Something for the Fourth of July

This is not exactly a great photo, but it has an interesting story. It shows the new roof of Hoa Lo prison, popularly known in the west as the "Hanoi Hilton" (taken from an upper floor of the nearby Melia Hotel where I was at a conference). Originally constructed by the French - hence the name Maison centrale over the main entrance - it once held many Vietnamese revolutionaries and is basically set up today to tell that story. But for a few years it also held American POWs. I visited about 10 years ago - I only remember the approximate time because one of the prison's former inmates, Douglas 'Pete' Peterson, was then back in Hanoi as the first US ambassador - a person hugely appreciated by the Vietnamese for his ability to forgive and get on with life.

Anyway, it is a pretty ugly place. The ground floor is somewhat like a dungeon - huge, gloomy long rooms with sleeping benches on either side to which Vietnamese prisoners were kept in leg-irons; tiny, dark and dank solitary confinement closets; and a guillotine - a barbaric instrument if ever there was one. The exercise yard, of which there's only about a quarter left since two thirds of the total area was demolished to make way for the Hanoi Towers - Hanoi's first and possibly ugliest set of 'skyscrapers' - actually had a couple of trees and must've been a huge respite for those who were allowed to use it. Apparently 100 Vietnamese prisoners - led by Do Muoi, who was Party Secretary in the late-1980s and early-'90s - escaped through the sewers in 1945. That must have been when the Japanese rounded up all the Vichy French just prior to the end of World War II.

The room we were shown as having been accommodation for the Americans was, by contrast, comparatively luxurious. I note, however, an American website which says that 47 POWs were living in one room at Christmas 1971, so they certainly could not have been in that room. I see from another site that the room was in what the Americans called the 'New Guys' Village': there is a photo of the room here. Most of them were in fact held in the now-demolished section they called 'Camp Unity' shown here, in a photo that appears to post-date the American war. The section in the foreground where the Hanoi Towers now stand.

At the time of my visit I had no idea so many Americans had been shot down over North Vietnam - there were more in other rooms in the prison as well as scattered in other places, including the Yen Phu power station and MoD area of the old Citadel, presumably so that these places wouldn't be bombed. I visited a fan factory a few doors down Ly Thuong Kiet from the prison back in 1992. The manager explained that, unlike most other factories, his had never been evacuated from the city during the war because they were confident that no American bombs would come anywhere near to Hoa Lo. I have some better photos, from my pre-digital era that I need to get scanned.