Hoa Lo is the clearest distillation of the Vietnamese government\u2019s public memorializing philosophy (or lack thereof). Preservation and presentation are not at the forefront, rather an ideological kernel of resistance and struggle, qualities fundamentally linked to Marxism and the Vietnamese Communist Party, is meant to be conveyed\u2014beyond that, as far as Vietnam\u2019s most potent historical sites and events are concerned, not much else matters.<\/p>\n
My hunch that Hoa Lo would confirm this suspicion was all but confirmed by the perverse placement of a \u201cWelcome\u201d mat at the visitor\u2019s entrance to the museum, the implications of which are almost too absurd to explore fully given the word limit on this blog assignment. About 90% of the museum is dedicated to the French colonial authority\u2019s brutal treatment of Vietnamese revolutionary men and women and their brave resistance\u2014indeed, their use of the prison as a revolutionary school of sorts. Fair enough, but the museum\u2019s authority as a memorial for those imprisoned by the French (they even built a shrine of sorts in a former prison courtyard, featuring depictions of emaciated prisoners) was undermined by a number of curious curatorial decisions. First, the almond tree: our tour guide informed us that the solitary almond tree left standing on the site, on the border with the Hanoi Tower development, would have been torn down had not former Vietnamese inmates, for whom the almond tree gave sustenance, medicine and hope, vigorously protested. Secondly, for some reason not even our tour guide could adequately explain, the French\u2019s inhuman solitary confinement prison cells had been renovated by the museum\u2026 to include windows. To better let in light for visitors was the official line, but one that lacks explanatory power if the whole point of the museum is to emphasize brutality and resistance.<\/p>\n Who is this museum really for? Could it be that, for the museum\u2019s curators, the only content that actually matters is the textbook placard statements regarding the museum\u2019s history, a few ominous recreated prison cell scenes (complete with dummy emaciated Vietnamese prisoners), and the peace of mind of knowing that most tourists will leave without any confusion as to what they should think about the Vietnamese revolutionary narrative? It seems unlikely that one of Vietnam\u2019s most central and important war memorials could have come together in this curious way by chance.<\/p>\n Then comes the part of the museum most appealing to American tourists: the bit about captured American pilots. The museum\u2019s two rooms on the POWs emphasizes the destruction their bombing caused to Vietnam\u2019s civilian population and the moral outrage of it all, and then it displays the VC\u2019s deep empathy by showing that the POWs lived relatively cushy lives in prison\u2014they could play sports, write to their families, help with domestic tasks, etc. They were also given good medical care, which must have been a scarce resource in North Vietnam at the time. Should we be surprised by this narrative? No, probably not. Americans were of course tortured at Hoa Lo. But their portrayal by the Vietnamese is ultimately fairly sympathetic; the pictures included in the exhibit, as well as the accompanying video, convey something pretty close to the truth about the POWs: they were young, scared, and did not necessarily represent the same ideology that the American government did (i.e. the museum literature describes the bombings and \u201csabotage warfare\u201d as carried out by \u201cthe United States government,\u201d not by US pilots).<\/p>\n This shows that despite the various bizarre elements of this and other Vietnamese war museums, Vietnam manages to eschew the demagoguery and centricity that has traditionally typified America\u2019s war histories. It is well established that the victors get to determine war narratives, and Vietnam certainly has its own story to tell about its revolutionary struggle, but it also manages to include the enemy in a relatively fair and sympathetic way. Though Vietnam\u2019s preservation and presentation of its historical sites and most sacred places of remembrance is quite unsettling at times, America\u2019s culpability in Vietnam\u2019s hapless rush to modernity and development cannot be forgotten. And, ultimately, these sites are built for us, western tourists, that we might question our preconceived notions of the war. In that sense, though it is focused on the First Indochina War, the Hoa Lo Prison is successful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maison Centrale, Hoa Lo, the \u201cHanoi Hilton\u201d (or the \u201cHanoi Hilton Hotel\u201d, according to the museum\u2019s typically humorless placard description)\u2014Hanoi\u2019s most important historical prison complex has gone by many names since it was built beginning in 1886. Today it is … Continue reading ![\"IMG_5445\"](\"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist465-s15\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_5445-e1428593216436.jpg\")
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