The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam War is a report from an individual research project conducted by

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

, Commander, United States Navy, at the

National War College The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. History The National War Colle ...

. It has a 44 pages and was released on April 8, 1974. The purpose of this paper was to review the

Code of Conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is commonly writt ...

in the perspective of the Vietnam prisoner of war experience and to make recommendations for changes to the code itself and to the training and indoctrination of the members of the Armed Forces in the Code of Conduct. Additionally, recommendations are presented for the education of the members of the Armed Forces and the U.S. public in order to minimize the use of POWS in the future as political hostages and propaganda vehicles. The Vietnam War was the first test of the Code of Conduct. The majority of the American POWS were held captive longer than in any other war engaged in by Americans. The paper discusses the Code of Conduct, article by article, and assesses its value and viability as they related to the Vietnam War experience. The report compares conditions and treatment American POWs experienced in Vietnam, and how it affected their ability to live up to the code. In the report Commander McCain writes that, "The American people have been inoculated with too many John Wayne movies and other examples of unbreakable will and super human strength. It has been amply proved that every man has a breaking point."

External links

The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam War, by John S McCain, Commander United States Navy
"The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam Prisoners of War"
by John S. McCain, Commander USN,

, 1974-04-08 (''New York Times'' location) Vietnam War POW/MIA issues John McCain 1974 documents 1974 in military history Works about the Vietnam War {{Vietnam-war-book-stub