Documentary on treatment of US prisoners in North Vietnam and Viet Cong prisoners in South Vietnam. CBS reporters interview wives and families of American POWS. NOT TO BE RELEASED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF CHIEF/AMPD-RC
The Vietnam War lasted almost 20 years. It was the first war the U.S. had lost. However, the return home of the Prisoners-of-War was widely celebrated. They were held captive for almost nine years, the longest of any American war. Those pilots who survived shootdown were held in secluded prisons, hidden from the outside world except for occasional propaganda films.In 1992 I received permission from the Vietnam government to return to Hanoi and the prison
Commander George Coker was one of the “Alcatraz 11,” a group considered by the North Vietnamese to be the resistance leadership, even though he was a junior officer. The Alcatraz 11 were moved from Hao Lo to a separate facility “Alcatraz” in 1967. Among them were Jim Stockdale and Bob Shumaker. Like Shumaker, Coker was a key communications link in the command structure at Hao Lo and the other Hanoi prisons. He also has the
Profile of retired Col. Carlyle Harris, a former POW in Vietnam who is credited with introducing the tap code, which the prisoners used to communicate