How Long Could a American Soldier Survive In Vietnam’s Prison Camps? 

How Long Could a American Soldier Survive In Vietnam’s Prison Camps? 

When American soldiers were  captured during the Vietnam War,   many believed they simply had to survive  until the fighting ended and they would   be free. But once they entered Vietnam’s  prison system, that hope faded very quickly.   Because what happened inside those camps  would test the limits of human endurance.

Most American prisoners of war in Vietnam were  pilots. The air war over North Vietnam was the   largest American bombing campaign since World  War II. When a jet was hit, the crew often had   only seconds to eject. The force of ejection was  extremely violent and frequently caused serious   injuries. Broken arms, shattered legs, damaged  backs, and other injuries were common.

 Many   men entered prison camps already badly hurt, and  those injuries affected everything that followed. If a pilot survived the  ejection and landed safely,   he was often surrounded within minutes. In  rural areas, local civilians and militia   usually reached downed airmen before regular  North Vietnamese soldiers arrived.

 The welcome   was often brutal. Many pilots were beaten  immediately. Some were stripped of their   equipment and clothing. A few were killed  before military forces even reached them. Navy Lieutenant Commander John McCain  was shot down over Hanoi on October 26,   1967. His A-4 Skyhawk was struck by a missile  over Tr c B?ch Lake.

 He ejected at high speed,   breaking both arms and his right knee.  Unconscious when he hit the water,   he sank beneath the surface. Local people pulled  him out, but a crowd quickly began beating him. One woman stepped in and stopped the attack,  and she is widely credited with saving his   life before soldiers arrived.

 By  the time McCain reached prison,   one broken arm had been stabbed with a bayonet,  his fractured knee had received no treatment,   and he had lost a large amount of blood. He  weighed around 150 pounds when captured. At   his lowest point in captivity, his  weight dropped below 100 pounds. Army Special Forces Sergeant James “Nick”  Rowe had a very different experience.  

He was captured on October 29, 1963, before  the major air war began, making him one of   the earliest American prisoners of  the Vietnam conflict. He was taken   in the Mekong Delta by Viet Cong guerrillas  rather than the North Vietnamese military. The Viet Cong ran their prison system differently.

  Prisoners were kept in bamboo cages deep in the   jungle and moved constantly to avoid rescue  missions. Unlike the prison camps around Hanoi,   there was no large organized camp network.  Rowe survived for five years partly because   he convinced his captors that he was a  low-ranking draftee instead of a highly   trained Special Forces officer.

 When  they eventually discovered the truth,   they ordered his execution. Before it could  happen, Rowe escaped on December 31, 1968. American prisoners were held in a network  of camps spread across North Vietnam,   South Vietnam, and Laos. Conditions  varied so much from one camp to another   that a prisoner’s location could mean the  difference between survival and death.

H?a L Prison, known to Americans as the Hanoi  Hilton, was the largest and best-known facility.   Built by the French colonial government in 1896  to imprison Vietnamese political prisoners,   it stood in the center of Hanoi. By the time  American pilots began arriving in 1964 and 1965,   the prison was old, crowded, and miserable.

 Some  prisoners were kept in large communal cells,   while others were confined to tiny isolation  rooms barely large enough to lie down in. Summer   temperatures often climbed above 100 degrees  Fahrenheit. During winter, the stone walls became   cold and damp. Blankets were not provided.  Rats moved through the prison freely, and   mosquitoes were everywhere. The nickname “Hanoi  Hilton” was a dark joke among the prisoners.

Cu Loc Prison, which Americans called  the Zoo, was a former movie studio on the   southwest edge of Hanoi. It began holding  American prisoners in 1965 and gained a   reputation as one of the harshest torture  centers in the entire system. Another camp,   called the Plantation, was located closer  to downtown Hanoi.

 The North Vietnamese   sometimes brought foreign visitors and  journalists there to show what they   claimed were acceptable prison conditions.  Torture still took place at the Plantation,   but visits from outsiders occasionally resulted  in slightly better treatment for short periods. The Briarpatch was a remote jungle camp about  45 miles west of Hanoi in mountainous terrain.  

