This Vietnam War Prison Was Dubbed 'Hanoi Hilton' By American POWs

War is a living hell. If you believe nothing is worse than being on the battlefield, never allow enemies to capture and detain you as a prisoner of war (POW). Despite being well protected by international laws under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, many POWs experienced horrifying tortures and abuses that immensely violated even their most basic human rights.

The year was 1954, and tensions in Vietnam had escalated among its disunited people, with each side favoring and promoting different ideologies. The communist North had long despised how its liberal brothers in the South had welcomed US funding, armaments, and training, and as its Western allies continued their military expansion, the North began its aggressive move toward the South. At the height of the conflict, the United States had deployed approximately 550,000 troops to the frontlines of Vietnam and had reportedly suffered over 58,000 casualties and missing until its withdrawal in 1973.

Throughout the conflict period, the North Vietnamese had established at least thirteen prisons and prison camps (mostly located near Hanoi) to detain its American POWs, the most notoriously known of which was Hoa Lo Prison (nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton”).

Once A Vietnamese Torture Camp

The Hoa Lo Prison was first built by the French to incarcerate Vietnamese political prisoners who tried to advocate for independence from French Indochina. Initially named Maison Centrale (means “Central House”), even then, the prison camp had seen dozens of inhumane torture and executions of its captives—becoming a bitter symbol of colonialist exploitation and Vietnamese hostility toward the French and, eventually, the West.

So, when the Vietnam War broke out, the communist North took over the French-built prison camp, renaming it Hoa Lo, which loosely translates to “hell’s hole” or “fiery furnace,” a bitter homage to what it was like for the Vietnamese prisoners and a grim nod to the life American POWs had to endure.

Inside Hanoi Hilton Prison Camp

The notorious prison camp was surrounded by “20-foot walls, topped with barbed wires and broken glass” to ensure that escape from hell’s hole would be impossible. According to the account of the first American POW to get incarcerated in the prison camp, detainees of the Hoa Lo had endured miserable and unsanitary conditions, deprived even of their most basic needs, including adequate food and clean water. Speaking after his release, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Everett Alvarez Jr. recounted his harrowing experience. He spent the longest among the American POWs with over eight and a half years (during the first six months as the sole US aviator detainee in North Vietnam) in captivity. His persistence and ground-rooted conduct inspired other prisoners to endure the brutality and torture inside the camp.

Hoa Lo Prison 1967 — Exterior view of what American POWs called the “Little Vegas” inside Hoa Lo Prison, 1973. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Eventually, as many American POWs became imprisoned in the complex, it earned dozens of sarcastic nicknames, including the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” in reference to the renowned Hilton Hotel chains back home. Several individual buildings within the compound also received their names, such as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “New Guy Village,” and “Little Vegas.”

A Fiery Hell’s Hole

Even though the North was a signatory to the Third Geneva Convention and knew that POWs should be treated “humanely in all circumstances,” excruciating torture methods were used, such as extreme beatings, rope bindings, iron foot stocks, and prolonged solitary confinement to punish, but mainly to force prisoners into confessing to war crimes and participating in stage propaganda activities, as well as extract military intel.

Below are the regulations inside the Hanoi Hilton camp prison.

[…] Detainees are to observe and carry out the following regulations of the camp:

Detainees must strictly obey orders and follow instruction given them by Vietnamese officers and armymen on duty in the camp.
Detainees must be polite towards every Vietnamese in the camp.
Insider the detention rooms, as well as outside when allowed, detainees must not make noise or create noise. Quarrel and fighting between detainees are forbidden. In time for rest, total silence is imposed.
Detainees must not bring back to detention rooms any object whatsoever without the camp authorities permit it.
In case of sickness or sign of sickness in felt, detainees must immediately inform the camp for the medical officer to check and cure.
Detainees must assure hygiene of the camp, take care of persional items provided by the camp as well as of any other thing for collective use.
In case of air alarms, detainees must keep order and silence, and follow the camp regulations on security.
In need of something, detainees should address themselves to Vietnamese armymen standing nearby by announcing two words “BAO CAO” (means “report”), and should wait if no English-speaking people was available yet.
In the detention rooms, every detainees are equal with each other. Anyone does have the right to free thinking, feeling, praying, etc… and no one is permitted to coerce any other into following his own opinion.
Violation of the regulations shall be punished.

The North Vietnamese prison authorities were reported to have violated most of these regulations.

In addition, those who attempted to escape also faced harsh punishments. When prisoners arrived in Hanoi Hilton, they already knew how little to no chance they had to plan for a successful breakout from high-up walls rigged with barbed wires to a hostile neighborhood surrounding the camps that would immediately report any sighted prisoners on the loose. Nonetheless, plans of getting out of hell’s hole persisted.

No Chance to Escape

In a recorded account from the National Museum of the US Air Force, the American POWs’ most notable escape attempt occurred in May 1969, resulting in “the most brutal and sustained episode of criminal inhumanity” during the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese prison guards didn’t subject the two escapees to extreme torture and beatings but included those who helped plan and execute the elaborate escape. The rest of the POWs who knew nothing about it were tortured as well, and this lasted for months.

Brutality in Hanoi Hilton — Illustrations and descriptions of the brutal tortures endured by American POWs inside the Hanoi Hilton prison camp. (Image source: US Air Force)

According to the Third Geneva Convention, prosecution of POWs is prohibited, and detention is to prevent further participation in the conflict, not as a punishment. The prosecution only occurs when a detainee committed war crimes and “not for acts of violence that are lawful under International Humanitarian Law (IHL).”

“Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited,” stated via the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Part II, Article 13).

At the war’s end, it was determined that dozens of POWs had died in captivity due to execution, severe torture, untreated injuries, acquired diseases, or a combination of all.

While the North Vietnamese insisted on treating its prisoners well and per the Geneva Convention, American POWs narratives said otherwise.

Operation Homecoming

After more than eight years of imprisonment, American POWs were finally set for release under the signed Paris Peace Accords of 1973, which included provisions for exchanging prisoners of war. This allowed the US to finally bring back its imprisoned men, calling it OPERATION HOMECOMING.

In a last-ditch effort to run its propaganda, the North Vietnamese initially attempted to issue “brightly-colored sweaters and suits with ties” for repatriating American POWs to make it look like they had kept their prisoners well-treated throughout their detention. In the end, the prisoners compromised by accepting “low-key outfits including dark pants, shirts, and windbreakers” not to jeopardize their release. Then-Lt. Alvarez, the longest POW in Hanoi Hilton, was among the first batch of repatriates.

Operation Homecoming successfully brought home 591 American POWs, while a dozen more were freed during a North Vietnam-South Vietnam prisoner exchange weeks later. Approximately 660 American military POWs were reported to have survived the war and returned safely to the stateside.