A middle finger when no one can see it

April 11, 2011 9:57 PM

Ugh. Search is failing me today. What did the U.S. POW's who subtlety gave middle fingers during their propaganda interrogation films refer to the gesture as to their captors?
posted by Gilbert to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Which war? Examples? I think you mean things like having one's hand supporting one's jaw/cheek in an apparently contemplative gesture while secretly 'flipping the bird' at someone, but I really can't tell if you're talking about US propaganda films on what to do if you get captured, or propaganda films of captured US service personnel put out by the USSR or what. And do you mean what did they say to their captors, or what did they say about their captors, or....?

In short, your question is hard to understand.
posted by anigbrowl at 10:09 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think it was the Viet Nam war, anigbrowl. And US POW's being posed for propaganda pictures slipped the bird into a few shots.
So, how did they explain their hand position to their Viet Namese captors? Or did they need to? Maybe it was not noticed at the time?
posted by SLC Mom at 10:12 PM on April 11, 2011

Best answer: When captured by North Korea, the crew of the ship USS Pueblo were forced to appear in staged propaganda photos. Each man showed the finger in the photos. When pressed, they claimed it was a Hawaiian Good Luck sign. Unfortunately, North Korea was able to read the foreign press and soon discovered the truth.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:12 PM on April 11, 2011

Yipes, meant this link, too many tabs open.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:14 PM on April 11, 2011

Response by poster: Yes! Thank you.
Previously, because I couldn't remember the name of it.
posted by Gilbert at 10:21 PM on April 11, 2011

And of course the famous performance of Jeremiah Denton

Denton is best known for the 1966 North Vietnamese television interview he was forced to give as a prisoner, in which he ingeniously used the opportunity to communicate to American Intelligence. During the interview Denton blinked his eyes in morse code to spell out the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E" to communicate that his captors were torturing him and his fellow POWs. He was also questioned about his support for the U.S. war in Vietnam, to which he replied: "I don't know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully.
posted by three blind mice at 4:36 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]