No One Is More Vulnerable During Wartime Than Prisoners

The Vietnam War was a violent and costly war that needed many men to fight for its cause. These men are now known as the Vietnam veterans. Numerous veterans who fought in the war were injured or lost a comrade during battle. These soldiers fought to protect the United States and its people while risking their own lives. A lot of these brave men were either killed or injured and did not gain the

Problem that the Vietnamese war veterans faced was the psychological effects which was very common for Vietnam veterans to have. The main cause of this is because it was different compared to other wars in the past like the condition that the soldiers were in. Studies has shown that a World War II soldiers experienced up to a total of 60 days under combat like conditions. A Vietnam infantryman endured on a comparable basis 300+ days therefore Vietnam veterans have more likely to develop psychological problems than a World War II veteran. (POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD), 2001)

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

The Vietnam War was a unforgettable war that has had lasting effects on the United States and was a poor decision on the part of the United States government to get involved in. The United States had drafted many young boys into a war in which a lot of people did not support or even know why we were getting involved in, many people fled to neighboring borders or faced the criminal charges that came with dodging the draft because they were so against it. This war has left the United States with lasting impacts and there are many ways that we have changed since including our country as a whole and our veterans themselves. The war has affected our veterans in ways that are unimaginable, the psychological effects that they have endured are tough

During the Vietnam War, these soldiers has shed their blood and sacrificed their future for their homeland, but their government, their society and their families alienates and forsakes them. Unlike any other wars happened throughout the history of America, the reason for United States to get involve in the Vietnam War is to stop the spread of communism, a very simple but also very unreasonable. Instead of volunteer, the majority of the soldiers in Vietnam War were drafted without any prior notice. Hence, before going to war, the soldiers find themselves having a difficult time of trying to seek for a reasonable purpose of going to war. Some people try to escape from the drafting process and stay home or continue their education. Other people, who actually go to war say “’I just want

Another excruciating obstacle that prisoners sometimes faced was torture. Torture was against the Geneva Accords, but then again, so were many other acts that the NVA and Vietcong (VC) committed against American POWs. Torture sometimes only consisted of a few blows with a bamboo stick, to an all out beating until the prisoner was unconscious, to sometimes even worse acts of violence.

They would tie their hands with rope and turn a wheel that stretched their back. The worst part was coming off and getting the rope off of you. Soldiers were placed in handcuffs and leg irons and were left that way for sometimes many years. Mr. Ralph Gaither was a navy ensign when his plane was shot down. He was immediately taken to one of the thirteen vietnamese prisons. He would spend the next seven to eight years of his life in an 4.5x9 cell with another man. From the cell he watched many of his friends lives get wasted, because they talked back to the Vietnamese. There was no love in these camps between the Americans and the Vietcong. Soldiers were told that they were not prisoners-of-war, but mere criminals. A war had not been declared by the United States Government so therefore they could treat their advisaries as murderers and thieves. The prisons that they were being held in were built by the French in the latter parts of the nineteenth century. The same times when the Geneva Accordance came around. This was the law on treatment of all foreign prisoners of war and civilians. It stated that humane treatment of civilians, prisoners, and wounded persons in wartime must be adhered to or a war crime indictment would be issued. Colonel Bud Day whose f100 was shot down in Vietnam stated "I was hung by my feet like a side of butchered beef for many hours because I refused to answer my captors questions." Beatings were uncontrollable and sometimes resulted in death.

The soldiers that were in Vietnam were subject to horrors that they should not have because it was useless and their time in Vietnam turned to communism anyway. In the book Fallen Angels the soldiers in it had to

The Vietnam War is probably the worst war that the men in America have ever had to fight. These men not only had many struggles and extreme stress brought on by the war, but when they came back home, the people of America treated them like dirt and they were not thanked for the service they did for their country. Dr. Andrew Wiest’s novel The Boys of ’67 Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam gives a first hand account on what it was actually like to be in the Vietnam War. Many men in the Charlie Company are mentioned throughout the book, which tells each of their stories that they experienced throughout the war. Each and every one of these men

The POW issue created new visions of the war for Americans. As H. Bruce Franklin (1992, 54) wrote in M.I.A, or Mythmaking in America, “The actual photographs and TV footage of massacred villagers, napalmed children, Vietnamese prisoners being tortured and murdered, wounded GIs screaming in agony, and body bags being loaded by the dozen for

Throughout these camps disease, malnutrition, starvation and abuse were rampant in the best camps. Also maintaining these camps were sinister people such as “The Bird” (Mutsuhiro Watanabe), one of the thousands hunted down for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the dropping of the bombs that changed the world forever. The Bird would push the men past there limits through beating and unlivable conditions in the camps he was stationed in. In the case of allied invasion of japan, a “kill all order” was issued to ensure that the POWs wouldn’t fight back against their captors. Which Unbroken showed true in the case of the island Palawan, where a Commanding Officer believed was soon to become the next staging ground for an invasion. “That night the commander sent a radio message to Palawan. “Annihilate the 150 prisoners””. Only eleven men survived the onslaught, who eventually made their way to allied

The Vietnam war was one of the most publicly hated wars in American history. The amount of people killed and the amount of people declared MIA is unfathomable. These troops were never liked, never supported, and to this day are over looked because no one wants to remember the years of the Vietnam war.

Even the soldiers didn 't always feel like they were fighting for a cause. David Parks, a veteran writes “I never felt that I was fighting for any particular cause. I fought to stay alive, and I killed to keep from being killed.” (Parks) Unlike other wars, where soldiers were viewed as heroes, the Vietnam War veterans were treated with disdain and disrespect when they returned home. Stories emerged of atrocities and torture of the Vietnamese. “It was the first war in which the US failed to meet its objectives. It was also the first time America failed to welcome its veterans back as heroes.” (va.gov) Perhaps the worst aspect of the war was the treatment of the returning soldiers. “Unlike the hero status given to the returning soldiers from World War II, the soldiers that served in Vietnam were portrayed as baby killers, psychos, drug addicts and war mongers” (Moffett). They were active combatants one day and the next day veterans returning to a hostile civilian home environment (va.gov). Many veterans were physically attacked by those who opposed the war (va.gov). David Parks also writes “The white guy who sold me my ticket at the airport gave me some really dirty looks. He pitched my ticket at me like I was dirt.”(Parks) Often, returning soldiers were confronted at airports by protesters carrying anti-war signs and slogans (Moffett). The protesters would attack the soldiers and even threw urine at the veterans (Moffett).

The Vietnam War had been last for about twenty years. Sadly, the American soldiers did not defeat the communists. The U.S. troops had suffered in terrible conditions in Vietnam, such as swaps, jungles, and humid weathers. There were more than 58,000 Americans soldiers had been killed in the war. The USAF claimed that the United States spent mostly 100 billion on this war for the military aids. Therefore, the economy of the United States decreased. Majority of the veterans came back to the America didn’t get respect from the citizens because they were “anti-war”. The sacrifice of the soldiers was not important in those citizens’ minds.

In order to answer this question of rights in captivity, leaders must assess the situation through the lens of an overarching value and a criterion, or means to achieve the value. Executive Order 10631 lays out the duties and responsibilities of US service members in captivity. According to Article III, it is the responsibility of the captured to “continue to resist by all means necessary” (Executive Order No. 10631, 1955). We thus accept this responsibility as the mission of the POW, and ultimately, the value under which we will assess this ethical dilemma.