Кодекс поведения военнослужащих США: История и принципы

Code of conduct

The Code of the U. S. Fighting Force is a code of conduct that is an ethics guide and a United States Department of Defense directive consisting of six articles to members of the United States Armed Forces, addressing how they should act in combat when they must evade capture, resist while a prisoner or escape from the enemy. It is considered an important part of U. S. military doctrine and tradition, but is not formal military law in the manner of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or public international law, such as the Geneva Conventions.

The early history of rules for the army was founded by Abraham Lincoln who signed the Lieber Code in 1863. During the Korean War in the early 1950s, Chinese and North Korean forces captured American military personnel as prisoners of war. Unlike America's previous wars, these American prisoners faced a harsher POW environment. It was the first American war that U. S. prisoners of war were viewed by an enemy as more than soldiers from the other side temporarily restrained from conducting war. The POW camps sought to control the minds of U. S. prisoners. North Korean and Chinese communists were not hesitant to use brutal and bloody torture as gruesome tools in their efforts to exploit U. S. prisoners of war into making public statements that appeared favorable to the communist war effort. For the American prisoners, brutal torture, lack of food, absence of medical aid, and subhuman treatment became a daily way of life and many of them found that their training had not prepared them for this new battlefield. Although collaborating with the enemy was not new, its ramifications caused considerable damage to the morale and survival of U. S. POWs during the Korean War and later the Vietnam War. Before the Korean War, American prisoners in previous wars were subjected to inhumane and brutal treatment but the enemy did not take it upon itself to tear down the chain of command within the prisoner ranks. When the communists succeeded in breaking this hierarchy, an atmosphere of distrust among the prisoners became the norm rather than the exception. Morale dropped and mutual assistance among the prisoners lessened. The failure of the POWs to care for their fellow prisoners resulted in a higher death rate and made the captives more amenable to accept the doctrine of their captors.

The authority for establishing the Code of Conduct, communication of intent, and assignment of responsibilities are outlined in the first three paragraphs of Executive Order 10631.

The Code of Conduct provides guidance for the behavior and actions of members of the Armed Forces of the United States. This guidance applies not only on the battlefield, but also in the event that the service member is captured and becomes a prisoner of war (POW). The Code is delineated in six articles.