Two Souls Indivisible by James S. Hirsch

Author:James S. Hirsch [Hirsch, James S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

9. The Hanoi March

As the summer approached, the Hanoi media increased their attacks on the POWs. They had always been called "criminals," "air pirates," or "mercenaries," but now they were being compared to Nazis and alleged to have committed war crimes, punishable by execution. The Vietnamese hoped to attract attention abroad, and to some extent they did. American antiwar activists in 1966 recounted the "crimes" of U.S. pilots at teach-ins, marches, vigils, and campus demonstrations. The accusations also caught the attention of the Johnson administration, which scrambled to develop a legal brief defending the POWs in case of a trial.

America's bombing campaign escalated significantly on June 29, when 116 U.S. jets dropped nearly a hundred tons of bombs and rockets on oil depots in and around Hanoi and Haiphong. For fifteen minutes, planes could be heard climbing and then screaming down toward their targets. Bomb blasts and antiaircraft fire shook the earth while air raid sirens wailed. Halyburton and Cherry heard them and felt them: plaster fell from the ceiling; cluster bomb pellets raked the roof; the cell vibrated.

They were elated by the attack, believing the war would end only if the enemy was bombed into submission. But the onslaught cost them dearly.

The guards had collected a shirt from each prisoner, then returned it with a three-digit number stenciled across the back. Some numbers ran into the five hundreds, suggesting that Hanoi held more prisoners than it actually did. The motive for the shirts became clear on July 6.

In the late afternoon, the monotony of a hot, humid day at the Zoo was broken by a loud drum. Trucks rumbled into the courtyard; Halyburton and Cherry knew that any change in routine was a bad omen. There was nervous tapping between cells, and the guards on their rounds were more tense than usual. By the early evening, the guards began opening the cells and telling the POWs to put on their shirts.

When a guard reached the cell holding Halyburton and Cherry, he motioned for Halyburton to come alone. Outside, he was blindfolded and led to one of the trucks, which he climbed inside by feeling his way over the tailgate. No one was allowed to talk, but the Americans, using the tap code, communicated by nudging each other with their knees, elbows, or feet, even by coughing. They tried to guess their destination, with the optimists saying that the recent air raid had defeated the Vietnamese and they were now being taken to the airport. The pessimists feared torture sessions in some remote locale. Halyburton leaned toward the latter. In recent interrogations, the Vietnamese had clearly been angry over the raid, threatening to try to execute the Americans. He didn't know where they were going, but he thought nothing good would come of it.

The truck was covered by canvas, so they could hear car horns and bicycle bells, indicating they were in downtown Hanoi. When the truck stopped, they climbed out, had their blindfolds removed, and found themselves in a small park in the middle of a large intersection.

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