Prisoners in Vietnam

In the motherland it wasn't appreciated that American mothers send hundred thousands of their sons to Vietnam, where it was turning evident that they can't win the war. Some claimed: "It's impossible to win the war since it's for a goal oppositing the internal politics and the global stability." According to a report for Nixon, the bombardments had no results, some soldiers thought that the warfare, like bombing Hanoi only strengthen the Vietnamese souls. They may have had right. While the Vietcong (VC) was considered to be rebel by the Americans, the North Vietnamese regarded them as freedom fighters that had to be supported. One fights with a quite different attitude if one's independence is the stake than if they only help the others. That's the human character and prevailed in Vietnam as well. The North Vietnamese and the communists in South fought for their homeland, the patriotism stifled the mortal fear and the lack of discipline. The bombardment just strengthened the conciousness that the USA is vicious and they must prevent the States from further massacres and devastations. Revenge was the another factor that helped their determination since their relatives died by American attacks that was aimed not only to military, but civilian buildings.

The North Vietnamese held on, in spite of the South Vietnamese modern arms and better financial background. Many aircrafts were shot and many soldiers were detained, most of them were pilots. The VC and the North Vietnamese only fought in the cover of the night, invisibly and there wasn't too much direct combat. The pilots of the shot aircrafts and choppers were imprisoned for many years. First, they were carried to a place called HaNoi Hilton and their destiny was defined there. "HaNoi Hilton was a prison with gigantic gates as if it was only built for this aim." The prisoners claimed quite contradictorily. It's fact that the North Vietnamese didn't like resistance. They discussed with many people to convince them of their fight for wrong goals and at wrong place. Some of them were persuaded, some of them not and they used harsh treatment. There were significant differences between the statements. A prisoner said: "If they recognised the Americanism, they tortured", the other said: "Torturing is an extreme way of crude brutality with which one wants to get military informations. The North Vietnamese just bound me, beat me a bit but that wasn't torturing at all." Some thinks that the pilots, who didn't want to be tortured, said in anti-Americanism, the others agree with the North Vietnamese and thought that prisoners became concious of the truth. By all means, the Vietnamese defend themselves that soldiers doesn't know about anything, just got the order and torturing was unnecessary at all, only at the case of escape that was a crime.

These things made the Americans frightened of the war and nobody wanted to fight, as it was mentioned by some stars visiting Vietnam, such as Sami Davis Junior or Jane Fonda. After their visit, they told that the army wasn't unified, soldiers have different attitudes to the war and that was a great problem.