On my last morning in Hanoi, with a couple hours to spare, I decided to visit Hoa Lo Prison, also known to Americans as the Hanoi Hilton. I haven’t yet been to similar sites, such as the War Remnants Museum in Saigon or the Cu Chi Tunnels for a couple reasons. One, the “American War,” as the Vietnam War is known here, to me isn’t a very interesting lens through which to look at this country. And partly because of some complicated feelings I have about how far off the museums here typically are from my own standards of academic objectivity.
I was more interested in this visit though, because it has a more contemporary resonance. The current leader of the Republican Party (In our robust two-party system) used to be an inmate there, and that history is being frequently evoked in the current presidential campaign.
The prison was originally built by the French colonial administration here in the 1890s and was used by the North Vietnamese government after the French were driven from Hanoi. It was a huge site equal to a few city blocks. The French leveled a “crafts village” to build it, about a mile from the city center, and now almost none of the complex is still standing. Most of it was cleared for the footprint of a giant office tower and apartment building for foreign businesses.
The little bit still standing has been remodeled as a museum. The displays are better made and better translated than in most museums here. As I’ve noticed elsewhere, the narrative is overtly hostile toward the French but takes a more moderate tone about America. In this case, the displays describe the prison as an attempt by the French to control a revolutionary insurgency and describe all the inmates as political prisoners. When the North Vietnamese government controlled it, it presumably became just a regular old prison housing legitimate criminals.
Two rooms are devoted to the American POWs that were held there between 1965 and 1973. The introduction explains that these rooms will demonstrate how well the prisoners of war were treated. The glass cases display Red Cross packages, cartons of American cigarettes, greeting cards from home, and 8X10 photos of the prisoners eating, playing basketball, etc. To my eyes, the photos looked staged, and the subjects didn’t look like they wanted to be playing basketball. They have a picture of John McCain during a visit here in 2000 and what they say is his flight suit and other gear. Another display represents anti-war protesters in France and America as sympathizers with the Vietnamese liberation effort. There's no mention of the torture that American P.O.W.s have alleged and that the Vietnamese government still denies.
Aside from that, the bulk of the museum is devoted to exhibits of the cells, shackles, a guillotine, etc. that were used during most of the prison’s history, and those were very moving to see in person.
-Robert
