A P.O.W.’s Story

This policy of “communistic humanitarianism” was not invented for the POWs.  It was the standard policy of treatment toward their own people as well.  Play ball with the party or get your skull crushed in!  Here was a policy that held no promise for individual rights and freedom, the dream of all people, but instead threatened punishment for nonconformity to a dehumanizing system.  It was a dirty blanket thrown over the heads of the people, to extend absolute control over them, depriving them of their individuality and eliminating personal initiative to strive for a better life.
The Vietnam War is one I — probably to my detriment — know little about.  It is skipped over in American high school with little more than a few comments about just what the word “quagmire” means and how it was an example of American — sometimes described as “imperialist” — overreach.  I think that is the prevailing opinion of most people born since about 1970.  As I have watched events unfold in my lifetime, and especially since September 11th, I have come to question that well-established assessment a little more.  Couple that line of thought with a natural interest in history, and stuff about one of America’s forgotten wars has caught my eye a little.

A P.O.W.’s Story: 2801 Days in Hanoi by Larry Guarino (ISBN: 0-449-00099-0) is one POW’s memories of his time as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.  The book, essentially a memoir, described Guarino’s memories of his experiences as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.  He describes many aspects of the experience from the mundane everyday to the surreal to the explosive.  The reader learns about going to the bathroom as a POW, being used in a propaganda film, and the cruel torture sessions.  The majority of POWs lived true to the code of honor that the U.S. military asked them to live by, doing all that was in their power to stymie the Vietcong.  They thought up codes and other ways of communicating, they went on hunger strikes, they frustrated the Vietnamese attempts at using the POWs in propaganda, and they held out as long as they could under torture.  For some, the results were deathly or resulted in lifelong crippling.  For all, there were ghosts that lingered long after the war.  The story told chronologically and had a lot more detail in the beginning; toward the end it was just more of the same.  The detailed view into life as a POW included a view light moments, too.  Eventually, the war is over and repatriation becomes real, not just a dream.

A memoir may not be the most academically rigorous place to start one’s exploration of the Vietnam War, but the book was available for free, and, if nothing else, sparked a greater interest.  I was appreciative of Guarino’s openness about some aspects of the whole situation.  He noted that each POW could tell his own story and that, because everyone’s experiences are different and are interpreted in our own minds differently, each story would be unique.  He understood that not all men could hold out as he did and that he himself was not as strong as others.  He and the other POWs respected all who put forth their best efforts.  I found him to be open-minded and respectful of differing viewpoints.  He realized that America afforded all people the chance to think as we like, and he claimed (and I believe him) to have no problem with people who were against the war, only those who took steps to aid and abet the enemy.  It seemed a fair viewpoint.  I was struck by the dedication and commitment shown by many of the POWs.  Since there were hundreds of POWs, I can’t be certain, but my impression was that a majority came out and, sooner or later, carried on with life.  It seems that, as with most things, they just made them different back then.  Most of the men were simply doing what their country asked of them.  Most of them understood or came to understand that Communism was a mess and stood for everything that America didn’t.  War, of course, is a messy business, one better off left untouched, so before making too many judgements on this one, I’d like to learn more, and Guarino’s book helped stoke that interest, both because of the personal stories and because of the larger geopolitical issues at stake.

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