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North Vietnamese Abuse of POWs

July 6, 1966

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1966-07-06_Abuse-of-POWs_090424-F-1234P-003
North Vietnamese personnel parade American prisoners before an angry crowd in Hanoi, which often verbally and physically attacks the POWs. Front Row (left to right): Richard Keirn and Kile Berg; Second Row: Robert Shumaker and Carlyle “Smitty” Harris; Third Row: Ronald Byrne and Lawrence Guarino. (National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

A total of 52 American POWs from the North Vietnamese prison camps known as the “Briar Patch” and the “Zoo” are paraded in front of large crowds and cameras in Hanoi. In what is sometimes called the Hanoi March, the POWs suffer violent abuse from the crowd, including thrown objects and physical attacks that injure many of them. The march continues for about an hour. Images and news of the abuseprovoke international condemnation. They also bring greater attention to the plight of POWs among the American public and inside the U.S. government.1

1Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley, Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973 (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1998), 194–205.