The court-martial board acquitted Glenn, but the Judge Advocate General of the Army, Maj. Gen. George B. Davis, registered a fierce dissenting legal opinion of the verdict. When victory in Korea did not materialize, access to these burial sites didnt, either. God Bless and keep driving that Corvette!! In defiance of his captors, he repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word T-O-R-T-U-R-Eand thus confirming to U.S. intelligence for the first time that we were indeed being tortured. They gave us food and told us the peace agreement was broken and we were right back down in the depths of despair. This soldier remains in good spirits after being relieved from the dangerous operation a month prior. He led the way and showed us how to nurse and take care of men, and that became our goal to make people in their last hours and days as comfortable as possible it was our mission, and he was a big inspiration to us.. Unfortunately, that was not out of the ordinary. Harkers first prison was in Quang Nam Province, a difficult, mountainous country that made food scarce and meant deplorable living conditions for the POWs. Shocking images such as Nick Ut's "Napalm Girl" and Eddie Adams' "Saigon Execution" have become synonymous with the widespread outrage and disapproval of the war in the United States. You may also like: A history of US submarines from the American Revolution to today. Eventually we were put on a train, in a box car, and taken to Hanoi, to Plantation Garden, an old French plantation with bars in the walls. After a blatant breaking of the Paris Peace Accords by the North Vietnamese, President Ford declared that the U.S. would commit no further resources or troops to Vietnam. Seniors, students, and teachers with valid IDs -$8.00Members,children under 12, First Responders, and Active Military - FREE American servicemen were imprisoned in large numbers during the Korean War, and many were horribly mistreated and left to die by their captors. However, post-war France was vehement in its aims to reestablish a French empire, with Charles de Gaulle proclaiming that if the U.S. did not back France in its reconquest of Vietnam, they might ally themselves with Soviet Russians. The stories of suffering and survival that many POWs have remind us of the sacrifices that so often accompany war. In the wake of the Vietnam War, families of military members who never returned from service banded together to demand an accounting. | Photo courtesy of Congressman Johnson's office. After testimony from high-profile officials like Henry Kissinger, the committee concluded: While the Committee has some evidence suggesting the possibility a POW may have survived to the present, and while some information remains yet to be investigated, there is, at this time, no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.. Captain Belcher had been in a province southwest of Saigon where we were providing security for elections, Harker said. They didnt pursue it much. The key word for all of us at first was fragility. In November 2018, it became mandatory to fly the flag at select federal sites year-round including the White House and memorials like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and WWII Memorial. In doing so, youre agreeing to the below guidelines. your CMS. Its about our values and our standards. CantWriteToSaveMyLife@yahoo.com. She joined with other families of MIAs to form The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, a non-profit incorporated in May of 1970 with the mission to obtain the release of all prisoners, the fullest possible accounting for the missing and repatriation of all recoverable remains of those who died serving our nation during the Vietnam War., The greatest motivation for all of these families is uncertainty, says Ann Mills-Griffiths, chairman of the board & CEO of the National League of POW/MIA Families. Under the leadership of Le Duan, North Vietnam began to pursue an aggressive war of reunification with the South, beginning with more active support of revolutionary groups in the South. Still, the issue of MIAs remains a controversial one, with accusations of government cover-ups continuing to foster distrust among families of the missing, particularly surrounding repatriation efforts in Korea and Vietnam. A newspaper clipping shows when David Harker returned home. Vietnam War veteran Bob Kakuk helped lead the fight to have government buildings fly the flag of prisoners of war and missing in action. Richard Nixon would go on to win the subsequent presidential election, making promises to end U.S. involvement in the war with "peace and honor.". Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter. The embarrassment of the Pentagon Papers led President Nixon to attempt to illegally discredit Ellsberg, efforts which came to light during the Watergate scandal and resulted in Nixon's resignation in 1974. In one incident, a military judge advocate named Captain Edwin Glenn was actually court-martialed for his direct role in super vising the water torture of a Filipino prisoner. Yet the POWs of Vietnam seem to occupy a special place in the narrative and legacy of the war. Admittedly, harsh interrogation techniques do produce answersfast answers. I thought it was odd he was in front of me and I had been taught that you always try to escape. Shot down in the early days of the Vietnam War, Lt. