The Hanoi Hilton was a prison used by North Vietnam during the Vietnam War to hold American POWs. It was originally built by French colonists and later turned into a museum. The prison was located in an interesting location, allowing vendors to come into contact with prisoners. The museum records both French and North Vietnamese use of the site and visitors can see restored cells and personal items of notable prisoners.
The Hanoi Hilton was a notorious prison used during the Vietnam War by the North Vietnamese to hold captured POWs, mainly downed American pilots and aircrew. To the Vietnamese, the prison was known as Hoa Lo; “Hanoi Hilton” was a nickname used by American soldiers. There is also a branch of the Hilton Hotel chain in Hanoi, which is scrupulously known as the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel in an effort to avoid associations with the original ‘Hanoi Hilton’.
Hoa Lo was located along a major thoroughfare in Hanoi, which put the prison in an interesting location. Vendors of food and various passing products might come into contact with the prisoners, and some apparently passed notes of encouragement or offered food to the often hungry prisoners. They also released reports of grim conditions inside the prison and posted news about specific prisoners for concerned friends and family members.
While many Americans associate the Hanoi Hilton with American POWs, the prison’s history is actually much older. It was built in the late 1800s by French colonists, who used it to hold political prisoners. A series of renovations expanded the prison through the 1930s to accommodate a growing population, but by all accounts, the prison was extremely crowded and conditions were very poor. In 1954, when the French left Vietnam, the Maison Centrale, as it was known, was closed and turned into a museum commemorating the horrors of colonialism.
In 1964, the first American POW was taken to the Hanoi Hilton, and he was quickly joined by numerous others, especially after the Vietnamese began closing outlying prison camps. Prison occupants were routinely interrogated by the North Vietnamese for information and some were executed, sometimes brutally. After 1973, when the prison closed, numerous guards and government officials denied claims that POWs were tortured in the prison, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Until the mid-1990s, the Hanoi Hilton remained largely untouched. Part of it was demolished to make way for a skyscraper, and the Vietnamese government decided to restore the remaining part so that it could be used as a museum. The museum records both French and North Vietnamese use of the site, although some authorities have suggested that some of the information in the museum is not very reliable. Visitors to the site today can see restored cells along with personal items of notable prisoners such as John McCain, Joseph Kittinger and Bud Day.
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