The Hanoi Hilton

Hoa Lo was built in the late 1800’s by the French Colonials in Vietnam. At the time France controlled Cambodia, Laos, parts of Thailand, and Vietnam. The region was then called French Indochina.

Hoa Lo was used as a death camp for the Communist political heads that tried to overthrow the French. In WWII when the Japanese controlled Indochina they used the prison as a POW camp and a hospital for the wounded Japanese soldiers.

 After the war the French took the prison back until the Vietnamese overthrew the French and “freed” Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh who was in power in North Vietnam turned the prison into a POW prison camp for the American pilots that were shot down. The Pilots would be worked to death or starve to death. The Americans that survived called it the Hanoi Hilton because it was the “best accommodations you could get in Hanoi”  After the war most of  it was destroyed except for the front of the building which is turned into a museum.  

When we visited Hoa Lo I immediately saw the propaganda. The most of museum was showing when the French controlled the prison and was showing the Vietnamese suffering and dying. Yes the Vietnamese did suffer but the museum was making it sound like it was a living death. Also the museum showed nothing of the American POW camps. In one year more Americans than died than the Vietnamese did in one year. The few pictures that they did show were of Easter and Christmas and everyone was “happy”. The museum also had a exhibit that showed nothing but protesters and people lighting themselves on fire back in the U.S.A. because they hated the war. The exhibit also read that the American people were against the war, and the big bad military was the only enemy.

 As we finished the visit to the Hanoi Hilton I realized that both sides were wrong. First North Vietnamese were wrong to spread Communism. Some people may argue with me, but look at all the Communist powers, the USSR fell in 80 years, the  PRC' (China) Communist Dictatorship  lasted for only 30 years (even though it is still Communist), Yugoslavia lasted for only 15 years! there are a bunch of examples, to many to name.  When the Americans came to invade the north they had victory after victory, but if you start a war you need to finish it. The south forces fought for five years until the politicians hated the war and called the US Army home. We then left the south Vietnamese to rot and see their homeland dissolve as every American troop took a step back.