular military duties. professor han: so you had a good time? mr. conte: oh, i loved it. played night baseball. professor han: many girls came to you? mr. conte: as a matter of fact it got me engaged to a girl from baltimore. professor han: i knew that. so what happened? how did you end up in -- mr. conte: what happened was when the korean war broke out, i was due for discharge. my enlistment was only two years. now i had a month's leave coming. september 3rd 1948 was when i enlisted. september 3, 1950, i was due for discharge. because i had leave that would , be august 3rd. the commander came and he had been told our company was going to go overseas. he says, look, this is where it is at, conte. nothing i can do because i had special orders from the general of the post. i was tdy, but he said we're moving out. after baseball season is over where are you going to go? , you're going to be up for grabs -- you might be with an infantry outfit or you can stay with the guys you have been with for two years. so i decided to stay with the guys i had been with for two years, so i quit the baseball team. professor han: and -- mr. conte: went out to california and went on a ship. yokohama professor han:. professor han: do you remember the day you left for japan? mr. conte: we left the base on my discharge day august 4th, 1950. it took us about seven days to go across. you know what was great about it? the old pullman cars. they were great. i loved it. you know what the old pullman cars are like? bunks with the shades and a little lamp one above the other. it was nice. it was a regular steam train. it was call operated. -- it was coal operated. fort lewis was where we -- professor han: fort lewis seattle? mr. conte: yeah, i think it's seattle. >> when did you leave for japan? mr. conte: i don't know. i don't remember the exact date. august 4th we left maryland. you figure about ten -- maybe about the 14th of august. somewhere around that period. professor han: 1950? mr. conte: yeah, 1950. and we sailed to yokohama. professor han: how was the ship? mr. conte: it was nice. it was a troopship. not a big one. professor han: i heard from many that they smelled and were all dirty. mr. conte: that happened later on going to inchon. they had a trough. when the ship was doing this that trough would be flowing. professor han: what did you do in japan? mr. conte: we went to atsugi, the big japanese air base. they had built a city underground. hospitals. it took half an hour by truck that is how big it was. there was a valley that ran through atsugi. professor han: atsugi? could you spell it? mr. conte: a-t-s-u-g-i. when macarthur went to japan that's where he landed. there was a village that ran through the camp. it was right below. it was off limits to us, but we used to sneak out there to go grab a beer or something. have a little sport. professor han: how long in japan? mr. conte: then we boarded ships. now we're talking about maybe three weeks in atsugi. then we boarded ships and we sat in yokohama harbor for about ten days. we do not know what was happening. until we amassed this big armada. then we took off. that is when we did the inchon invasion. we came around the north of korea. professor han: you were in the inchon landing? do you remember the date that you arrived? mr. conte: the first wave was september 15th. we went on the second wave. it was either the 16th or the 17th because of the tide. you could only do one a day. that kind of thing. professor han: what unit did you belong? mr. conte: the same unit. 69th chemical. professor han: 69th chemical. mr. conte: chemical smoke. professor han: what did you see when you got to inchon? professor han: we did all the usual stuff. we did the climbing out of the ships with the nets getting into the landing craft. but by the time we got to the beach, everybody was piled up. it was all over. because the day before there was such a surprise that there was hardly any casualties. the marines caused few casualties. they went in first. when we came in, it was practically all over. at that point -- professor han: thank god, right? mr. conte: but seoul was being demolished at that they were point. fighting at the han river just above seoul. there was some fierce fighting there. we never saw any of that. then we went south as a mop up thing. to pusan. we stayed there about two to three weeks. we were loading the supply -- we were assigned to unloading supply ships. then we boarded ships again and we made the yellow invasion north of the 30th parallel in wonsan. when we got there -- have you ever heard of bob hope? professor han: yeah. mr. conte: the mps would say keep going, keep going. next thing we know we were in this big stadium. there was bob hope and marilyn maxwell. it was great. professor han: how did you feel to see this entertainers? they were in the battlefield. mr. conte: when you're doing an invasion, weird thoughts go through your head. what used to go through my head, especially at inchon, they used to show these army things about