Truc Bach Lake

So today, I brunched with a few Vietnamese friends in an Indian Cafe overlooking Truc Bach Lake. The Goat Vindaloon would need to be pretty good to outdo the fame of this particular area of Hanoi as it is where Senator John McCain parachuted in having had his bombing mission shot down by the North Vietnamese Army. The place is quite serene these days, though there is a statue to commemorate this event in particular and the American/Vietnam War in General.

In stark contrast comes the Hoa Lo Prison, or as it is more commonly known, the Hanoi Hilton. This was where the Commander of all US Forces in Vietnam was first housed when following his capture. The place is grim in the extreme. First built by the French in 1796, it housed political prisoners opposed to the French presence in Indo-China. Treatment was harsh, conditions appalling, guillotine in evidence and numerous testimonies to this pervade the exhibitions.

What follows is an about face, as the treatment of American pilots shot down during the war is then portrayed as being rather different. Games of basketball, football are depicted in photographs, cigarettes from the Red Cross shown in glass cases, and healthy looking men posing for the camera upon their release are all to be seen. Propaganda is in evidence no doubt, and it does not take too much searching to find evidence of ill-treatment of Americans but one can't help feeling that the alignment of propaganda and practice made a considerable impact on winning the world's hearts and minds in a genuine way.

Prisons remain however, something the world does not seem to stop building despite all our claims to civilization. Those in charge of Git'mo, Abu Ghraib etc might do well to learn this lesson.