(#10) Not Every Soldier Who Spent Time In The Hanoi Hilton Came Home To The Kind Of Welcome And Success That Denton Experienced
The 1973 photo that supposedly captures the unbridled joy that the families of returned POWs from Vietnam experienced, "Burst of Joy" (pictured above) by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Slava Veder, tells a very different story than Denton's return and rise to prominence in American politics.
For Lt. Col. Robert Stirm, the POW in the photo, coming home meant returning to joyful children and a smiling wife - one who had just penned a letter with her intent to divorce him in it. To read more about the truth behind the photo, continue here.
(#9) While Her Husband Was Missing, Jane Denton Formed The National League Of POW/MIA
After her husband went missing, Jane Denton helped to organize the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.
While her husband brought attention to the torture of prisoners of war in Vietnam, Jane worked to obtain humane treatment for, and, ultimately the release of, American prisoners of war in Vietnam.
(#2) Despite Imminent Torture, Denton Refused To Denounce His Country
In the video, Jeremiah Denton bravely refused to speak out against the United States, despite knowing he would be tortured for doing so.
When asked about his opinion of the United States's actions, Denton replied: “I don’t know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it—fully. Whatever the position of my government is, I believe in it—yes sir. I’m a member of that government and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.”
(#8) Denton Was In Some Pretty Famous Company At The Hanoi Hilton
The POW camp where Denton was held has been nicknamed, rather sardonically, the "Hanoi Hilton" by some of those who endured years of torture there. Another notable figure in US history and politics had a stay at the Hanoi Hilton - Republican Senator and once-presidential-hopeful John McCain. McCain spent six years as a POW at the Hilton, where he was tortured regularly and given more than two years in solitary confinement in an attempt to break him. He wasn't broken.
After his first year in the prison, McCain was abruptly offered unconditional release in 1968 but refused to accept it before other American prisoners were also let go.
(#3) Denton Was Part Of What Was Known As The 'Alcatraz Gang'
Denton was one of 11 prisoners of war to be held in solitary confinement for two years in Hanoi, Vietnam, because of their resistance to their captors. One of these men, Commander James Stockdale, nicknamed the special facility "Alcatraz." There, Denton and his fellow prisoners underwent special and constant torture because of their resistance. The men were often held down by heavy leg shackles and kept in miniscule, windowless cells, the lights turned on at all times. T
hey were tortured this way for 25 months, when 10 of the men were moved to a different prison facility - the 11th, Ron Storz, died while in "Alcatraz."
(#4) This Video Was Not The Only Propaganda Event Denton Took Part In
On July 6, 1966, around the same time he brilliantly blinked using Morse code to convey a message home to the United States, Denton was forced to partake in a propaganda march called the Hanoi March. This march, propagated by the North Vietnamese army, was meant to both humiliate the American prisoners of war and boost anger on the part of North Vietnamese citizens.
Over 50 prisoners were chained in pairs of two and marched in front of tens of thousands of Vietnamese citizens over a two-mile route. Over the course of the march, the Vietnamese citizens began to beat the prisoners of war, causing terrible injuries.
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The Vietnam War was a special and brutal war in history. Due to the rapid increase in the number of American POWs, the Vietnamese government began to use them purposefully to create international public opinion and has cruelly tortured them. The U.S. government began to focus on investigating Vietnam's torture of American POWs because of a public TV speech by an American POW.
Jeremiah Denton endured the harsh environment and solitary confinement for 8 years, and never conceded for abuse and torture, he finally used Morse code to convey a message to the U.S. government in a TV interview in a very secretive manner. The random tool shares 10 details about this historical event.
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