Prisoners there faced harsh environmental  conditions on top of captivity. Nights   could become genuinely cold because of the higher  elevation. Medical care did not exist. Food was   even worse than at the camps around Hanoi. Many  prisoners later said the environment itself felt   like an enemy, with the jungle, cold weather, and  isolation slowly wearing down both body and mind.

The most severe isolation facility was  a small high-security compound known to   prisoners as Alcatraz. It held only eleven  men, all senior officers identified by the   North Vietnamese as leaders of the prisoner  resistance movement. Between 1967 and 1969,   men such as Navy Commander James Stockdale, Air  Force Colonel Robbie Risner, and Navy Commander   Jeremiah Denton were confined in separate cells  measuring roughly seven feet by seven feet.

 They   were kept in leg irons and almost completely  cut off from communication with other prisoners.   Historians now consider their  experience one of the harshest   and longest periods of captivity endured  by any American prisoners during the war. In South Vietnam and Laos, prisoners held by the  Viet Cong faced a different kind of suffering.  

Bamboo cage camps in the Mekong Delta and jungle  prison sites in Laos had no permanent facilities,   unreliable food supplies, and even less access  to medical care than the camps in North Vietnam.   Army Sergeant Donald Cook was captured  by the Viet Cong on December 31,   1964.

 He spent years in jungle camps,  repeatedly refused offers of early release,   and continued acting as the senior  American prisoner. On July 8, 1967,   he died from malaria and severe malnutrition.  In 1980, he was posthumously awarded the Medal   of Honor, becoming the first Marine to  receive the award for service in Vietnam. The food in North Vietnamese prison camps was  built around two basic items: rice and thin soup.  

Sometimes the soup contained pumpkin or cabbage.  Once in a while, prisoners received a small piece   of fatty pork, usually no more than once a week.  Bread was sometimes issued in the Hanoi camps.   Protein was extremely rare. Depending on the year  and the camp, prisoners received roughly 700 to   1,500 calories a day.

 An adult man normally needs  around 2,500 calories daily just to maintain his   weight. Day after day, the prisoners were  getting far less than their bodies needed. The weight loss came quickly. Men who arrived  weighing between 170 and 190 pounds often   dropped to 130 or 140 pounds within just a few  months. Because there was so little protein,   the body began consuming its own muscle. Arms  and legs became thin. Faces became hollow.

Vitamin deficiency diseases appeared within months  and eventually affected almost everyone. Beriberi,   caused by a lack of Vitamin B1, led to swollen  legs, nerve damage, and sometimes heart failure.   Pellagra, caused by a lack of niacin, damaged the  skin and digestive system.

 Vitamin A deficiency   caused night blindness, making it difficult  to see in low light. These were not minor   health problems. Throughout history, untreated  beriberi alone has killed countless people,   and in prisoners already weakened by  starvation, it could become deadly very quickly. Dysentery and intestinal parasites were common.  Water in many camps was contaminated.

 Malaria   was a constant danger in jungle camps and in  areas with standing water. Without antibiotics   or antimalarial medicine, diseases that could  normally be treated became life-threatening. Dental problems became widespread within the first  year. Most prisoners had no toothbrushes and no   dental care. Teeth decayed, and painful abscesses  developed.

 A dental abscess might sound minor,   but without antibiotics, it could spread  through the bloodstream and become deadly.   Many prisoners lost several teeth. Others  suffered from severe jaw infections for years. The injuries caused by ejection from damaged  aircraft were often left untreated or poorly   treated.

 Broken bones, torn ligaments, and  damaged joints received only limited attention   from Vietnamese medical staff. McCain’s broken  arms and shattered knee were treated with a   rough surgical procedure, but the work was poor  and he received no physical therapy afterward.   He permanently lost much of the movement in  both arms. James Stockdale had been shot in   the leg before his capture and never received  proper treatment.

 The leg healed incorrectly,   and he walked with a noticeable  limp for the rest of his life. One of the most remarkable things is how  many prisoners survived years under these   conditions. Part of the answer was age. The  average American POW was only about 27 or 28   years old when captured. Most were still in the  strongest years of their lives.

