Michael-POWs

Michael Howard May 23, 2007 History 7

Prisoners Of War

On August 11, 1964 the first Prisoners of war or POWs were sent to the prisons. There were twelve, known, permanent prison camps were American POWs were held. Of these thirteen the most famous one is known to all American POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, but is really called the Hoa Loa Prison. It was given its nickname, sarcastically, because the food and the living conditions were so poor, compared to that of the famous Hilton hotels. The second permanent prison to come into existence in North Vietnam was the Bat Bat prison or the Briarpatch which was only one of a couple of nicknames that the POWs there called it. One man from the Briarpatch escaped in 1979 and remained free for close to a month before he realized that he had no idea of how to get out of North Vietnam. So he turned himself in and was later released in 1996. A long time after the war was over and all POWs were suppose to have been sent home. But even with all of these prisons around there were still other POWs in various prisons that weren’t permanent prisons or even in Vietnam. Oh yes there were American POWs in Laos and in Cambodia. There were 62 total American POWs in these two countries.

The Vietnam POW Home Page Wikipedia.com North Vietnamese POW camps