Historical Highlight for May 21, 2023
Throughout the new book Captured by Love, we share short facts from the history of the Vietnam war and the POW experience. In each of these nuggets of history are personal and professional lessons that can be applied today:
POW treatment & Resistance
Being captured in enemy territory is terrifying. You are helpless. Your hands are tied painfully tight, and usually you are blindfolded and often beaten by the locals and the militia. But thankfully, the soldiers had orders to ���bring ���em in alive.���
Arriving in Hanoi, a new prisoner���s situation varied depending on the status of the war, the workload of the camp leaders, and the mood of the torturers. It usually started out with interrogations, torture, and isolation. Solitary confinement might last for weeks or months, and some would be alone for years. Their goal was to break the will of the POW and gain compliance.
Some of this horrible treatment was an attempt to gather military information. Some was to keep us fearful so we would obey the rules, and some was simply sadistic, but most was for propaganda. They wanted us to make statements criticizing the war and convincing Americans to turn against our government.
Locked in small cells with covered windows, we were typically miserably hot in the summer; boils were common. The overnight lows in winter averaged in the 50s���not cold���unless you have no heat and not enough blankets.
We were fed twice a day���around 10:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon. The food consisted of a bowl of thin soup and a small baguette of bread or a cup of rice. Baked bugs and stewed worms were often our main source of protein.
The ���Camp Regulations���1 were posted in English in every cell. Basically, they said ���Do what you���re told and don���t communicate with others, or else you will be punished.���
Of course, we were committed to being faithful to the Code of Conduct, so the battle lines were drawn. We were still at war���it was just our weapons and tactics that changed.
Captured by Love Website – Link
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