Fires: The Chinese treated all POWs the same regardless of rank. This resulted in the degradation of discipline among POWs. Do you think this was the intended outcome or just 2nd and 3rd order effects? In addition what would you do to combat the loss of morale among POWs?

The Chinese absolutely treated all POWs the same regardless of rank because they purposefully wanted to break down the leaders, strip them of any power and create chaos among the ranks. “In this way, and in others, such as putting ranking POW’s on the most degrading jobs, the Chinese broke what little discipline remained in the POW ranks. The officers themselves did not quite know what to do.” I believe this broke down the chain of command because officers lost the will to lead. “There was no one to give the POW’s direction, except the Chinese.” It seems like everyone went into fend for themselves mode instead of working as a team to escape. The soldiers lost faith in the structure they were trained to be in and accustomed to follow and it threw them off. Humans beings are creatures of habit and when you break a habit in conjunctions with the loss of sleep, food, and water it can have long lasting and damaging physiological effects. The Chinese successfully broke down a lot of American POWs during the Korean War.

To combat the loss of morale among POWs, I think you have to continually lead by example and do whatever is needed to survive and escape. If others see that you’re putting in the effort they might buy in and join you. I also believe that as a leader you need to talk to all the soldiers constantly to check on how they are doing and try to find whatever resources you can to help the sick and weak. By keeping soldiers engaged and giving them a sense of purpose to live and fight another day is a method that could at least slow down the loss of morale among POWs. With more time and more pressure, any human being is eventually going to lose complete morale and break down.