By HORST FAAS August 26, 2018. Aired: 04/26/23 It produces bad intelligence. Yet the POWs of Vietnam seem to occupy a special place in the narrative and legacy of the war. in Vietnam Pows In Vietnam A photo taken in 1967 shows US Navy Airforce Maj. John McCain being examined by a Vietnamese doctor following his capture. My POW years shaped my perspective on faith and service unlike any other experience in my life. He said it meant a lot to him that we were able to do that to make sure those people could go to the polls and not get hurt. Unlike the mountain camp we couldnt roam around, and the boredom would overtake you and the heat was oppressive, but we had plenty to eat compared to the south. In the early 2010s Harker had the Corvette he received in 1973 the car he and his youngest brother Louie drove across the country after his return restored. Uncertainty is a killer. This brings us to the issue of military necessity, the argument that rough interrogation of detainees is justifiable if it produces intelligence that will save American lives. It was there that we spent 42 months in solitary confinement, with our legs either shackled in cuffs or put in leg stocks at the bottom of our bedslittle more than cement slabs. Comments like those of Donald Trump, or any other American, suggesting that veterans like Senator John McCain or any other of America's honorable POWs are less brave for having been captured are not only misguidedthey are ungrateful and nave. Nearly 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, and more than a quarter century since the normalization of U.S.-Vietnam relations, Vietnam is By this point, there were already 23,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam and approximately 400 U.S. casualties. It wasnt until 1969, when three prisoners were released that they knew I was alive. 312-374-9333 So they became involved in the National League of Families who organized and tried to have some involvement with North Vietnam to get information about prisoners and try to make the process more transparent as far as information was concerned.. They gave us western clothing and a travel bag and when they pulled us out of a holding cell wearing our red-striped pajamas we were given the clothes. For years I had been hearing stories that when American troops returned home from Vietnam, they were spat upon by anti-war protesters. But as American involvement in the war grew, U.S. advisers started getting captured. Jointly receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, Le refused the award, and Kissinger later offered to return it after South Vietnam fell in 1975. During World War II, with the fall of France to Nazi Germany, Vietnam became a possession of Japan, though was still administered by the French Vichy government. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's leader, faced pressure from his Soviet and Chinese allies to accept the terms of the settlement, as their political aim at that moment was to minimize conflict with Western nations. In the midst of parachuting, my back and right arm broke and my left arm was severely injured. Diminishing the courage and patriotism it takes to leave your family, face the enemy and evenGod forbidendure wartime torture has no place in a post-Vietnam America. Before I could get his .45, he stabs me in the side with his bayonet. However, theLinebackeroperations in 1972 called for heavy bombing of North Vietnam, and therefore more planes were shot down. John McCain Finally, in March, the U.S. landed its first major deployment of ground troops at Da Nangwith the intended purpose of defending U.S. air bases. They are heroes. As such, the North Vietnamese released the POWs they still held. Between February and March 1973, 591 American servicemen were released by the North Vietnamese. Today, the mistreatment of American POWs and the suffering they endured remains a powerful legacy of the Vietnam War. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The oppressive heat and Im sure Vietnam Vets will tell you the country had a smell of its own., The soldiers on their way home watched them deplane and Harker heard them say, theres my replacement.. American GIs dont treat prisoners that way. Though there had been uprisings predating him, the emergence of Ho Chi Minh into Vietnam's political arena in the 1930s marked the beginning of a new period of resistance for Vietnam. Despite McCains inconsistency in applying the same standards to the CIA, many still support his general position that using torture to interrogate captured militants is unacceptable. SHARE VIETNAM VETS RECALL THEIR HOMECOMINGS -- OFTEN PAINFULLY. And sometimes we have to make that choice many times throughout the day. Army Pfc. Vietnam I was 35 years old, a husband and father of three small children. Vietnam War pilot tells his story of being shot down over enemy territory and his time as a POW. Beginning in 1969 and 1970 and lasting until 1973, U.S. National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger conducted negotiations over the course of 68 meetings with Le Duc Tho, the fifth-ranking member of North Vietnam's politburo. In April 1970, Jerry also personally ordered and led a camp hunger strike, which was successful in obtaining my release from solitary confinement.
