Today in History—May 2: A War Changed by the Blink of an Eye
American Comdr. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr., had been held by the North Vietnamese for 10 months when he met with a Japanese television journalist on May 2, 1966.
The Navy pilot had been shot down while leading his squadron on a mission over North Vietnam. Injured and taken prisoner, Denton had already endured repeated beatings by the time he shuffled into the meeting with the journalist. His captors had warned him that if he did not disavow the U.S. government, he would be beaten again.
Seemingly disoriented by the bright television lights, Denton began blinking randomly as he answered the reporter’s questions.
When asked if he supported the American government, his response was: “I’m a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.” The answer doomed him to further beatings—but that was not the point.
Those seemingly random blinks were intentional, courageous, brilliant, and audacious. Each blink or series of blinks represented a letter in Morse Code. Denton methodically blinked out a message he prayed U.S. officials would be able to decipher: T-O-R-T-U-R-E.
Denton was one of the first POWs freed after a peace deal was reached in 1973.
They got the message. It was their first official confirmation of the treatment endured by American prisoners of war (POW) in Vietnam. Although Denton faced additional torture for what he said during the interview, he would later say that he didn’t think the North Vietnamese figured out his coded message until after his 1973 release. The knowledge that POWs were being tortured helped further erode the American public’s support for the war and led to calls for the Nixon administration to negotiate a settlement that would bring the POWs home.
In 1980 Denton was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama. Two years later fellow veteran John McCain was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Arizona. It was a bit of a homecoming for the two, who had been held captive together a decade earlier at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.”
- 2,766: Days Denton was held
- 680+: American POWs returned home alive from the Vietnam War
- 12: Missions flown by Denton over North Vietnam
- 1803: The Louisiana Purchase is signed in France
- 1920: The Negro National League plays its first baseball game
- 2000: U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton gives orders to make highly accurate GPS available to the public
