Vietnam. From China Beach to the Hanoi Hilton
Vietnam has a diverse climate that ranges from tropical in the south to temperate in the north. Stretching 1,600 kilometers north/south, the country is just thirty-eight kilometers wide at its narrowest point. On my second trip to Vietnam, I had an opportunity to visit Da Nang. Located midway between the metropolitan areas of Ho Chi Mihn City in the south and Hanoi in the north, Da Nang is Vietnam’s fifth largest city. Known as Tourane during French colonial rule, Da Nang was founded in the first century during the rule of the Chams (part of the Kingdom of Champa). An early European to see the city was Portuguese explorer António de Faria in 1535. In 1847, the city was shelled by French naval vessels as punishment for the alleged persecution of Catholic missionaries. Da Nang’s airport was used by the Japanese during WWII and subsequently by the French. During the Vietnam War the airport was controlled by the U.S. until being overrun by North Vietnamese forces in 1975. Today, Da Nang is a busy port city of about a million inhabitants. It is also a manufacturing center with shipbuilding facilities, textile mills, electronics plants, and other industries.
We flew from Ho Chi Mihn City to Da Nang International Airport. The ruins of the American airbase can still be seen near the modern airport including concrete parapets that once protected U.S. fighter aircraft. After settling in at our hotel, we drove to Hôi An (meaning “peaceful resting place”), a coastal city of 120,000 located twenty kilometers southeast of Da Nang. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, Hôi An’s historical district preserves a trading port that operated between the fifteen and nineteenth centuries. Inside, we explored a Đinh or Vietnamese communal house that functions like a civic center. Each Đinh is dedicated to the worship of the village god known as a Thánh Hoáng. After dinner we took a stroll on My Khe Beach, the setting for a television miniseries called China Beach (1988-91) that followed the lives of American nurses during the Vietnam War. Thirty-five kilometers long, My Khe’s smooth white sand extends from Hai Van Pass to Non Nuoc. In 2005, My Khe was listed by Forbes magazine as among the world’s six most beautiful beaches. Adjacent to My Khe is the Furama Resort. With 198 rooms arranged as low rise villas, the resort was built in 1998 with an architectural style blending French colonial elements with traditional Vietnamese designs.
Hanoi is Vietnam’s capital and second most populous (8.4 million) city. Located on the Black and Red Rivers, the city’s name means “inside the river.” First settled in the third century BC, the region where Hanoi is located was ruled by the Chinese for more than a thousand years. The French took control of northern Vietnam following their victory over the Chinese in the Sino-French War (1884–85) and in 1887 Hanoi became the capital of French Indochina. Beginning in 1940, Hanoi was occupied by Imperial Japanese forces and was briefly independent until the French returned in 1945. After years of conflict, an independent North Vietnam emerged in 1954 with Hanoi as its capital. During the Vietnam War, Hanoi was the seat of power and headquarters of the People’s Army of Vietnam. Today, it is a vibrant city with skyscrapers including the 336-meter-tall Hanoi Landmark 72 Tower. The modern city blends contemporary designs with elements of French Colonial architecture. One of the world’s fastest growing cities in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), Hanoi has well-developed industrial and trade sectors and a growing middle class.
Our walking tour of the city began in the Old Quarter, a network of thirty-six streets, each supporting vendors specializing in a specific product such as silk or ceramics. Built by the French in 1899, the shopping district was first called Marché Dong Xuan. I bought two watches at Dong Xuan Market, situated along the west end of the Old Quarter. The city’s military museum is located at Flag Tower. From outside the museum’s gate, we could see tanks and a Soviet made Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG-21 fighter/bomber aircraft. First flown in 1955, MIG-21s arrived in Vietnam in 1966. Remarkably, the aircraft continues to be flown by countries such as Angola, Cuba, and Croatia. We passed Hȏa Lò Prison (aka the notorious Hanoi Hilton), used by the French to hold political prisoners and later by the North Vietnamese to house American prisoners of war. The name Hȏa Lò means “Hell’s hole” or “fiery place.” Notable American POWs imprisoned there were future admiral James Stockdale and Navy pilot John McCain who was later a U.S. senator and presidential candidate. Ironically, my hotel booking was at the Hilton. To avoid being confused with the former prison, the hotel was known locally as the Hanoi Opera House Hilton until its name was changed to the Waldorf Astoria Hanoi in 2024.
Hoping to see physical remnants of the Vietnam War, we asked a cab driver to take us to “B-52 Lake,” the final resting place of a B-52 bomber shot down in a raid over Hanoi in the 1970s. For years, a mangled section of the plane’s fuselage protruded from the lake’s surface. Our driver was unfamiliar with our story about the downed aircraft, so we drove around the city for 30 minutes in search of the lake. I learned later that the wreckage is in Hồ Hữu Tiệp Lake, located in the city’s Ba Đình district.
Before retiring we took an evening walk from our hotel for night photographs of the city. Among the most impressive sights was Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, located in the center of Ba Dinh Square. Brightly illuminated, the building could be seen from several blocks away. Constructed following President Mihn’s death in 1969, the mausoleum is twenty-two meters tall and flanked by parade platforms. Made with a grey stone exterior surrounded by square columns, its design was inspired by Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square, Moscow. Outside at ground level was an honor guard of soldiers dressed in crisp white uniforms. Inside are two hundred sets of doors constructed from rare woods and President Minh’s embalmed that is displayed under a glass enclosure. Although the tomb is open to the public, it was closed at the time of our visit.
