Humble in Hanoi

As Nick mentioned, this morning we visited the Hanoi Hilton. I've visited a few historic prisons before,even worked at one, but found this one particulary affecting.

Hoa Lo was built by the French in the 1890s to house Vietnamese protesters against the French rule (colonization, occupation, call it whatever you want). Most of the museum dealt with the history of the Vietnamese held by French jailors. Descriptions of the living conditions, and of the people who were held there made it sound like Vietnam's Robben Island.

From 1964 to 1973, Hoa Lo was used to house the American prisoners of war caught in northern Vietnam. The two rooms which discussed this time period were fascinating. One room showed a video (propoganda it would seem to Americans) of the folly of the US military invaders and the resilience of the Vietnamese people. The video showed all the horrible images that I grew up seeing in textbooks and some that never would have made the high school textbook cut. All the pictures of the American POWs in this exhibit showed them happy around the Christmas tree or receiving packages from the Red Cross or home. The captions with the pictures describing their time there were nearly comical, discussing the joys of raising poultry and learning to farm.

As a student of history, I've always been aware that there are many sides to every story. History is always told by the winners and in this case the eventual winners were the Vietnamese. Having grown up with the American version and having heard more of the Vietnamese version over the last few days, I can say that I firmly believe the truth to be somewhere in between. It all just reinforces to me the bravery of the men who fought on both sides and questionable decisions made by the men in power.