National Prisoner of War Museum (1998)
National Prisoner of War Museum (1998)This excellent POW documentary describes the American POW experience in nearly all the wars that the United States ever fought. These include the Civil War from both Union and Confederate perspectives. Rather than following the normal sequencing in the POW experience -- capture, long march, prison landscape, escape and coping, liberation and repatriation -- this documentary discusses issues like communication and morale, while also looks into the tribulations of families back home. This issue was especially important relative to the Vietnam POWs whose identity was deliberately kept secret by the North Vietnamese until lists of names were exchanged by the Americans and North Vietnamese in 1972. The utility of this work comes into play at the National POW Museum located at the Andersonville National Historic Site in Andersonville, Georgia, where the museum shows it regularly to its daily visitors. Robert C. Doyle Franciscan University of Steubenville rcdoyle@sbsglobal.net
