“Vietnamese torture was pretty standard for all of us in North Vietnam, we called it the rope trick,” Kirk said. “They took a piece of rope, wrapped it around your arms above the elbow three or four times, they'd run it behind your back to the other arm. They pulled your arms together until they touched in the back.”
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.
During the longest war in American history, the Vietnam War, 766 Americans are known to have been prisoners of war. Of this number, 114 died during captivity. Unlike previous wars, the length of time as a POW was extensive for many, with some being imprisoned for more than seven years.
Garwood. 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.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists 684 POWs returned home alive from the Vietnam War — the majority after the U.S. pulled out of the war in 1973. (The war officially ended April 30, 1975). There are 1,582 Americans still unaccounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
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.
Torture was Common
Many felt guilt about giving any answers at all, but submitted as little as possible while preserving their lives. 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.
Eleanor Ardel Vietti became America's first female prisoner of war in Vietnam. She's still unaccounted for. In the dense jungle terrain in Darlac Province, near the provincial capital of Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, American doctor Eleanor Ardel Vietti had found her calling to heal.
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.
They were intended to cow the populace, liquidate opponents, erode the morale of South Vietnamese government employees, and boost tax collection and propaganda efforts. Terror was meant to demonstrate that the South Vietnamese government could not protect them.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
Few Americans realize that our soldiers in Vietnam were guilty of many war crimes ranging from the torture of Vietcong prisoners to the ... My Lai Massacre: Vietnam War \\u0026 Colin Powell - HISTORY\x22,\x22The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed during the Vietnam War.
During the dry season, when we encamped at night, you just threw down your poncho and slept on the ground. During monsoon season, you'd fashion a hammock, or you'd buy one, and you'd sleep in a hammock up off the ground. …
Helicopters began to clog ship decks and eventually, some were pushed overboard to allow others to land. Pilots of other helicopters were told to drop off their passengers and then take off and ditch in the sea, from where they would be rescued.
The struggle was so intense that after two days of fighting, Moore radioed the code word “Broken Arrow,” which was an urgent call for all available aircraft to rescue an American unit that was in danger of being overrun.
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.
Known around the world as "Napalm Girl," Kim Phuc was just 9-years-old when she was photographed running away after a napalm bomb struck her village in Vietnam in June 1972. Now 50 years later, Phuc has received her final round of treatment for the pain and scars she suffered that day.
Months later, the first Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives, a group of women that included Jane Denton, Sybil Stockdale, Louise Mulligan, Andrea Rander, Phyllis Galanti, and Helene Knapp.
An Integral Allied Force in the Vietnam War
South Korean units were as tough and professional as any in the United States Army or Marines, and came to be justly feared by the communists.
Surprise attacks by elite Communist units known as sappers were one of the most serious—and feared—threats to Americans in Vietnam. The all-volunteer MACV-SOG (most were U.S. Army Special Forces “Green Berets”) carried out some of the most dangerous and challenging special operations of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.
Though other soldiers died after the cease-fire prior to the American withdrawal in 1975, Bill Nolde is considered to be the last American combat casualty of the war in Vietnam. On Feb. 3, 1973, a funeral was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant with 600 fellow townspeople in attendance.
From 1964 to 1973, the North Vietnamese had captured Americans, mostly pilots and crews of downed aircraft, and delivered them to prisons. Among the most notorious of these facilities was Hoa Lo, known by Americans as the Hanoi Hilton.
"Of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in Vietnam, Less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today, with the youngest American Vietnam veteran's age approximated to be 60 years old."