Defector Complained of Sgt.’s Sadistic Treatment, Soviets Say

The Soviet Union today said Army Pvt. Wade E. Roberts, the American deserter given asylum last week, complained of sadistic treatment by his sergeant and social injustice in the United States.

The story from Tass press agency, headlined, “I Was Given a Chance to Be a Man,” said his defection was mainly a political act because of his dislike of American values, but it singled out his alleged “tormentor,” identifying him only as Master Sgt. Taylor.

The Soviets gave asylum to Roberts and his West German girlfriend, Petra Neumann, last week, saying he had fled political persecution. The Soviet Foreign Ministry first reported that the couple were married.

“Our decision is not treason,” Roberts told Tass. “I love my countrymen. But people must realize all the horror of social injustice and of crying violations of human rights in which my country is stuck.”

Tass said Roberts was the son of a metalworker and came from “an ordinary American family” in San Bernardino, Calif.

Tass said Roberts was unable to find work in the two years after he finished school, could not afford higher education and “saw crowds of depressed people who did not have either food or shelter.”

Roberts had no choice but to join the Army, where “he went through arbitrary actions in their most debased forms,” Tass said. “Commanders there get sadistic satisfaction from insults, ill-treatment and physical abuse.”

His sergeant, Taylor, was a man who flouted “human dignity and human rights . . . men are turned into robots,” the Soviet agency said.