The Brutality of Hanoi Hilton in the Vietnam War

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Show Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)

[ives]

"War's tragedy is that it uses man's best to do man's worst." - Harry Emerson Fosdick

[themushroominside]

As a Vietnamese person i still have living relatives that were subjected to these tortures, my grand uncle was taken as a prisoner of war and was taken to a concentration/labor camp nearing the end of the war and was subsequently subjected to torture. He was tortured so badly that he was essentially castrated by his wounds, he was starved and beaten only to be put into hard labor, his wife and family believed him to be dead until he one day returned home after more than a decade only to find out his wife had remarried to a northener, like salt in the wound as everyone genuinely thought he had died, He is such a kind and forgiving man, his children even the ones that weren't his still love him and visit him regulary and likewise he loves them all dearly despite everything that has happened to him.

[HeisenbergFam]

Vietnam War is one of the most terrifying wars, even trees speaking Vietnamese were terrified

[lephuckhanhtuong]

As a Vietnamese, I felt sorry for the POW at mai son concentration camp. It was brutal. The real reason behind our outrage was poverty and the mass bombardment . Back in the day, soldiers of the NVA suffered a lot because they lost their family and houses during the war. Besides that, thousands of Vietnamese were still infected by the orange agent.

[Whoopu]

I really can't even imagine somehow enduring 8 years and 7 seven months of this. It's absolutely remarkable anyone endured their stays in the Hilton, especially for that freaking long. I imagine even after release however, life was never truly the same. I'm sure part of every man imprisoned there never truly left.

[greggross]

I visited the Hanoi Hilton five years ago. It’s a museum now, or what’s left of it. Most of it was torn down after the war. First built by the French and the late 1800s, and they had lots of ingenious little ways of slowly torturing prisoners. The portion of the exhibit dealing with what they call “the American war“ is relatively small, including a propaganda video, showing American POWs playing volleyball and so on. The ones who “went along to get along, “ so to speak. About what you would expect. But again, it wasn’t something they really harped on. Most of the exhibit was devoted to the French treatment of Vietnamese political prisoners.

[atnuyenmanh]

Can you make a video on how the US military treated Vietnamese prisoners during the Vietnam War?

[liljs]

It’s crazy to see how creative humans can be to inflicting great suffering to one another

[neofulcrum]

If not for woods, I never would’ve known what the Hanoi Hilton was.

[HieuNguyen-prmj]

I see you guys talked a lot about the Hanoi Hilton but never mentioned about the brutal war crimes in the Côn Đảo and Phú Quốc prisons cause you guys chickened out and never have the balls to actually say it out loud

[KingSizzle]

It’s important to remember that the Vietnam “war” wasn’t actually a legal war. America hasn’t had a legal war since WWII. The Vietnamese knew this at the time.

The Vietnamese saw American pilots dropping bombs on their cities the same way we would see random dudes dropping bombs on our cities: criminal violence, not legitimate actions in a legal war.

So, when they would shoot down American pilots with their defenses and caught the pilots, they would treat them the way you’d treat any criminal that takes an airplane and drops bombs on Dallas or NYC.

As you could imagine, the people of those cities would be angry at them, and they’d endure the worst the infamous American “justice” system could dish out.

[letsgo]

It is very difficult not to hate, I mean really hate someone who dropped bombs on your city and colleagues

[Beanbag]

What about the 300+ POWs who never came home because the US failed to pay reparations to the North Vietnamese 😡
.

[soulesslemming]

My uncle was a helicopter pilot and was shot down over Vietnam. He spent 3 years in captivity. His back looks like he’s into scarification he has so many small uniform scars. One day I went to his house after school and he’d flipped the couch over and was throwing Hummels and screaming in Vietnamese at me when I went in his front door. I don’t think he ever truly got over his experiences in Vietnam. I don’t know if he was in the Hilton or not, he never spoke about any of it except to apologize for the aforementioned incident.

[Ngườizôtri]

Comparing to what VC POWs had to suffered in Con Dao or Phu Quoc, this was just a sweet dream.

[vutungquan]

Interesting video, but I recommend you make another video about Phu Quoc Prison which is also as notorious as Ha Noi Hilton a.k.a "Hoa Lo Prison". The life of P.O.W. in Phu Quoc Prison was terrible and they suffered ruthless torture which can cause goosebumps when you imagine it. War is miserable and I don't provoke war by any means, but I believe that the story of war should be analyzed from different perspectives in order to gain insight about the conflict. The brutality of Phu Quoc prison was somewhat as same as Ha Noi Hilton.
P/s: In living conditions in Phu Quoc Prison were awful and prisoners were always being abused by US officers and ARVN wardens. I don't know if there was a coincidence but the " Tiger Cage" method was also a warden's favorite torture method too. When I visited Phu Quoc Prison, I saw some traumatized photos, and some prisoners' skulls were killed when they try to escape.

[thanhhuynguyen]

it was hard to blame the North Vietnamese soldiers and citizens, their hatred towards the American pilot was impossible to describe as they lost too many loved ones, including family members, friends, and even close neighbors due to relentless American bombardment. After all, war was the beginning point that started it all. That's why now we, Vietnam, have peace, we try as much as possible to avoid any conflicts

[corymorimacori]

“I cut my teeth in the trenches of the Somme, you larped your Santa Claus butt through Vietnam!” JRR Tolkien

[stuka]

The Vietnamese are treating the American soldiers the way invaders deserve to be treated. What is brutal is the way the American invaders killed women and children indiscriminately.

[alexanderleach]

One prisoner at the infamous Hanoi 'Hilton, ' he said that he during the Christmas bombings of Operation Linebacker II heard the sound of the B-52 engines during the bombing raids over Hanoi.