Ray Vohden

Ray Vohden was the fourth American prisoner of war captured by the North Vietnamese. He was the most senior ranking American POW in the "Cuba Program," the yearlong interrogation and torture of twenty POWs by agents of Fidel Castro's government beginning in July 1967.

The Americans nicknamed the lead Cuban interrogator "Fidel." When Fidel's genial attempts to get "confessions" of war crimes committed by the American military against the Vietnamese were rebuffed, Fidel resorted to other means to obtain the information he wanted. The POWs were often subjected to beatings and torture that would sometimes go on for days until the prisoners, worn out and unable to take the pain any longer, capitulated to their captors' demands. In the following reading, Vohden describes the interrogation and torture he suffered under Fidel's direction until he finally broke and no longer cared whether he lived or...