the normandy invasion. have you ever seen that film clip? professor han: yeah. mr. conte: normandy invasion. they did a live shot. two guys running on the beach. boom, two guys get shot. that was going through my mind. had no idea what to expect because you're vulnerable. professor han: right. mr. conte: you're highly vulnerable. then we moved out going further north. thanksgiving we were at a town called sudong, and we had thanksgiving dinner there and the weather had changed dramatically. then we got word -- there were rumors that there were chinese troops. there were chinese troops in korea. at the time, we hoped for christmas. it'll be all over for christmas. but then we started hearing rumors about chinese troops. then from there we were at this town called sudong. when we approached the sound they put me on point. the company stayed way behind and i had to go into this town. there was a big building there a brick building. it turned out to be a conservatory, a music conservatory, and i had to go through there to make sure nobody was there. that was really scary. by the time i got to the second floor, by that time i was really trigger happy. i saw this baby grand piano on a landing. professor han: really? mr. conte: i don't know why i did it, but i was so anxious and so relieved. there was a fire ax on the wall and i chopped that poor piano up and i rolled it down the stairs. professor han: wow. mr. conte: i was really relieved there was nobody in that building with those guys 300 yards down the road. after that, they needed two volunteers to go get in touch with the 31st infantry regiment, the combat team, specifically "b" company. we were with a marine supply depot. the 155 howitzer company. once we got up to the plateau of coterie. apparently the day before they had gotten wiped out. there was tents flapping in the wind. then there wasn't much further after that. we were driving in a jeep and we picked up a straggler from the "b" company. we're driving down this road toward another town. we hear all this machine gunfire. we thought we were coming up the rear end of a firefight, but all that machine gunfight was -- machine gun fire was directed at us. they blew the jeep out from under us. we had a drainage ditch. we got into the ditches right away, but we all got hit. my friend got hit in the wrist. i caught shrapnel in my calf. this other fellow got hit five times. they overpowered us and they took us prisoner. professor han: when was it? what day is this? mr. conte: this is december 1st 1950. the rest is -- we were three together, but after a week of marching, we ended up with a big group we were looking for, 31st infantry and a whole bunch of marines about 400 that got taken. in the chosin reservoir area. professor han: did you belong to 7th infantry? infantry, what division did you belong to? mr. conte: we had a lot of vehicles. and we had some heavy weapons. we had like three or four 50s and a lot of.30 calibers. professor han: you were wounded in your right calf. mr. conte: yeah, right calf. professor han: and were you able to walk? mr. conte: yeah, yeah. i didn't even realize i was wounded. i know i got hit, but i didn't see any blood. professor han: so blood didn't mr. conte: no, it was cold. i got lucky. professor han: sometimes this cold weather cures everything, right? mr. conte: when the weather warmed up, a lot of the guys started bleeding. professor han: oh. mr. conte: it wasn't uncommon. it was very common that guys got hit. they knew they were hit, but i was lucky. i was still mobile. professor han: so how long did you walk to get where? mr. conte: we walked about i guess ten days or two weeks. we got to a town around january. professor han: what was there? was prison camp there? mr. conte: it was a big city once. it was a big city. they used to take over village korean villages. they would confiscate them and would march. we were living in korean homes. sometimes the koreans were still in the house. they would be in part of the house and we were in the other part of the house. professor han: so that was kind of a prison camp there? mr. conte: yeah, this was the first one. it was just a village. there were plenty of armed guards around us. professor han: how many meals a mr. conte: -- professor han: how many meals a day? mr. conte: sometimes twice. the chinese called it red rice. it was sorghum. do you know what that is? professor han: yeah. sometimes twice, so regularly once? mr. conte: it depended on the circumstance. we were mostly on a march. the chinese had to scrounge for food to feed us. professor han: did they cook or did you cook? mr. conte: no, they cooked. professor han: so only sorghum? mr. conte: yeah, that's it. professor han: any other? mr. conte: sometimes on watch before we got there, they would feed us whatever they could get from the local koreans. one particular meal we had -- there was a meat in this one meal that we had, which was delicious. professor han: pork? mr. conte: dog. professor han: did you have boots on your