To live or to die. Causes of mortality among POWs in South Vietnam

I have attempted to evaluate some of the varied reasons for the mortality among a small group of POWs interred in one camp in Quang-Nam, South Vietnam. There were many factors affecting survival: physical, psychological, social, cultural, racial, and, of course, the whim of fortune. The ancient message seems to be, however, that man is an adaptive animal; he learns from his own experiences as well as the experiences of others. Though he is a product of his environment and may be subjugated and destroyed by a strange one, he constantly attempts to work within it, to mold it, and to rise above it. It is the key to survival.