Hudson's American Heritage Museum has exhibit on this notorious prison in Vietnam

HUDSON — Inside the American Heritage Museum, a new exhibit takes guests into an immersive experience to explore one of the most intense and dark moments of American military history.

The Hỏa Lò Prison — sarcastically referred to as the "Hanoi Hilton" — was a notorious North Vietnamese prison for American captives during the Vietnam War, including the late U.S. Sen. John McCain. The prison has been painstakingly reconstructed, using original materials, at the American Heritage Museum as part of a display on the war.

The museum was able to obtain prison materials after a donation from Canadian collector Jeet Mahal. During the early 1990s, Mahal noticed that the Vietnamese were beginning to destroy several prisons used during the war, and was able to purchase Hỏa Lò Prison materials, including original brickwork, stone cells, cell doors, stone beds and other items.

In 2021, Mahal donated the materials to the museum.

"We want to create an experience that is truly memorable, that encourages people who come across it to want to learn more," said Hunter Chaney, director of marketing for the American Heritage Museum, during a tour ahead of the exhibit's formal opening last Sunday. "The Vietnam War itself is very divisive, very contentious, a questionable war at best. But it's the soldiers, the POWs — that's who we're talking about here. What they went through."

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Constructing the exhibit

The museum spent 18 months putting together the exhibit. Its Feb. 12 opening marked the 50th anniversary of the start of Operation Homecoming, when American POWs were released from the prison as part of the end of the war. Museum officials consulted with dozens of POWs who were held captive at Hỏa Lò Prison for years, including Acton resident Tim Sullivan, who spent more than five years there after he was forced to eject from his stricken plane while over North Vietnam in November 1967.

"Some of these prisoners were in here for nearly 10 years," Chaney said. "They went into prison before The Beatles came to America, and came out after they had broken up, to give you an idea. We designed this prison by the specifications of the POWs who were there."

Chaney said one POW, Mike McGrath, was able to sketch out drawings for the prison at a level of detail such that "we consulted directly with him to make sure the exhibit was accurate."

Step inside a real Vietnam prison cell

The prison was originally constructed in 1896 by the French colonial government; the French name for the building, "Maison Centrale," is listed on the stonework outside the exhibit. The facility originally held Vietnamese political prisoners during French colonial rule, including future North Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh. After the North Vietnamese took control of the country, Hỏa Lò Prison was used to house American pilots who were shot down and captured during the war.

A documentary featuring comments from the surviving POWs is projected on the stone walls of the exhibit, discussing the torture they endured as prisoners, including being shackled and locked in solitary confinement for months, being suspended by ropes and being starved. Visitors can then step inside the actual prison cells, sitting in the original, dark, stone cells while the voices of POWs explain what it was like to be a prisoner there.

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"It really gives you a perspective on what war is, the horrible things that human beings can do to one another," Chaney said.

Additional artifacts, including prisoner outfits, are assembled alongside the cells. Visitors can peek through an authentic cell door and get a glimpse of what the cell looked like from the perspective of a guard, something nobody would have seen previously unless they actually were a guard.

Trying to make the experience as authentic as possible

The museum put some effort into making the experience feel as authentic as possible. A real Soviet-style speaker from 1963 was purchased to broadcast recordings of Trinh Thi Ngo, also known as Hanoi Hannah, the North Vietnamese radio host who would broadcast propaganda messages to POWs while they sat in their cells.

"Think about the COVID-19 pandemic, and how you may have been stuck in your house," said Rob Collings, CEO of the Collings Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the American Heritage Museum. "Think about being stuck inside a cell, without seeing anybody else, with your legs shackled and without seeing the light of day for months at a time — that is what this experience was like for the POWs. The floor you are standing on inside the cell is original, the stone beds are original, the door to the cell is original."

The exhibit will be a permanent fixture at the museum. Collings noted that because most prisoners were veteran servicemen at the time of their capture, they are older; those who were interviewed for the documentary ranged in age from 82 to 94. He said the population of Vietnam War veterans continues to decline, so it was important to have a lasting exhibit to document their experiences.

"It's an incredibly important time for this, the 50th anniversary of the homecoming for these guys," Collings said. "Out of all the Vietnam War POWs, about two-thirds have passed away. Timing is incredibly important, to be able to do something for them.

"We have to do as much as we can to preserve this history, and educate people as best as we can."

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: American Heritage Museum unveils new Vietnam prison exhibit in Hudson