foot? mr. conte: yeah, i was lucky. what happened we were issued these rubber boots where you had inserts and you had to remove -- you kept one set of inserts on your body, then you had to change off. it was a very dumb kind of a boot. the night before i had changed and put on my leather boots. mr. conte: -- professor han: you're talking about mickey mouse boot? mr. conte: what? professor han: mickey mouse boot? no? you never heard of it? mr. conte: no. so i put on my old leather boots. most of the guys who had the rubber boots, they sweated a lot in the march. if it would freeze, they used to lose toes. the frostbite would happen a lot faster. professor han: raymond, that i just had the interview with, he had bare feet no socks. they took off the boots and they gave him a north korean sandal. he went through the winter with it. mr. conte: really? professor han: yeah. unbelievable, isn't it? mr. conte: unbelievable is right. it was cold, but was really the thing -- it was the wind. they came in four day cycles. it would start off like a breeze. by the time the third or fourth day came, you're talking about 40, 50, 60 mile an hour winds with subzero temperatures. forget it. if you could get out of the wind, you could survive. but if you were stuck in that wind, if you weren't moving and you weren't dressed properly you were dead. some of the chinese guards -- they would find them in the morning froze to death. they were trying to stay one. salvatore conte -- professor han: you mean even chinese soldiers? mr. conte: yeah. they were watching us at nighttime. two or three of them at the end of the night froze to death. what am i doing here? there must be a better way. let's go home. the war is over. it was mostly jokes. you find yourself in a foreign country and you're fighting a war. all of a sudden the reality of this preposterous situation becomes a reality. professor han: did you believe in god? were you christian? mr. conte: i used to. professor han: what does that mean? mr. conte: after what i saw, the treatment and the way the death toll in the camps was so bad, so high, i wasn't much of a believer anymore. i believed in myself. that was the only comfort i could get was in my own state of mind and my own condition to stay alive. professor han: you didn't stay up to the release, right? no, no. kongae, what happened there -- the chinese plan was to put us through this indoctrination. professor han: there? mr. conte: yeah. usually the interpreter, their english was very, very bad, so we tolerated. we just sat there. professor han: what did they say actually? mr. conte: what? professor han: what did they say? mr. conte: it was primarily criticism. criticized wall street. we were warmongers. we were being fooled and lied to. the usual propaganda that went along with that stuff. a lot of it may be true. [laughter] but at the time, we listened. they insisted on us signing some sort of petition. we refused and we got word from the officers that were in charge there. there was a marine major mclaughlin. they had did a deal. through the petition, we're going to release you en masse. we're going to march you south and release all of you guys as a big propaganda thing. can you imagine being released 400 prisoners of war as a propaganda move? it would have been shattering to the morale of our troops. during the chinese revolution, mao tse tung, when they took chinese prisoners and the nationalists prisoners, they would put them through a two week propaganda schooling thing and then they would release them because they didn't want prisoners. so they would release them. so what happened then we marched all the way south from kongae all the way down towards the front line. all the way down there -- the guards, they all knew we were going home. our spirits were great. professor han: when was this? mr. conte: this was january, february -- january, february, march of 1950. yeah, it was the end of february, the beginning of march. professor han: of 1951. mr. conte: of 1951, yeah. professor han: so you thought you were released? mr. conte: yeah. when we got down to the point of release, something changed. and they released 20 marines or they left them there unattended. they eventually said they escaped, but i think the army didn't want to make it look like they were released by the chinese. then they turned us around to march back up again. now our morale, forget about it. it was shattered. one minute you're going home and the next minute you're going back the way you came from and further north. when we got up to the river, we got to this town called changsong. professor han: camp 1 or 3? mr. conte: it was camp 1. i became very political, so i called a meeting. professor han: why did they get you back to the camp? mr. conte: there was a rumor that there was a possibility that we may have been taken by our own troops. in other words, we were not being released, we were being recaptured, which would have been contradictory -- i think there was something going on between both sides about