Detention Camps In Vietnam

The events that occurred and the situations that the Prisoners of War were put through during the Vietnam war were tremendous. The stories that have been told from some of the soldiers significantly help us understand just what went on and why exactly they were captured in the first place. Researchers to this day are still uncovering more and more information about what happened in the detention camps and looking at how it affected the soldiers. Going from 1964 all the way to 1973, there was an increasing number of aerial operations. (Valentine, 2013) This lead to more and more American pilots and their crews being shot down and captured. All of the prisoners were being delivered to North Vietnamese prisons. These prisons that they were …show more content…
Prisoners-Of-War. (POW Camps, 2003) Eight of the thirteen were located outside the city of Hanoi, and the other five were in the city of Hanoi. The Vietnamese names for the camps to this day are still not known. The thirteen American names of the camps are as follows; Alcatraz, Briarpatch, Camp Faith, Camp Hope (Son Tay), Dirty Bird, Dogpatch, Farnsworth, Hanoi Hilton (Hoa Lo), Mountain Camp, Plantation, Rockpile, Skidrow, and Zoo. (POW Camps, 2003) Most of these camps were closed and reopened many times throughout the war. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) identified four trends within the dates of use to account for the opening and closing of the camps, isolation, movement, consolidation, and repatriation. Isolation was the period from 1964-1969. It was determined by the existence of several small camps such as the Plantation and Briarpatch and also the isolation of the POWs in little groups in the camps. (POW Camps, 2003) Movement was the period from 1968-1972 and it was labeled by the movement of U.S. POWs from South Vietnam and Laos to North Vietnam for detention camps. The prisoners who were moved into North Vietnam were kept separate from the ones who were actually captured in North Vietnam. Consolidation was from 1970-1972 and was marked by the closing of multiple smaller camps. It was also marked by the regrouping of POWs into five major …show more content…
It opened up in October of 1967 when 12 prisoners that were captured in North Vietnam were moved into it. These men were either high ranking POWs or prisoners who the North Vietnamese thought were troublemakers. Alcatraz was open for about 2 years and closed in December of 1969. Briarpatch was located northwest of Hanoi. It was opened in September of 1965 but closed in a week because of U.S bombing in the area. It reopened that December and remained open until February 1967 when its POW population was moved out. Camp Faith was located nine miles west of Hanoi and was opened in July of 1970. It opened when a major consolidation of U.S. prisoners began to come in. Small and medium sized camps closed up and sent their POWs to Camp Faith. This was the first time the North Vietnamese allowed the POWs to associate in large numbers. (POW Camps, 2003) At Camp Faith the treatment of the prisoners underwent considerable improvement. At its highest point the population got to be around 220 men. It ended up closing in November of 1970. Dirty Bird began in June 1967. Approximately 30 POWs captured in Northern Vietnam were kept here because it was near the Hanoi Thermal Power Plant. They kept prisoners here in an attempt to prevent the U.S. from bombing the power plant. In October of 1967 all of the prisoners were moved to regular POW camps and Dirty Bird was permanently closed. Dogpatch was a POW camp located 105 miles