Intrepid Four

[6] The four were Craig W. Anderson, John Barilla, Richard Bailey, and Michael Lindner (who later changed his last name to Sutherland).

Bailey and Lindner were 19, while Anderson and Barilla were 20 on October 23, 1967 when they decided not to return to their ship at the end of their day-long shore leave.

To pressure the Soviets to treat the four Americans well, Beheiren arranged a press conference in Tokyo in November 1967.

Sutherland explained, "I saw with my own eyes the enormous quantity of bombs that our planes hurled on the Vietnamese ... All this caused me to think about the nature of the war.

These airplanes were wiping villages from the face of the earth, destroying cities, burning children with napalm."

Sweden's acceptance of American deserters was viewed with hostility by the US, who saw it as directly undermining the war effort.

[10] In March 1972, Anderson was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Francisco and imprisoned for eight months.

The ship they deserted from has become a floating museum permanently docked in New York City where one of the onboard exhibits is called "Dissent On Board" and tells the story of the Intrepid Four.