What did the Vietcong do to prisoners?

North Vietnamese torture was exceptionally cruel--prison guards bound POWs' arms and legs with tight ropes and then dislocated them, and left men in iron foot stocks for days or weeks. Extreme beatings were common, many times resulting in POW deaths.

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How did Viet Cong treat prisoners?

Although North Vietnam was a signatory of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded "decent and humane treatment" of prisoners of war, severe torture methods were employed, such as waterboarding, strappado (known as "the ropes" to POWs), irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement.

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What did Viet Cong do to POWs?

They were tortured, isolated, and psychologically abused in violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, to which North Vietnam was a signatory. Some POWs were paraded before reporters and foreign visitors and forced to confess to war crimes against the people of Vietnam.

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How did Americans treat Vietnamese POWs?

American POWs gave them nicknames: Alcatraz, Briarpatch, Dirty Bird, the Hanoi Hilton, the Zoo. Conditions were appalling. Prisoners were variously isolated, starved, beaten, tortured, and paraded in anti-American propaganda.

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Which country treated POWs the worst?

During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.

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Hanoi Hilton - The Worst POW camp of the Vietnam War?

39 related questions found

How did the Japanese treat female POWs?

Many of the women and children were held in prison camps in terrible conditions and forced on death marches. Some women were killed on sight and others were raped, beaten, and forced to become sex slaves. Much of the book showcases the words of the people who lived through this period.

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How did the Japanese treat Australian prisoners of war in ww2?

The Japanese used many types of physical punishment. Some prisoners were made to hold a heavy stone above their heads for many hours. Others might be forced into small cells with little food or water. Tom Uren described how a young Aboriginal soldier was made to kneel on a piece of bamboo for a number of days.

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Who was the longest POW in history?

United States Army Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson, the longest held prisoner of war (POW) in American history, and his wife, Alyce, were products of the idealism of post-World War II America. When Thompson was shot down and captured, they began a journey that changed them forever.

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Are any POWs still in Vietnam?

There are no known living POWs left in Vietnam from the American War. Many veterans and survivors of those terrible years have returned to the country to visit and pay respects to their peers left behind.

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When was the last POW found in Vietnam?

Robert Russell Garwood (born April 1, 1946) is a former United States Marine. Often cited as the last verified American prisoner of war (POW) from the Vietnam War, Garwood was captured on September 28, 1965 by Việt Cộng forces near Da Nang, Quang Nam Province.

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Were the Viet Cong violent?

The VC attacked villages and hamlets with the intention of killing men, women and children to sow panic and insecurity. During the early years of the war, assassinations, and similar activity was organized via "special activity cells" of the VC.

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How cruel was the Vietnam War?

The fighting was intense and the results, the former soldiers say, were especially brutal. Villages were bombed, burned and destroyed. As the ground troops swept through, in many cases they gunned down men, women and children, sometimes mutilating bodies -- cutting off ears to wear on necklaces.

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How many Viet Cong were killed?

In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died.

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What were the worst things done to the POWs?

Indeed, they endured years of not only malnutrition and starvation, disease and general neglect -- resisting all the while -- but also torture, slave labor and other war crimes. Many POWs were murdered outright by their captors. In fact, only a little more than half of them ever saw home again.

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Who was the longest POW in Vietnam?

Floyd James "Jim" Thompson (July 8, 1933 – July 16, 2002) was a United States Army colonel. He was one of the longest-held American prisoners of war, spending nearly nine years in captivity in the forests and mountains of South Vietnam, Laos, and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Bergenfield, New Jersey, U.S.

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Why were the Viet Cong hard to fight?

The Vietcong had an intricate knowledge of the terrain. They won the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people by living in their villages and helping them with their everyday lives. Their tunnel systems, booby-traps and jungle cover meant they were difficult to defeat and hard to find.

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Were there any female POWs in Vietnam?

59 American women who served as civilians (including nurses) in Vietnam were also killed and died in that war. 4 were POWs.

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How many bodies were left in Vietnam?

Of the nearly 1,600 Americans still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, hundreds are believed to be in a “non-recoverable” category, meaning after rigorous investigation DPAA has determined that the individual perished but does not believe it is possible to recover the remains.

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Who was the last person killed in the Vietnam War?

William Nolde, the last American casualty of the Vietnam War. Army Col. Bill Nolde was killed by North Vietnamese artillery or rocket fire just hours after the peace treaty marking a formal end to the Vietnam War was signed on Jan.

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How many Australian POW were there?

Over 22,000 Australians became prisoners of war of the Japanese in south-east Asia.

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Who was the youngest POW?

Joseph Alexander became a POW at 15. He was a military and civilian worker at Kelly AFB. Joseph Alexander never got to enjoy his youth. At just 14 years old, and with his grandmother by his side, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and is said to have been the youngest American prisoner of war.

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What was the harshest POW camp?

Situated just south of Leipzig, Germany, lies Colditz Castle. During World War II, it was used as a prison camp by the German Heer. Since it was considered almost impossible from which to escape, the most seasoned Allied prisoners were sent there to put the lid on their escape attempts, once and for all.

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What did the Japanese think of Australian soldiers?

These stereotypes served to conflate Nikkei-Australians with the soldiers in the Japanese military that Australia witnessed during wartime, who were regarded as “subhuman beast[s]” and “vermin” (Saunders 1994, 325–27).

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How did the Germans treat Australian POWs?

Others, often starved and treated brutally, worked for months under shellfire close behind German lines. In camps in Germany conditions were better, but prisoners suffered increasingly from shortages caused by the British blockade. Many survived only because of regular Red Cross parcels.

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How many Australians died in Japanese POW camps?

Of the 22,376 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, some 8,031 died while in captivity. After the end of the war, War Crimes Trials were held to investigate reports of atrocities, massacres and other causes of death.

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