brainwashing. so i called this meeting of a bunch of guys. from here on in, we're not students. we're prisoners of war. if we stick together, no more of this baloney of propaganda crap. these lectures and everything. treat us as prisoners of war. there is a geneva convention to deal with this kind of thing. have the red cross or something. by this kind, the chinese or taking observations. they decided to find who may be possible leaders. this is where they could isolate you. anybody potential whether you , were in big in size or brighter than somebody else. you maybe had a better education. they kept an eye on you. i became very vocal. they encouraged discussion. they would have these big propaganda meetings. they were encourage any questions. often i would get up and say south korea did not invade north korea. it doesn't make sense when an invading army gets pushed back to the pusan perimeter. all the guys would jump in and start asking questions. the whole thing got disrupted. start asking questions. this is when i got on the chinese list. we used to call it the shit list, pardon the expression. professor han: you were isolated and tortured? mr. conte: a little bit here and a little bit there. they would take me out two or three weeks at a time and put me in isolation. professor han: what do you mean isolation? to a special room by yourself? mr. conte: solitary. they would let me back into the company and they decided to form what they called a reactionary squad. they selected me to be the squad leader. i was responsible for any damage these guys did. it would all fall on me. but we were pretty cool. one time, may day was a big holiday with the chinese. it symbolized something with the russian revolution and the chinese revolution. usually on these holidays they would feed us better. we would get white rice, maybe a little bit of pork, sometimes even flour. that night i had to go to latrine during the sleep. i saw these big banners for the march the next day. i told my guys in my squad i'm not going to march because there's going to be photographers there taking pictures of how we're being treated. i don't want to be part of that propaganda. to make a long story short. when we all fell out that day, my squad and myself, when we went back into our room -- the rest of the company saw and they went back to their rooms. the word went down to the british company. the 400 british. they heard the yanks aren't marching, they went back in their rooms. the next night in the middle of the night they came with a flashlight. they took me out and put me in solitary. that's when i was confined to those wooden boxes. have you heard anything about that? professor han:marching, they went back in their rooms. the next night in the middle of yeah. tell me. mr. conte: it was a wooden box. we called it the kennel. it was about 3 1/2 feet high and 2 feet wide and 5 feet long. i was in that for eight months. there was a whole bunch, it varied and a length of time people stayed in them. but i was the last one in the wooden boxes. i was the only remaining guy. me and an englishman, keith godman. from there, when they let me out, that was in december of 1952 -- they let me out of the box. they gave me like four or five letters that my family had written me that they held onto. professor han: hold on. how long were you in the wooden box? you were not allowed to come at all? mr. conte: twice a day. >> twice a day. professor han: twice a day. mr. conte: if you had dysentery you were in trouble. , i went to latrine and the guard was yelling at me to hurry up and i couldn't. i could barely move. as i came out of the box, out of the latrine to go back into the box, he was poking me with a bayonnet. i turned around and grabbed him by the throat instinctively. this guy got so frightened he dropped his weapon and he ran. i went back in the box, closed the gate, put the lock on it. my primary interrogator came with some guards and they marched me out of the camp through a village and then they had me climb up a mountain. i knew this was what they were going to do. they were going to shoot me. they would say i attempted to escape. i was walking with hardly any shoes. all i had on was a pair of -- just little underwear, like boxer type of white underwear. got up on top of the hill and now he's reading off my death sentence, all the charges against me, and how i couldn't be rehabilitated. i was a typical type of wall street mongering war criminal. they tied me around. they took the handcuffs off, tied me around the tree, and the guards posted a rifle at me. at that time, i became very calm. the sky was a nice blue sky, beautiful day, warm, no breeze. then click. no bullet in the gun. so then he said, however -- when he said however i knew there was a good chance i could get out of this. but i told him, look, whatever you do, don't put me back in the box. whatever you do, don't put me back in the box. sure enough they put me back in the box, which was what i wanted because that was my security blanket. once