Detainees must be polite towards every Vietnamese in the camp.
Insider the detention rooms, as well as outside when allowed, detainees must not make noise or create noise. Quarrel and fighting between detainees are forbidden. In time for rest, total silence is imposed.
Detainees must not bring back to detention rooms any object whatsoever without the camp authorities permit it.
In case of sickness or sign of sickness in felt, detainees must immediately inform the camp for the medical officer to check and cure.
Detainees must assure hygiene of the camp, take care of persional items provided by the camp as well as of any other thing for collective use.
In case of air alarms, detainees must keep order and silence, and follow the camp regulations on security.
In need of something, detainees should address themselves to Vietnamese armymen standing nearby by announcing two words “BAO CAO” (means “report”), and should wait if no English-speaking people was available yet.
In the detention rooms, every detainees are equal with each other. Anyone does have the right to free thinking, feeling, praying, etc… and no one is permitted to coerce any other into following his own opinion.
Violation of the regulations shall be punished.
The North Vietnamese prison authorities were reported to have violated most of these regulations.
In addition, those who attempted to escape also faced harsh punishments. When prisoners arrived in Hanoi Hilton, they already knew how little to no chance they had to plan for a successful breakout from high-up walls rigged with barbed wires to a hostile neighborhood surrounding the camps that would immediately report any sighted prisoners on the loose. Nonetheless, plans of getting out of hell’s hole persisted.
No Chance to Escape
In a recorded account from the National Museum of the US Air Force, the American POWs’ most notable escape attempt occurred in May 1969, resulting in “the most brutal and sustained episode of criminal inhumanity” during the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese prison guards didn’t subject the two escapees to extreme torture and beatings but included those who helped plan and execute the elaborate escape. The rest of the POWs who knew nothing about it were tortured as well, and this lasted for months.
According to the Third Geneva Convention, prosecution of POWs is prohibited, and detention is to prevent further participation in the conflict, not as a punishment. The prosecution only occurs when a detainee committed war crimes and “not for acts of violence that are lawful under International Humanitarian Law (IHL).”
“Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited,” stated via the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Part II, Article 13).
At the war’s end, it was determined that dozens of POWs had died in captivity due to execution, severe torture, untreated injuries, acquired diseases, or a combination of all.
While the North Vietnamese insisted on treating its prisoners well and per the Geneva Convention, American POWs narratives said otherwise.
Operation Homecoming
After more than eight years of imprisonment, American POWs were finally set for release under the signed Paris Peace Accords of 1973, which included provisions for exchanging prisoners of war. This allowed the US to finally bring back its imprisoned men, calling it OPERATION HOMECOMING.
In a last-ditch effort to run its propaganda, the North Vietnamese initially attempted to issue “brightly-colored sweaters and suits with ties” for repatriating American POWs to make it look like they had kept their prisoners well-treated throughout their detention. In the end, the prisoners compromised by accepting “low-key outfits including dark pants, shirts, and windbreakers” not to jeopardize their release. Then-Lt. Alvarez, the longest POW in Hanoi Hilton, was among the first batch of repatriates.
Operation Homecoming successfully brought home 591 American POWs, while a dozen more were freed during a North Vietnam-South Vietnam prisoner exchange weeks later. Approximately 660 American military POWs were reported to have survived the war and returned safely to the stateside.
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