Throughout the course of the war the allies maintained a major and sustained effort to promote a reciprocal program of prisoner repatriation.

1967 A total of 139 prisoners of war were released in South Vietnam or repatriated to North Vietnam.

3 February Twenty-eight North Vietnamese prisoners of war were released at the Ben Hai River to return to North Vietnam through the demilitarized zone.

11 March Two Viet Cong prisoners of war captured by U.S. forces were released in response to the release of two U.S. prisoners of war.

20 March Two North Vietnamese PT boat crewmen were repatriated through Cambodia.

22 March The South Vietnamese released twenty-two Viet Cong prisoners of war and on 23 June 1967 three Viet Cong captured by U.S. forces were released at a jungle rendezvous in exchange for the release of two U.S. prisoners and one Filipino captured by the Viet Cong.

April 1967 A screening program was begun to identify prisoners of war who, because of illness, were qualified for release under Articles 109 and 110 of the Geneva Conventions. The screening team included two Swiss physicians under contract to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

        Of the 286 prisoners screened, 135 qualified medically for repatriation. Of those qualified for repatriation, only 39 wished to return to North Vietnam. To this group was added a female prisoner of war who had given birth in a South Vietnamese hospital.

12 June The 40 prisoners and the infant were repatriated to North Vietnam through the demilitarized zone, on the same day four Viet Cong held U.S. prisoners were released in South Vietnam.

1968 The government of South Vietnam, with U.S. support, sought to repatriate 40 sick and wounded prisoners of war to North Vietnam under Articles 109 and 110 of the Geneva Conventions. The prisoners were examined by a Red Cross physician and had expressed a desire to return to the north. The Vietnamese made the repatriation offer through the Red Cross, which sent a telegram to the North Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs, proposing repatriation in late January or early February. When no reply was received, the South Vietnamese asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to renew its efforts in May, but there was still no reply by the end of the year. Efforts by the South Vietnamese and the Red Cross to repatriate these 40 prisoners of war, and 24 civilians as well, continued through 1969, but to no avail.

1969 During the year the Republic of Vietnam did release 191 Viet Cong prisoners of war in South Vietnam for reasons of youth, age, or pregnancy under Article 21 of the Geneva Prisoner of War Conventions. Also, some prisoners of war who were not deemed to be "hard-core" Viet Cong were transferred to the favored Hoi Chanh status, under the Chieu Hoi amnesty program. These transfers particularly applied to youths seventeen and under.

13 November At the Paris Peace Talks the South Vietnamese proposed returning 62 sick and wounded prisoners of war to North Vietnam. The offer was declined. It was the position of the South Vietnamese that if Geneva Prisoner of War Articles 109 and 110 required the capturing state to repatriate the sick and wounded, these articles also required the home state of the prisoners of war to accept those prisoners who wished repatriation. The South Vietnamese even proposed transporting sick and wounded prisoners of war by sea to any port or point on the coast of North Vietnam, but received no response to this offer.

1970 Efforts to repatriate prisoners of war to North Vietnam and to secure the release of U.S. and South Vietnamese prisoners of war continued through 1970, but met with little success.

October Throughout the war the United States had urged the South Vietnamese to release qualified prisoners of war, seeking possible reciprocal action by North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese had been understandably reluctant to release unilaterally large numbers of able-bodied prisoners of war, but after the national election in October, the Republic of Vietnam transferred 2,300 Viet Cong prisoners who pledged loyalty to the government to Chieu Hoi centers and released 623 outright.

January 1971 The Republic of Vietnam offered to repatriate all sick and wounded prisoners to North Vietnam. This offer was ignored.

29 April The Vietnam government requested North Vietnam to conclude a bilateral agreement for the repatriation or internment in a neutral country of those prisoners of war who had been held captive for a long period of time. This offer was ignored, but in May 1971 North Vietnam finally agreed to accept 570 sick and wounded prisoners. The International Committee of the Red Cross interviewed 660 sick and wounded prisoners, of whom only 13 wished to be repatriated. As arranged, these thirteen were taken by sea to a point off the coast of North Vietnam; but before they were released North Vietnam canceled the agreement to accept the prisoners and they were returned to Da Nang. This ended repatriations for the remainder of 1971.

        Through 1 March 1972, South Vietnam released a total of 5,960 prisoners of war. Of this total 188 were repatriated to North Vietnam, 900 were released in South Vietnam, 1,784 were reclassified, and 3,084 were accepted into the Chieu Hoi program.

        In contrast, by the end of 1971 the Communists had released 53 American prisoners of war; they had allowed no visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Communist prisoner of war camps in North Vietnam or South Vietnam; and they had made no effort to repatriate sick and wounded prisoners.

        Mailing privileges for U.S. prisoners held in North Vietnam had been allowed sporadically and in an arbitrary manner. Finally, the Communists had refused to furnish a comprehensive and accurate list of the prisoners they held. Although both the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese consistently maintained that their prisoners received humane treatment, their efforts to comply with the provisions of the Geneva Prisoner of War Conventions were negligible.

Editors Note: History has verified and recorded the extensive records of a routine pratice of of torture, death and deplorable treatment afforded our POW's by Communist Forces while they were detained in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.

The material on this page was edited by the Viet Nam History Project from, VIETNAM STUDIES ~ LAW AT WAR: VIETNAM 1964-1973  by, Major General George S. Prugh Department of The Army, Washington, D.C., 1975