Next stop: the famed Hanoi Hilton.
Few jails are more famous, or evoke instant name recognition among Americans with even a passing interest in America’s involvement in the Vietnam War like the famous POW facility nicknamed “Hanoi Hilton”.

This place has quite a history, apart from the short connection with shot-down American pilots. Built in 1896 by the French, it was the largest detention facility in the North for anti-colonial revolutionaries. For nearly 60 years (1896-1954) France attempted to dissuade Vietnamese from resisting the colonial status quo by whatever means necessary.
Examples of torture & execution by guillotine are still on display. The entire facility was designed to hold 450 prisoners, but by the 1930s, it held 2,000.

After walking through the museum, and seeing a few actual cells… makes me glad I wasn’t a “guest” here.
A bit of irony… only 1/5th of the prison remains, as an actual 5-star hotel (Hanoi Towers) has been built on the land.
Two of it’s most famous American prisoners are John McCain (Senator from Arizona) and Pete Peterson (1st U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam after diplomatic relations were opened in 1995). On the Vietnamese side, more than a dozen Secretary Generals of the Vietnamese Communist Party spent unpleasant time here as prisoners of France.