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. They tried to get behind us and eventually I hear a Vietnamese voice and do a 90 degree and within arms reach at the top of this creek bank is an NVA soldier with a pith helmet and Top is there with no helmet. While out, wed move about 1,000 meters a day and get resupplied every fourth day with c-rations if the helicopters could get through.. A trail that was used to ferry both supplies and soldiers to South Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh Trail snaked through the mountains and jungles of neighboring Cambodia and Laos. In the mountains the men had to forage for food, mostly the manioc root, also known as kasava root. He is among the finest American soldiers I have ever known. I was interested in flying helicopters, but they said Id have to extend for another year or two, so I said, no, Ill do my two and go home.. But for the most part, we didnt, and we and the rest of the world were far better for it once World War II was over. For a stark example of how the cancer of incremental compromise can rot and slowly eat away at a great institution, one has only to take a good look at what happened to the German army during the Third Reich. Its amazing to think that we could even do it, but we did what we had to do. No digital enhancement and a cast that was selectively chosen for talent and filling their roles perfectly. The ensuing conflict lasted 60 days and ended in failureresulting in 9,000 South Vietnamese casualties, the destruction of a vast quantity of South Vietnam's armored vehicles, and hundreds of U.S. helicopters and planes. and more. The stories were usually very specific. Chicago, IL 60603 By February 7, 2020, this number had been reduced a little further, to 1,587. The new Mustang shone as bright as Davids smile. The gun jammed. The POWs of Vietnam speak to the horror of war and the struggle to persevere on a very personal level. 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. A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, Harker is the third of seven children. Part of the reason why the POW issue remains an enduring part of the Vietnam War has to do with the media. The date Sept. 14 was assigned the number 001and all in all, only numbers 1 through 195 were called to duty. However, this propaganda, coercion, and staging did little to sway international public opinion. The lead-up to the war begins with Vietnam's colonial history. Of the many precipitating events that followed, few were as pivotal as the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in setting the stage for the outbreak of the Vietnam War. The U.S. agreed to withdraw all of its troops and dismantle American bases in exchange for the release all U.S. prisoners of war held by the North Vietnamese. During a routine torture session with the hook, the Vietnamese tied a prisoners hands and feet, then bound his hands to his anklessometimes behind the back, sometimes in front. I know they have a heart for those Veterans, or they wouldnt work there, Harker said. An official website of theU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Looking for U.S. government information and services? In the midst of parachuting, my back and right arm broke and my left arm was severely injured. There are a few guidelines and When you have a rifle and youre in front of the enemy, its different. By that time there are a bunch of rifles pointing at me. Intended initially to defoliate vegetation and expose hidden trails used by the NLF, between 1962-1971 the U.S. would dump approximately 19 million gallons of defoliating herbicides over an area constituting 10%-20% of Vietnam's landmass. In September 2005, 25 retired generals and admirals from one- to four-star rank, along with three former Vietnam POWs, signed a letter to McCain strongly supporting his proposed amendment. It produces bad intelligence. Under the George H. W. Bush administration, the Senate convened a Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs chaired by Vietnam veteran John Kerry to investigate whether or not American prisoners were left behind in Southeast Asia. American POWs bore this suffering until the end of the war. Aside from leg irons and leg stocksboth of which were used on me for months and years on endthe meat hook was a favorite instrument of torture at the Hanoi Hilton. And sometimes we have to make that choice many times throughout the day. Advances in DNA technology, increased access to crash sites or battlegrounds in territory once hostile to Americans and ongoing international negotiations have helped bring more and more open cases to a close. In spite of these conditions, there were many instances that I will never forget of my fellow POWs demonstrating profound patriotism. 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. The staff judge advocates at MACV headquarters quickly realized that if American GIs were going to have any chance whatsoever of surviving their captivity, the Saigon government had to be convinced to change its policy and start giving POW status to captured VC and treating them in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Once one of the worlds poorest and most isolated countries, Vietnam is now a middle-income In one incident, a military judge advocate named Captain Edwin Glenn was actually court-martialed for his direct role in super vising the water torture of a Filipino prisoner. 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. Thats what made it so hard to answer his question. Work out fanatic, martial artist, student, MBA, and connoisseur of useless information. The Vietnam War was a conflict with profound international implications that changed the landscape of American international policy for decades to comea phenomenon called Vietnam syndrome. They served our country faithfully and with all their heart. I was doing my junior year at Virginia Tech and my grades were low, so I had to take a quarter off in 1967 and during that time, because I wasnt a full-time student, I had to let the government know.
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