Party Secretariat Directive No. 218-CT/TW

Policy towards Enemy Soldiers Who Are Captured or Surrender in the New Situation

In this new situation, the numbers of enemy prisoners of war, of enemy troops who return to our side when their revolutionary consciences are awakened, and of enemy soldiers who mutiny against their superiors are now constantly growing, and our liberated zone in South Vietnam is constantly expanding and becoming integrated into a single entity. The Secretariat has decided that these enemy troops will be categorized in the following manner and that our policy for dealing with them will be as follows:

I-Categories

Mutineers [Binh Si Khoi Nghia]: Enemy soldiers who carry out actions directed against the enemy in order to join the revolution. Such actions include uprisings to cause mutinies, serving as internal agents inside the enemy’s ranks, sabotaging the enemy, or directly or indirectly assisting our side in battle.

Soldiers whose revolutionary consciences have been awakened and who return to the revolution [Binh si Giac Ngo Tro Ve Voi Cach Mang] (they should not be surrendering soldiers): Enemy soldiers who take the initiative to desert the enemy’s ranks in order to join the ranks of the revolution.

Prisoners of War [Tu Binh]: Enemy soldiers that we capture during or after a battle.

Soldiers who turn themselves in after fleeing in battle [Tan Binh ra Trinh Dien]: Enemy soldiers who have been forced to flee and hide after our forces attack and who then turn themselves in to revolutionary governmental authorities.

II-Policies toward Each Individual Category

Mutineers: Politically, they will be viewed as revolutionary masses [civilian supporters]. In terms of their lives and rations, they will be treated the same as our own cadre and enlisted soldiers. They will be assigned to tasks suited to their individual levels of political consciousness and their individual abilities. Those who perform exemplary service for the revolution will receive commendations or awards. Those who have specialized technical skills will be utilized based strictly on their abilities. Those who are wounded or killed while carrying out revolutionary actions will be treated the same as our own wounded or martyred soldiers.

Soldiers whose revolutionary consciences have been awakened: They will receive the same rights as ordinary citizens and will be dealt with, both in spirit and in material terms, as ordinary citizens.

Prisoners of War: They will be dealt with humanely in strict accordance with our policies. In the present situation, they will be handled as follows:

a) Privates and Non-Commissioned Officers:

-Those whose families live in liberated zones will have the revolution’s policies explained to them and then will be allowed to return home, where local governmental authorities will register, administer, and educate them.

-Those who come from areas still under enemy control or who are not yet able to return home because they are far from home will be temporarily concentrated together so that we can administer and educate them and use them to perform work duties. When conditions permit, they will be allowed to return home to their families.

b) Officers: All officers will be concentrated and detained for control, education, and labor purposes. Later, depending on the amount of progress made by each, they will re-categorized. Specific detailed policies for handling each category will be set at a later date.

Those individuals (including both officers and enlisted men) who have specialized technical skills that we need may be employed in individual tasks for a certain length of time, but we must be vigilant toward them and we must tightly control them. Later, depending on our requirements and on the amount of progress each individual has demonstrated, they may be recruited and employed in various sectors outside the armed forces.

c) With regards to those who are thugs [criminals], intelligence or military security service personnel, psychological warfare officers, pacification or chieu hoi cadre, and leaders of reactionary political parties or party factions within the enemy armed forces, regardless of whether they are privates, non-commissioned officers, or commissioned officers, must be sent to long term concentrated re-education. They must be imprisoned separately in secure locations, and they must be tightly controlled and administered.

d) With regards to those individuals who were formerly soldiers in our army but who deserted to the enemy and joined the puppet army, these individuals are to be dealt with as prisoners of war. Any of them who worked for the enemy as a spy, in psychological warfare operations, in pacification or chieu hoi operations, or who commanded enemy forces in attacks against the revolution will be dealt with as an enemy thug.

4. Soldiers who turn themselves in after fleeing in battle:

Those who turn themselves in and who actively, willingly carry out tasks we entrust to them or who perform services for us by telling us enemy secrets, including the location of enemy supply warehouses, caches, and documents; by informing us of the locations of reactionary leaders who are still hiding from our forces; by helping us to utilize enemy technical weapons and equipment; by encouraging large numbers of other enemy soldiers to turn themselves in, etc., will be treated as soldiers whose revolutionary consciences have been awakened.

As for the rest, in general they will be treated the same as prisoners of war, but attention must be paid to the following issues:

-Privates and non-commissioned officers will be registered, their weapons will be confiscated from them, and our policies will be explained to them. If their homes are in the liberated zone, they will be allowed to return home immediately and responsibility for administering them and educating them will be turned over to the local government. Those who cannot yet return home because their homes are in enemy-controlled areas or because they are too far from home will be concentrated together to be educated and to carry out labor duties.

-Officers must be detained so that they can be reeducated. However, depending on the political situation in individual areas, appropriate measures may be taken so that those who continue to hide out from us will not be too frightened and will be willing to turn themselves in. We may not need to imprison them at first. Based on how the situation develops, we can gradually and systematically concentrate [detain] them later.

-Thugs, spies, and those guilty of many crimes must be arrested and detained immediately.

-Those who refuse to turn themselves in within the specified time period must be arrested and detained. Those who hide from us in order to oppose and sabotage us will be punished appropriately according to the existing laws dealing with the crime of sabotage.

5. People’s Self-Defense Forces and Popular Forces whose units have disintegrated:

-People’s Self-Defense Force units will be disbanded, their weapons and military equipment will be confiscated, and they will be treated as ordinary civilians.

-Popular Forces soldiers will be turned over to local governmental authorities for registration, administration, and education. They will not be concentrated and detained like prisoners of war.

-Regular Army or Regional Forces soldiers who had been detailed to command or to serve as core cadre for Popular Forces or People’s Self-Defense Forces units and individuals who are thugs or intelligence agents will be treated the same as those types of individuals in the prisoner of war category (see above).

Enemy enlisted men and officers from all services and all types of units who deserted to return home, who retired from the enemy armed forces, or who were previously discharged from the enemy armed forces will be treated as ordinary civilians. If anyone in this category has committed crimes, the local authorities will deal with them in accordance with our general policy toward criminals.

6. A number of special cases:

-Enemy soldiers detailed to work in governmental or police posts will be dealt with by our security agencies [the Ministry of Public Security].

-If enemy officers who have influence in ethnic minority groups or in one of the religions are needed to win over the civilian masses, an appropriate policy to appeal to them and ease their treatment may be established.

-With respect to officers of the rank of general or colonel, if it is determined that we need to use them for the good of the revolution, a suitable policy for their treatment may be devised.

… [Indicating that a section has been omitted]

-Puppet prisoners of war captured in 1972 who are still in detention will be handled like current prisoners of war. Privates and non-commissioned officers who have been successfully reeducated may be allowed to return home to their families.

Note: All military proselyting, military intelligence, and [public] security agents whom we have sent to operate within the enemy’s army are considered to be cadre and soldiers in our army. Their cases must be handled carefully and exactly in accordance with our policies, and under no circumstances are they to be mistakenly handled as enemy soldiers.

At present, we will not take prisoners of war or enemy soldiers who have turned themselves in to use as replacement or reinforcement soldiers in our armed forces units.

All types of prisoners of war and enemy soldiers who have turned themselves in will be detained in “B” [Code designation for South Vietnam]. They will not be sent to “A” [Code designation for North Vietnam] except in special circumstances, such as if we need to immediately exploit [interrogate] them in order to support our requirements.

For the Party Secretariat

[signed] To Huu