 Younger bodies can   survive starvation and vitamin deficiencies  longer before major organs begin to fail. The starvation and poor living  conditions were only part of the   story. Between 1965 and late 1969, the  North Vietnamese military carried out   a systematic torture program  against American prisoners. The most common torture method was known as  “the ropes.

” Prisoners had their arms tied   behind their backs. The ropes were pulled  so tightly that circulation was cut off,   and then the arms were forced upward toward the  head. The human body is not designed to bend   that way. Men screamed in pain. Shoulders  were dislocated. Nerves were damaged. The   torture continued until a prisoner agreed to  sign or say whatever the interrogators wanted.

Prisoners were also placed in ankle stocks, heavy  wooden or metal devices that locked their legs   into painful positions for long periods. Sleep  deprivation was used constantly. Guards would   bang on cell doors throughout the night, sometimes  every few minutes for days at a time. Combined   with hunger, pain, and isolation, these methods  pushed many men close to complete mental collapse.

American prisoners followed the Code of Conduct,  a set of rules created after the Korean War in   1955. Under Article V, they were supposed to give  only their name, rank, service number, and date   of birth. But the code had never been tested  against years of organized torture. Most men   eventually broke under enough pain. The military  understood this, and so did the prisoners.

Air Force Captain Lance Sijan showed just how  far that resistance could go. On November 9,   1967, his F-4 Phantom was shot down over Laos.  He survived the crash with a fractured skull,   a broken hand, and severe internal  injuries. For 46 days, he avoided capture,   hiding in the jungle with almost no food  and very little water.

 In January 1968,   he was finally captured near the North Vietnamese  border. Even after repeated torture sessions,   he refused to provide information beyond his  name and rank. He died later that month from   his injuries and the effects of captivity. He was  only 25 years old. After his death, he received   the Medal of Honor and became the first graduate  of the Air Force Academy to earn that award.

What kept many prisoners mentally alive  was not individual toughness alone. It was   their connection to each other. They built that  connection using something surprisingly simple. Navy Commander Bob Shumaker, one of the first  prisoners captured on February 11, 1965,   helped develop and spread what became known as the  tap code.

 The system used a five-by-five letter   grid. For example, two taps, a pause, and then  three more taps represented one letter. Four taps,   a pause, and then three taps represented  another. Using this system, prisoners who   had not spoken to another person in months could  send complete messages through the walls of their   cells. It was slow. A single paragraph could  take an hour to communicate. But it worked.

Through the walls, prisoners exchanged news,  jokes, encouragement, and information about   newly captured Americans. When Stockdale was  held in near-total isolation at Alcatraz between   1967 and 1969, the tap code was often his only  connection to the rest of the prisoner community. The North Vietnamese eventually discovered  the system and punished anyone caught using   it.

 Prisoners could be beaten, placed  in solitary confinement for months,   or subjected to additional interrogation sessions.  But the communication never completely stopped. As the senior American officer in the Hanoi prison  system, Stockdale used the tap code to spread   a set of instructions known as BACK US. These  directives told prisoners to resist, avoid helping   enemy propaganda whenever possible, and report any  forced cooperation to senior officers afterwards.  

This helped prevent prisoners from carrying  overwhelming guilt after breaking under torture. Stockdale personally took resistance  to extreme levels. Before one planned   propaganda appearance, he used a razor  to cut his own face. On another occasion,   he slammed his face into a concrete wall.

  These actions were not signs of mental   collapse. They were deliberate attempts  to prevent the North Vietnamese from using   him in propaganda films and photographs. In  his own way, he was still leading the fight. By 1970, American intelligence had spent  years trying to find the exact locations   of POW camps across North Vietnam.

 On  the night of November 20 and 21, 1970,   the United States launched the boldest prisoner  rescue mission of the entire Vietnam War. Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons  led 56 Special Forces soldiers in a helicopter   assault on the Son Tay prison camp, about 23  miles west of Hanoi. The operation had been   carefully planned and was carried out almost  perfectly. There was just one problem.

