IV.

War in Vietnam

Further violations of the Geneva Convention occurred in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Ill treatment of prisoners was brought to light by the Red Cross throughout the war. In September 1969 the North Vietnamese Red Cross declared that U.S. pilots, guilty of “crimes against humanity,” would not be given the protections afforded by the Geneva Convention. South Vietnamese mistreatment of prisoners of war was alleged in 1970 in reports that so-called tiger cages were used to confine North Vietnamese prisoners.

In the Vietnamese conflict, a major concern in negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam was the release of hundreds of American prisoners of war and the repatriation of both North and South Vietnamese prisoners. By 1971 the prospects of U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam depended largely on a solution of the prisoner-of-war problem, which had been employed as a bargaining point by North Vietnam. On February 12, 1973, after the signing of the cease-fire in January, the first contingent of 143 American military and civilian prisoners of war arrived in the Philippines. During the following weeks, 444 prisoners were released. Two decades later, more than 2000 U.S. soldiers remained unaccounted for and are listed as missing in action.