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Ten GIs Get Asylum In Sweden
Neutral Sweden yesterday granted asylum to ten more American servicemen protesting the Vietnam war, including one who received a Purple Heart from President Johnson during his Christmas visit to troops last Christmas.
The medal winner, Terry Marvell Whitmore, 21, of Memphis, Tenn was in a group of six defectors who arrived in Stockholm, May 25 after a journey from Vietnam that included a stop in Moscow where they appeared on Soviet television to denounce the war as "immoral." Whitmore, a Negro, recalled in an interview how he received the Purple Heart from Mr. Johnson in a hospital ward at Cam Ranh Bay.
"Johnson came up to my bed with a Purple Heart in his hand." Whitmore said. "I was all bandanged up so he put it on my uniform on a chair next to the bed."
"I looked at him and he looked at me. He looked very old, very worried. I sort of felt that he was very much aware of the heavy responsibilities he carried for the Americans who lost their lives and were wounded in Vietnam."
The Ally, vol. 1, no. 6