 The camp   was empty. American intelligence did not know  that the 61 prisoners once held there had been   moved four months earlier because flooding  had contaminated the camp’s water supply. No prisoners were rescued. Simons and  his men successfully escaped without   losing a single American soldier,  but the mission itself had failed.

What happened afterward was completely  unexpected. The North Vietnamese were   alarmed that American forces had managed to reach  a prison camp so close to Hanoi. In response,   they quickly decided to move and consolidate  many American prisoners. Men who had been held   in isolated jungle camps, small prisons,  or long periods of solitary confinement   were transferred into larger prison blocks at  the Hanoi Hilton.

 Some men who had gone years   without meaningful human contact suddenly found  themselves living with 40 or 50 other Americans. For many prisoners, this became the  most important change of their entire   captivity. Air Force Major George Day, who  had escaped from a North Vietnamese prison   camp in 1967 before being recaptured  while trying to reach South Vietnam,   later described the consolidation  as a kind of resurrection.

Without meaning to, the North Vietnamese had given   the prisoners exactly what years of  isolation had been designed to prevent. On September 2, 1969, Ho Chi Minh, the president  of North Vietnam at the time, died. In the weeks   that followed, prisoners began noticing changes  inside the North Vietnamese prison system.

The widespread use of rope torture and ankle  stocks began to decrease. Food portions   became slightly larger. The meals were still  inadequate, but they helped slow the worst effects   of starvation. Some camps even allowed limited  periods of outdoor exercise. At the same time,   international attention was growing.

 Antiwar  activists from the United States and Europe   were visiting Hanoi and asking questions  about how prisoners were being treated. The changes were not driven by compassion. They  were a strategic decision. By 1969, North Vietnam   had already obtained much of what it wanted from  its torture program. It had collected confessions,   propaganda recordings, photographs, and signed  statements from hundreds of American prisoners.  

Continuing the same level of torture brought  fewer propaganda benefits while creating greater   diplomatic problems. The policy changed, but the  system itself did not suddenly become humane. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January  27, 1973. Under Article 8(a) of the agreement,   all American prisoners of war had to be released  within 60 days.

 The return operation was called   Operation Homecoming. It began on February 12,  1973, when a U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter   landed at Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi and  picked up the first group of 116 prisoners. The releases were organized according to  how long each man had been imprisoned. The   longest-held prisoners were sent home first.  Everett Alvarez Jr.

, captured in August 1964,   boarded the aircraft after spending 3,113 days in  captivity. Jeremiah Denton, captured on July 18,   1965, was also on the first flight. When the  plane finally left North Vietnamese airspace,   many men who had survived years of torture,  starvation, and isolation openly cried. The long-term effects often appeared years  later.

 Post-traumatic stress disorder,   which would not officially become a medical  diagnosis until 1980, affected many former   prisoners. John McCain’s marriage eventually  ended in divorce. James Stockdale struggled with   alcohol after returning home. Robbie Risner faced  major difficulties adjusting to normal life. For   many men, the damage caused by the prison camps  did not end when they stepped off the airplane.

Yet many survivors also rebuilt remarkable lives.   Stockdale received the Medal of Honor in 1976  and later became president of the Naval War   College. Jeremiah Denton was elected to the  United States Senate from Alabama in 1980.   John McCain served 35 years in the Senate  and became a presidential candidate in 2008.

Of the 766 Americans held as prisoners of war,  591 returned alive. That equals a survival   rate of about 77 percent. But the number can  be misleading without context. Most of the   deaths occurred before 1970, in remote jungle  camps, or among men who entered captivity with   serious injuries.

 A prisoner captured after  1969, sent to a Hanoi prison, and arriving   without major injuries had much better odds of  survival than the overall statistics suggest.   A prisoner captured in 1966, sent to a place  like the Briarpatch or a Viet Cong jungle camp,   and already suffering from broken  bones faced much worse odds. Among the men who survived, the average time  spent in captivity was about four years.

 That   period covered both the harshest years and  the years when conditions began to improve. The evidence suggests that a young,  healthy prisoner with strong mental   discipline and access to the prisoner  community could usually endure camp   conditions for roughly four to five years  before physical decline became severe.