Word: haithuon
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Dates: during 1954-1954
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...Captivity. After the battle the Communists split their worn-out prisoners into two groups about 3,000 strong: they marched one group northeast towards the Red China border, the second 400 miles southeast to prison camps near Haithuon, on the coast of Red-held Viet Nam. The second group, to which these repatriated prisoners belonged, was ravaged by dysentery and malaria; the marchers got only 800 grams of rice and gruel a day, with occasional dried fish and peanuts. There were no medical supplies, although many of the walking wounded still bore shrapnel within their bodies...
...Release. Just before turning the prisoners over to the French, the Communists gave them haircuts, bars of soap and a meal of pork and chicken. When the French navy put in at Haithuon to take the prisoners away, Viet Minh nurses were conspicuously serving them tea. But the French rescuers still had to carry most of the prisoners aboard the LSM in stretchers, and the prisoners who were well enough tore almost ravenously into a good French meal. When they had finished, some heroes of the great battle came back to the galleys with hands outstretched, pleading for more...
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