The
prison was built in Hanoi by the French, in dates ranging from
1886–1889 to 1898 to 1901, when Vietnam was still part of French
Indochina. The French called the prison Maison Centrale - a
traditional euphemism to denote prisons in France. It was located near
Hanoi's French Quarter. It was intended to hold Vietnamese prisoners,
particularly political prisoners agitating for independence who were
often subject to torture and execution. A 1913 renovation expanded its
capacity from 460 inmates to 600. It was nevertheless often overcrowded,
holding some 730 prisoners on a given day in 1916, a figure which would
rise to 895 in 1922 and 1,430 in 1933. By 1954 it held more than 2000
people; with its inmates held in subhuman conditions, it had become a
symbol of colonialist exploitation and of the bitterness of the
Vietnamese towards the French.
Known
widely by the nickname ‘Hanoi Hilton’ given to it by the Americans
during the Second Indochina War, Hoa Lo Prison was originally
established by the French colonial government in 1896 for the purpose of
detaining political prisoners and formed part of a northern network of
‘unjust and cruel prisons’ which included Cao Bang, Son La, Lai Chau and
Hai Phong. Many leading revolutionaries were incarcerated here during
the French colonial period, including Phan Boi Chau, Hoang Trong Mau,
Luong Van Can, Nguyen Quyen, Nguyen Luong Bang and five future General
Secretaries of the Communist Party - Nguyen Van Cu, Le Duan, Truong
Chinh, Nguyen Van Linh and Do Muoi. Between 1964 and 1973 the prison’s
inmates included several captured American pilots, notably Senator John
McCain and Douglas 'Pete' Peterson, America’s first Ambassador to the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Most
of the original prison was demolished in 1996 to make way for the Hanoi
Towers (now Somerset Grand Hanoi) serviced apartment and office
complex, but the southernmost corner has been preserved and reopened to
the public as a memorial to the revolutionaries who died here in
atrocious conditions. Visitors can view the original cells, complete
with leg-irons, along with a selection of bilingual (Vietnamese and
English) displays illustrating the horrors of life in the prison during
the French colonial period.
Conditions
were appalling; food was watery soup and bread. Prisoners were
variously isolated, starved, beaten, tortured for countless hours and
paraded in anti-American propaganda. "It is easy to die but hard to
live," a prison guard told one new arrival, "and we will show you just
how hard it is to live." The prison is really “A Hell on Earth”.
The Hanoi Hilton was depicted in the eponymous 1987 Hollywood movie The
Hanoi Hilton. Hanoi Tower, built on the site of the infamous prison
"Hanoi Hilton"; the entrance to the remaining parts of the prison
visible in the foreground. By 1996, most of the walls of the Hanoi
Hilton had been torn down to make way for new construction. Portions of
the walls were retained for historical reasons. The Vietnamese also have
bitter memories of the prison, for many communist revolutionaries were
kept and tortured there. In 1998, the old front of the prison was
painted and restored and the remaining portions of the prison were
turned into a tourist site. Some of the cells have been opened and
considerable information about Vietnamese prisoners is available. The
information about the U.S. prisoners of war is unreliable. There is now a
Hilton Hotel in Hanoi, called the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel, which
opened in 1999. It was built decades after the Vietnam War was over, but
Hilton carefully avoided reusing the dreaded name Hanoi Hilton.
.jpg)
