Hoa Lo Prison, AKA Hanoi Hilton

Not all the sights we visit are of the uplifting sort: Auschwitz, the Dokumentation Center, etc. Hoa Lo Prison, aka as the "Hanoi Hilton," is another such place, with unpleasant and disturbing memories for two nations. Humanity at its worst, but also perhaps its best.

It began in the late 19th century as a French prison, said to
be the largest in Indochina

Having destroyed a culturally significant village and its
monuments (click to enlarge)

As it was

Much of Hoa Lo was razed after the war, to make way for
the Hanoi Tower and other new structures

What remains is now a museum; note the broken glass still surmounting the
walls

 

Essentially there are two sections of the museum: political prisoners during the
French colonial regime, exceptionally brutal and repressive, from all we have seen,
here and in Laos; and the American POW section

A life-sized sculpture/diorama of the political prisoner section, late 1940s perhaps

Solitary

The almond tree

In the women's section

Women and their children, of course

The guillotine, in use until the French withdrew in 1954

Now in the American POW section, first, a bit of "history"

World condemnation of the Vietnam War (or, the American War, as they call it)

American condemnation too

Peace monument

The US' first ambassador to Vietnam was Douglas Peterson, an alumnus of Hoa Lo

Effects of US POWs

Photos of the happy times US POWs had at Hoa Lo--all very much disputed
by accounts of privation, torture, abuse, and disregard of Geneva Conventions

John McCain; being rescued; being treated by Vietnamese
medical personnel

A place of great pain and dispute...still