W.Minh Tuan

During the Vietnam War, 1954-1975, there were 591 American prisoners of war were captured and held in Hoa Lo prison, Hanoi. Most American POWs in Vietnam, at Hilton Hanoi, were American pilots who flew and dropped  bombs over Hanoi and North Vietnam.

The Americans said there were American POWs missing during the Vietnam War, but I’ve never heard of American POWs going missing like that. All American POWs during the entire Vietnam War were held in Hoa Lo Prison, Hilton Hanoi.

Among these 591 American prisoners of war, there was only one female prisoner. This female prisoner was given priority to raise a cat to relieve her sadness, and she has a private room for herself  and her cat. When returning prisoners in 1972, this American female POW was allowed to bring with her this cat back to the US.

American POWs put nickname Hoa Lo Prison to be the Hanoi Hilton Hotel.

The most famous prisoner in Hanoi’s Hilton prison, were Mr. John McCain, later a candidate for US President in 2008, competed with President Obama, and lost the election.

He flew bombers over Hanoi, dropped bombs, and was shot down by Vietnamese missiles. He parachuted into Truc Bach Lake, the center of Hanoi. He was injured, and could not swim. People living along the lake quickly rowed out rescuing him, picked him up, took him to the hospital, treated him, and took care of his wounds. Then later he was put into the Hanoi Hilton.

The second most famous American POW, probably Mr. Peterson, was also a bomber pilot, who later became the first US Ambassador to Vietnam, after US President Bill Clinton signed an agreement for normalization the diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995.

Many American prisoners of war, after being returned to the US, reported that they were tortured, beaten and mistreated. But looking at the photos of them living in Hanoi’s Hilton prison, playing basketball, volleyball, being able to cook for themselves on Christmas Day, and when they were returned back to America in 1972, they looked fat and healthy, showing their lives in Hilton Hanoi prison is not so bad as they had denounced.

Colonel Tran Trong Duyet, former Director of Hoa Lo Prison said:

– At that time, American pilot prisoners of war were taken care of by our side with a very special diet: In the morning, they often had bread with milk or sugar (luxury goods that at that time, in Vietnam, it is normal that only when you Vietnamese are sick, or when you are given gifts, you can get milk or sugar).

For lunch and dinner, their meals are fried egg sandwiches, or meat and a bowl of casserole soup with meat and potatoes, or vegetables.

Cigarette smokers were also given 3 silver-coated Tam Dao cigarettes a day (a very rare, and unfiltered tobacco produced by the North at that time).

On holidays and New Year’s Day (for both Vietnam and the US), prisoners of war are given special fresh food.

On Vietnamese New Year’s Day, they are directed to  wrap banh chung, fried spring rolls, which are traditional Vietnamese Tet dishes.

On New Year’s Day, and Christmas Eve, the logistics department of the Hanoi Hilton often brings referrals letters (at that time, without referrals letter from top leaders, you can not buy some kind of products) to Ha Bac or Son Tay to buy turkeys for American prisoners to roast and process themselves, cooked a mixed fried rice (rice with meat, eggs and vegetables), drank with Truc Bach beer – a drink that American prisoners loved very much – and after finishing the meals, they usually had fruit and sweets for dessert.

Every day, they can play sports, volleyball, table tennis, basketball.

I still remember during the Vietnam war, my mother was a doctor, the standard of meat a month for a doctor was only 1 kg. My father, a French language teacher, gets 700 grams of meat a month. As for me, a middle school student, I get 200 grams of meat a month. But American POWs were allowed to eat 2 kg of meat per month.

Therefore, when returning them to the US in 1973, the American prisoners of war were very healthy, fat, fatter than the Vietnamese, and fatter and healthier than my parents.///