Back in 2006, General Wesley Clark posted 2 scans of the MACV handout regarding the treatment of captives. These were just a two sided card given to soldiers in the field. Since I was just REMF, I never received one and had no idea of their existence until I saw them on Clark's website.
Follow me for a look at them.
The front. Click on thumbnail for really big image.
The back. Click on thumbnail for really big image.
They are not the best scans so I transcribed the text.
The front:
The enemy in your hands
As a member of the US military forces,
you will comply with the Geneva
Prisoner of War Conventions of 1949
to which your country adheres.
Under these conventions:
You can and will
Disarm your prisoner
Immediately search him thoroughly
Require him to be silent
Guard him carefully
Take him to a place designated by
your commander
You cannot and must not
Mistreat your prisoner
Humiliate or degrade him
Take any of his personal effect which
do not have significant military value
Refuse him medical treatment if required
and available
The back:
- Handle him firmly, promptly, but humanely.
The captive in your hands must be disarmed, searched,
secured and watched. But he must also be treated at all
times as a human being. He must not be tortured, killed,
mutilated, or degraded, even if he refuses to talk.
If the captive is a women, treat her with all respect due her
sex.
- Take the captive quickly to security.
As soon as possible evacuate the captive to a place of
safety and interrogation designated by your commander.
Military documents taken from the captive are also sent to
the interrogators, but the captive will keep his personal
equipment except his weapons.
- Mistreatment of any captive is a criminal offense.
Every soldier is personally responsible for the enemy in
his hands.It is dishonorable and foolish to mistreat a captive. It is
also a punishable offense. Not even a beaten enemy will
surrender if he knows his captors wil torture or kill him.
He will resist and make his capture more costly.
Fair treatment of captives encourages the enemy to
surrender.
- Treat the sick and wounded captives as best you can.
The captive saved may be an intelligence source. In any
case he is a human being and must be treated like one.
The soldier who ignores the sick and wounded degrades
his uniform.
- All persons in your hands, whether suspects, civilians,
or combat captives, must be protected against violence,
insult, curiosity, and reprisals of any kind.
Leave punishment to the courts and judges. The soldier
shows his strength by his fairness, firmness, and humanity
to the person in his hands
I am not saying that these orders were followed by all our troops in Vietnam because there are documented violations enough to fill a book. My point is that the troops were given orders on treatment of "captives". If they violated them they could be punished and were made aware of it. It is interesting that the word "captives" is used along with "prisoner".
Wes on torture.
No Torture, No Exceptions
General Wesley K. Clark (Ret)
Washington Monthly | March 2008
Torture—the word evokes images of dark, damp dungeons and outlandish punishments and pain. But torture can take many forms, and it lives today. Incredibly, Americans are part of it. And we must put a stop to it.
Torture is illegal, ineffective, and morally wrong. The United States has signed numerous treaties condemning torture and abjuring its practice. Those treaties are the law of the land. And, yes, waterboarding is torture: in the past, we convicted and punished foreign nationals for torture by waterboarding. There are no legal loopholes permitting torture in "exceptional cases." After all, those were the same excuses used by the torturers we once condemned.
Even though the Convention Against Torture was "entered in to force" in 1987, the military in Vietnam did what the CAT mandates in Article 10:
- Each State Party shall ensure that education and information regarding the prohibition against torture are fully included in the training of law enforcement personnel, civil or military, medical personnel, public officials and other persons who may be involved in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment.
2. Each State Party shall include this prohibition in the rules or instructions issued in regard to the duties and functions of any such persons.
Wes again.
Just a little history for your continuing education.