Dozier, James Lee (1931–)

General James Lee Dozier of the U.S. Army was kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigades in 1981; his eventual rescue helped bring about the downfall of the Brigade.

Dozier was born in Arcadia, Florida, in 1931, and he joined the Florida Air National Guard in 1951. His superiors recognized his potential and recommended him for West Point. Graduating in 1956, he went on to serve with the 11th Armored Cavalry Division in Vietnam, wining a Silver Star. By 1981, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general and was the NATO commander for southern Europe, based in Verona, Italy.

The Red Brigades had been active in Italy since 1970 and was known internationally for its 1978 kidnapping and murder of the Italian statesman and former premier Aldo Moro. In early 1981, U.S. army intelligence had learned that the Brigade might be planning a similar attack against a U.S. general in Italy. General George McFadden was thought to be the most likely target because the base he commanded in southern Italy housed nuclear weapons. The threat to Dozier, whose NATO position involved more tactful diplomacy than tactical deployments, was deemed slight. As a result, Dozier did not alter his daily routines, nor was his personal security detail increased.

On December 17, 1981, four members of the Red Brigades, disguised as repairmen, gained entrance to the Dozier family apartment. After a struggle, during which Dozier was beaten unconscious, they bound Dozier and his wife and stowed the general in a trunk disguised as a refrigerator carton. Leaving Mrs. Dozier locked in a utility closet, they took General Dozier to an apartment in Padua, where he would remain for 42 days.

Physically, his treatment was humane; however, his captors employed sensory deprivation techniques to disorient him and interrogated him nightly. The interrogations were aimed not only at collecting sensitive security information about U.S. military operations in Italy but also at gaining admissions that Dozier himself and the United States in general had been guilty of war crimes during the Vietnam War. Dozier revealed no secrets and refused to change his opinions and statements to suit his captors. Dozier is convinced that his [Page 163]discipline and persistence helped his captors see him as fellow human being and were instrumental in preserving his life.

The Red Brigades had intended the kidnapping to be part of a larger campaign, code-named “Winter of Fire.” Initially, therefore, it did not negotiate with the Italian government, hoping the search for the general would cause police forces to draw their personnel from other areas of operation. The Brigade was successful in this, but almost all the planned attacks were disasters, resulting in the arrest of many key individuals, some of whom became police informants.

Coordinating their manhunt with the army's intelligence-gathering operations, the Italian police slowly began to make progress. In mid-January, more than a month into Dozier's ordeal, intercepted radio transmissions and information provided by police informants led them to the Padua apartment. On the morning of January 28, 1982, Italian commandos raided the apartment, capturing six terrorists and rescuing the general. One of the captured terrorists, Antonio Savasta, became a police informant; his revelations led to more than 200 arrests, crippling the Red Brigades. Following his release, Dozier resumed his army career, retiring with the rank of major general.

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