The Trouble with Orcs

The Pig-faced Villain
The authors of White Box were influenced by and borrowed from many sources, myths, legends and science fiction/fantasy literature while in the process of creating the first adventure/role-playing game. One has to only glance through the Little Brown Books to see the influence Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien has on the game. In the original game, ents, balrogs, and hobbits point to Tolkien's influence. I believe orcs do also, although they didn't get a name change along with the others after TSR was asked to drop direct references to Tolkien properties. Have read a considerable amount of Appendix N sources, I can't recall any other author using the term orc prior to Tolkien. Despite the popularity of orcs and orks in other games and books since, the orc for me is Tolkien's orc.
As they appear in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, they are creatures of evil, twisted elven spirits bred to serve evil, do evil, be evil. They are cannibalistic, cruel and violent, bad tempered and get along with no one, especially other orcs. Power and cunning are the only thing they seem to aspire to. In White Box terms they are frequently encountered "monsters" of chaotic or neutral alignment. The possibility of a neutral alignment makes understanding this man-like monster a bit more troublesome in game terms than they seem in The Lord of the rings.  
Alignment isn't really explained in Vol. I Men & Magic other than to say it is necessary to determine what stance a character will take - Law, Neutrality or Chaos. I realize others have different interpretations of alignment, but I tend to see it as what team one plays for. Law tends to favor society as it is, organized and beneficial. Chaos is opposed to society and would bring it down. Neutrality is not taking a stance with either Law or Chaos, rather being out for oneself, whatever that may mean.
Interpreting alignment thus, it would seem some orcs can be killed on sight...rather like the enemy soldiers during wartime. Others, those of Neutrality, should be treated with and negotiations rather than violence should be the goal. Who actually thinks of these things during play, however?
Good and evil are not a part of White box alignment, but does play a significant role in the game. Certain spells, like Protection From Evil suggest that men and monsters may be "Good" or "evil" in addition to being aligned with Law, Neutrality or Chaos.
So I raise the question, are orcs evil? I Tolkien's LotR, from where they are drawn, orcs are entirely of the enemy, agents of evil carrying the darkest of intent. They are monsters to be hunted and killed on sight. It is assumed that if taken prisoner, the orc will still seek to harm anyone it can. So does Chaos equal evil? I don't play the game that way, but it is certainly open to interpretation.
So, picture our noble adventurers, defenders of Law, entering a ruined castle inhabited by a tribe of nasty chaos serving orcs. Having killed the orc warriors, losing two members of the party in the process, the remaining PCs are confronted by a nest of little orcs. What to do?
What about the half-orc? Later editions will present 1/2 orcs as a player race, but we are left to wonder how such mixed off-spring comes to exist if the orc is such a monster to begin with. Some sort of violent conception is often the explanation, again leading to ascribing an "evil" nature to the orc parent? As PC, is the 1/2 orc trustworthy? Often aligned with malignant forces and limited in class selection to the less savory professions, the 1/2 orc is usually suspect in many milieux.
By the way, what do orcs look like anyway? How do we recognize and orc without the referee saying, "Before you stand three orcs dressed to kill."