« I wouldn’t trade it for nuthin’ »

« Soon after, he re-enlisted and was assigned to South Korea, but his bitterness led him to spend his money on prostitutes and drinking. “I was fed up. If I died or I lived, I didn’t care.” At noon on Aug. 15, 1962, with a court martial looming for forging a pass, Pfc. James Dresnok took the 12-gauge shotgun he was cleaning and, wearing his fatigues, walked across the DMZ in broad daylight.
Once in the North, he joined Pvt. Larry Allen Abshier, who had defected three months earlier. In December 1963, Specialist Jerry Wayne Parrish also defected, and then Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins in January 1965. Together, the four became propaganda heroes for the North.
After a couple of years in North Korea, though, the cultural differences felt overwhelming, so in 1966 the four fled to the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang, asking for asylum. But the Russians turned them over to the North Koreans. Mr. Dresnok braced for a horrible punishment. But, he says, none came. They were ordered to undergo more “education,” Mr. Dresnok said, and he decided he would try to fit in. “Man is the master of his life, and little by little I came to understand the Korean people,” he said. »
A propos du film Crossing the line, critique du NYT