American Prisoners of War in Vietnam
Prisoners of War (POWs): In international law, term used to designate incarcerated members of the armed forces of an enemy, or noncombatants who render them direct service and who have been captured during wartime.1
This definition is a very loose interpretation of the meaning of Prisoners of War (POWs). POWs throughout history have received harsh and brutal treatment. Prisoners received everything from torture to execution. However, in recent times efforts have been made to reduce these treatments and to get humane treatment for POWs. These attempts include the Geneva Convention of 1949. Unfortunately, during the Vietnam Conflict, these "rules" of war were not always obeyed, as they are now. The Geneva Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoner of War, signed August 12, 1949, provided restrictions and obligations that a country with captured enemy POWs must meet and abide by. These obligations consisted of feeding, clothing, medical treatment, mail, and delivery of parcels from prisoners. The official tally of American POWs who were captured by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) during the Vietnam War totaled 766, and of these 114 died while in captivity2. Those that died were many times deprived of both medication and sufficient food or facilities, and were also ravaged by many diseases that affected the Americans.
The guards and cadre refused to accept the fact that adequate food was all that was necessary to reduce if not eliminate the malnutrition and disease among the POW 's. How many times I had heard, "the Front provides adequately for your livelihood."3
The Vietnamese prison guards and higher ranking officers (cadre) sometimes did not understand why the American prisoners had trouble eating rice and developed "rice rejection" This was more of a mental instability than a physical disease. The prisoners also routinely developed dysentery, beri beri, and sometimes suffered from constant massive dehydration.
The food that the POWs had
This definition is a very loose interpretation of the meaning of Prisoners of War (POWs). POWs throughout history have received harsh and brutal treatment. Prisoners received everything from torture to execution. However, in recent times efforts have been made to reduce these treatments and to get humane treatment for POWs. These attempts include the Geneva Convention of 1949. Unfortunately, during the Vietnam Conflict, these "rules" of war were not always obeyed, as they are now. The Geneva Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoner of War, signed August 12, 1949, provided restrictions and obligations that a country with captured enemy POWs must meet and abide by. These obligations consisted of feeding, clothing, medical treatment, mail, and delivery of parcels from prisoners. The official tally of American POWs who were captured by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) during the Vietnam War totaled 766, and of these 114 died while in captivity2. Those that died were many times deprived of both medication and sufficient food or facilities, and were also ravaged by many diseases that affected the Americans.
The guards and cadre refused to accept the fact that adequate food was all that was necessary to reduce if not eliminate the malnutrition and disease among the POW 's. How many times I had heard, "the Front provides adequately for your livelihood."3
The Vietnamese prison guards and higher ranking officers (cadre) sometimes did not understand why the American prisoners had trouble eating rice and developed "rice rejection" This was more of a mental instability than a physical disease. The prisoners also routinely developed dysentery, beri beri, and sometimes suffered from constant massive dehydration.
The food that the POWs had
Bibliography: "Code of Conduct for Members of the Armed Forces of the United States" as found in McConnell. "Prisoners of War (POWs)". Microsoft Encarta online encyclopedia. http://encarta.msn.com/. "Summary of Vietnam Casualty Statistics". VVA Chapter 172. http://www.vietnamwall.org/pdf/casualty.pdf. Grant, Zalin. Survivors: Vietnam P.O.W.s Tell Their Stories. New York: Norton, 1975. McConnell, Malcolm. Into the Mouth of the Cat. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1985. Philpott, Tom. Glory Denied: The Saga of Vietnam Veteran Jim Thompson, America 's Longest-Held Prisoner of War. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. Rowe, James N. Five Years to Freedom: The True Story of a Vietnam POW. The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1971.