Somewhere in the Middle

Ha Noi, Vietnam

This morning we had a city tour of Ha Noi, the capital of Viet Nam for over 1000 years. I was looking forward to visiting Ha Noi’s Army Museum and getting the north’s perspective of the American War. (In America, it’s the Vietnam War. In Viet Nam, it’s the American War.)  Turns out the museum is closed on Fridays (poor planning on their part), but we did have the opportunity to visit the Ha Noi Hilton instead. Why, you may ask, did we visit a fancy hotel? Well, we didn’t. Hoa Lo was a prison that was originally built by the French for Vietnamese political prisoners that was then utilized during the war to hold American pilots that were captured by the Viet Cong. It was nicknamed the Ha Noi Hilton by the American pilots who spent as many as seven years there as prisoners of war. First, they showed us the lake where Senator John McCain’s plane went down and the monument that was later built in his honor. Then they took us to the Ha Noi Hilton where Senator McCain spent his first weeks as a political prisoner before being transferred to another prison on the outskirts of Ha Noi.

The tour focused primarily on the treatment and living conditions for the female Vietnamese political prisoners. I read part of Senator McCain’s book a number of years ago and the living conditions were exactly what he described. Then came the section dedicated to the American pilots that were held there. There were artifacts, including the flight suit Senator McCain was wearing when he was shot down. There was also an array of photographs, depicting the pilots playing basketball, eating Christmas dinner, and getting presentations on Vietnamese culture. One of the students in our group commented that this looked like summer camp. Our tour guide went on and on about the struggles of the Vietnamese prisoners and said, comparatively, the Americans were treated very well. I’m not sure I completely understand how it’s possible to use the term “prisoners of war” and “treated very well” in the same sentiment. The discrepancies in what I had read versus what I was looking at were staggering. A million questions ran through my head. Were these photos staged to then be released to the American press? Was Senator McCain instructed to leave certain truths out of his book by his editors and advisors in order to help advance his political career? Depending on your perspective, there’s multiple truths in every situation, but in this situation whose version of the truth is actually the truth? I suppose the truth lies somewhere in the middle.