Suchergebnisse

The fate of captives designated as 'communist' prisoners during the Vietnam War has largely been overshadowed by that of US POWs detained north of the Seventeenth Parallel. This article, based on newly released archival sources in multiple languages, considers their classification and treatment in captivity. In particular, civilian captives and members of the National Liberation Front were often categorised as 'civil defendants' by South Vietnam and thus deprived of their rights as POWs, as codified in the Geneva Conventions. Yet, as representatives of a state dealing with both an insurgency and an invasion at the same time, South Vietnamese officials realised the significance of enemy captives. By illustrating the complex policies and practices of prisoner taking and incarceration, this article interprets and explains the gap between civilian and military law and informal and oftentimes self-serving practices on the ground. Thus, the Second Indochina War foreshadowed a global trend of excluding captured irregular combatants from the laws of war.

Anhand bisher geheimer Quellen untersucht Marcel Berni das Schicksal von 200.000 »kommunistischen« Gefangenen, die während des Vietnamkrieges schlimmsten Gräueltaten ausgesetzt waren – durch US-amerikanische und südvietnamesische Soldaten, durch Geheimdienstagenten und Polizisten. Er schildert den Lageralltag in den Gefängnissen und beleuchtet die Praktiken in den diversen Verhörzentren, die von simplen Schikanen bis hin zu Folter, Mord und Verstümmelungen reichten. Besonders der Konnex zwischen exemplarischer Gewalt und Inszenierung der eigenen Stärke; zwischen Selbstermächtigung und Frustrationsbewältigung wird hierbei berücksichtigt und die amerikanische Mitverantwortung deutlich herausgestrichen. Die überbordende Gewalt in all ihren Dimensionen belegen zu können, ist das zentrale Ergebnis dieser bemerkenswerten Studie.

Chapter 1. The Diplomatic Role of Transnational Actors in Wartime Captivity; Marcel Berni, Tamara Cubito -- Chapter 2. "Any unfavourable condition or untoward circumstance will receive immediate attention": American Consuls' Visits to British Colonial Internment Camps of the Great War; Tamara Cubito -- Chapter 3. "Heraus mit unseren Gefangenen!" The German Home Front and the International Campaign for Prisoner of War Repatriation, 1918-1919; Brian K. Feltman -- Chapter 4. An Uneasy Balance: International Relief Efforts in the Chaco War; Robert Niebuhr -- Chapter 5. Japanese Civilian Internees in New Caledonia: A Gap Between the Protecting Powers and the ICRC; Rowena Ward -- Chapter 6. Japanese Prisoners of War, the American-Soviet Conflict, and the Role of Repatriated War Veterans in the Early Cold War in East Asia; Frank Jacob -- Chapter 7. The ICRC and Communist Captives during Vietnam's American War; Marcel Berni -- Chapter 8. Biafra's Captives: The "Oilmen Incident" and International Diplomacy in the Nigerian Civil War; Onianwa Oluchuchukwu Ignatus -- Chapter 9. 90,000 Prisoners of War as Bargaining Chip: Bangladesh, India and Pakistan 1972 to 1974; Amit Das Gupta.