Chapter Six Summary and Analysis

The prisoners - Jim, Dan, John and Rowe - are moved again on March 4, 1967, this time to a camp with better construction. When they learn that some Vietcong prisoners are being tried in Saigon, Rowe prays they will be sentenced to prison rather than death so that the Vietcong will not need to execute American prisoners in retaliation. Jim weakens and Rowe knows that he has started the decline to death. It's a relatively slow process with Jim and he rallies slightly. Rowe says that the guards "refuse to accept the fact that adequate food was all that was necessary" to keep the prisoners relatively healthy.

Rowe is told that he and the other prisoners can fish and that any excess they catch will be sold by the guards with the money given to the prisoners to buy whatever...