i was in there, i was going to be alive. they weren't going to shoot me anymore. it was an old briar rabbit kind of thing. the rabbit says to the fox don't throw me into the briar patch and he throws them into the patch and the rabbit took off. i was there for eight months. while we were in the boxes -- you know the korean kitchens they were lower in the rest of the house. they would cook -- there was a bunch of boxes in this hut. my box -- there was three boxes. they were outside the hut and a lean-to with a straw mat in front. professor han: what? mr. conte: made from rice mats straw mat in front to cover the , box. well, they brought an englishman in. one was empty in the middle and he was in the -- the guards decided to have a little sport. they wanted to play around to amuse themselves. they started working us over, me and this englishman. after a couple hours of this nonsense, then we went back in the box. then they took the englishman out. the guy who was in charge of the guards was a mean son of a gun. we called him the crab because he walked sideways. he carried one of our weapons which fires a 45 caliber. they are taking the englishman. between the straw mats, i could not see him. he was only about 10 feet away. then i heard a shot go off. i figured they shot the englishman. he was brought into the box. i said what happened. he said the corporal of the guards, the grease gun had a wire handle. it fires on a forward motion. the slide is always back around the chamber. when he was beating this englishman, the gun went off and he killed himself. they took him. that was the last i saw the englishman. i used to hear him every night hollering and cursing because they were beating him up. then eventually i ran into him at this other camp, camp 2. they had 21 of us in this one building with a fence around it for the first time. there was just a straw mat. there was separation with the straw mats. there wasn't like we were in a room or anything. we were outside. professor han: yeah. mr. conte: my box was outside. professor han: right. so one box. mr. conte: there was three boxes together. the empty one was in the middle and the englishman was in the other one. during the daytime, you had to sit upright. at nighttime, you could lay down, but you couldn't stretch out. we were very skinny in those days. professor han: once you get out of the box twice a day, how long do they allow you to stay outside of the box? mr. conte: it depended on the guard. sometimes you could stay a minute longer, maybe two minutes longer. if you were lucky, you could catch a new guard. one time i was finding chinese cigarette butts to save the tobacco. i was able to roll a cigarette. but i had no matches, so we got a new guard. i got the cigarette and i put it on my ear like it was supposed to be there. when he let me out of the box, i said -- i went to the chinese guard do you have a match? , he goes into his pocket. he takes out matches and he lights my cigarette. so i took a couple of puffs on it. when i did was, we had these small little bamboo things that we slept on. then we had the coat they had issued us. i put a couple of them together and i put the cigarette butt at the end of that thing for the guys in the other room. there's this cigarette butt sticking in midair. the chinese guard was looking all around the room. he never spotted the cigarette butt while it was smoking. professor han: how did you endure that small box for eight months? mr. conte: a matter of will. i got into teleportation. i could get into a deep thought and i could teleport myself way someplace else. do you understand what i'm is a saying? professor han: i know. you were like a meditator. mr. conte: i read a book years ago about someone who was incarcerated. there was a movie with gary cooper. he would do this teleportation. spiritually get out of the box. professor han: you are somewhere else. mr. conte: we all had a common dream that we were home in the dream. but before we woke up, we would tell our parents or people i have to get back. the guys are waiting for me. we would grab magazines and candy bars. there was a common thread with all the guys. >> what about the towel on the baseball you made? mr. conte: we had two little hand towels about that long. very thin. one of them was falling apart. i was kind of rubbing it a little bit. so i took another strand out made it bigger and i made it a little bit bigger. next thing i know i could make a baseball here. i pulled these two towels thread by thread. i had a piece of soap. every time i had some thread, i would put the soap around to keep it in place. i got to a point where i had built the exact replica of a baseball. i played baseball. i knew what the size was, you know? when they had taken me out of the box to take me to go someplace, i don't know, to wash up or something, i saw a friend of mine, jack kirby. i threw a baseball to this friend of mine. he thought i was throwing a message to him, so he cut the baseball up. there was no message, i just wanted him to have it. professor han: how many meals a day? mr. conte: twice. sometimes -- in the afternoon, they would give us something like a soup. it was some watery soup kind of thing with some dried biscuit. sometimes we would get that in the afternoon, but it was mostly in the morning and then at nighttime. one time during that four day cycle -- i'm not inside the building. i am outside. professor han: i know. mr. conte: i used to prepare for it. day by day, i knew it was going to increase. the blanket i would have it over , my head. my own breath would keep me warm. i'd stay huddled up. with my own breath, i was able to stay warm. one night, this chinese guard, he saw the situation. i could hear him getting sacks of corn stalk and putting it around the box. so i would be warm. it was a gesture i never expected. it almost made me cry. like there is humanity here. ,professor han: did you have a blanket inside? mr. conte: yeah. we were issued a blanket. in the wintertime we had the cotton padded uniforms. it was a uniform with trousers and a jacket. they gave us this cotton padded coat. professor han: did you talk about this when you were released? mr. conte: yeah, it was in the papers. professor han: in the paper? mr. conte: when we were released -- professor han: when was it? mr. conte: i got released august 27th of 1953. professor han: right. mr. conte: but prior to that when we got released, one of the officers said there's a press tent over there. if you want to talk for them you can. if you don't want to, they won't bother you. i said i want to go to the press. there was an australian reporter. his name was winston birchhead. he worked for "the daily work." it was a communist english newspaper. it was the only newspaper we'd get. it was the english version of the shanghai news. professor han: what was the name of that? mr. conte: "the daily worker." he would print how everything was nice and everything was so good. there would be phony pictures of us like we were having a great time playing sports. i said i wanted to go to the press tent. there was about a dozen guys. i said winston birchhead. they got a little strange. they figured if i want to talk to the communists, maybe i have been brainwashed. they said he isn't here, so i left. i went back later. i says is he here yet? no. what happened? they pulled his credentials. he is a persona non grata. why did you want to talk to him? i said i didn't want to talk to him. i wanted to slap his face. i had all these sketches of guys with me. if you really want to know what happened, this is what happened. then when i got home, it was all over the newspapers in america. "the ap," the newspapers across the country. when i got to japan, i was talking to my brother. he says you're all over the newspapers here in america. there was a lot of publicity because of that particular incident where i wanted to slap a communist newspaperman. professor han: what is korea to you? mr. conte: it was like a strange place with a lot of strange memories. it was mixed emotion, but later on it became like what would happen to south korea made me feel good. made me feel good about that whole war because it seems like everything after that, everything turns bad. we were able to salvage something out of that war. we salvaged a prosperous country, a major industrial power with great living conditions and a lot of prosperity too. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter for information about our upcoming programs. american history tv is joining our time warner cable partners to showcase the history of greensboro, north carolina. to learn more about cities on our 2015 tour, visit c-span.org/cities store. we continue with our look at the history of greensboro. this is american history tv on c-span3. >> we are in greensboro, north carolina at the military park. standing on the battlefield of golfer courthouse. -- guilford courthouse. during the revolutionary war the british had captured georgia and south carolina and were moving into north carolina to try to restore authority, which meant they would conquer the land. that is how they landed here at guilford courthouse. march, 15, 1781. general nathanael greene was pitted against the british army under lord cornwallis. lord cornwallis was making his march through north carolina and general greene wanted to stop that. nathanael greene was george washington's most trusted general. he was picked by general washington to come south and save the southern army. the southern army had lost two major battles at charleston and camden, south carolina. last many men. there were few soldiers left. general washington sent general greene south to stop general cornwallis. charles cornwallis was the commander of the british army in the southern department. at guilford courthouse, he commanded the army made of veteran british soldiers. this was the first battle in which cornwallis and greene met each other on the battlefield. both of the generals were

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