Foreign Property News | Posted by Zarni Kyaw
The site of the “Hanoi Hilton,” the notorious prison where John McCain endured years of brutal treatment as a prisoner of war, now houses a high-end hotel and office complex where Vietnamese sip cappuccinos and shop for U.S.-branded golf equipment.
McCain, who died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, ended up in Hoa Lo Prison after he was shot down on a bombing run during the Vietnam War 51 years ago. Its transformation over the years is one sign of the late senator’s legacy in the Southeast Asian nation.
“Because of John McCain, the U.S. and Vietnam were able to reconnect,” said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi. The investment and trade that followed helped transform the Southeast Asian nation. “In the past two decades, the per-capita income of Vietnamese has more than quadrupled,” said Sitkoff. “It’s a big part of his legacy.”
In the decades following the conflict, McCain was relentless in pushing the U.S. government to normalize diplomatic and economic relations with its former enemy: the embassy said he made 23 trips to Vietnam. Though a critic of the nation’s one-party system and human rights record, McCain nonetheless sought closer ties and became a popular figure for many in the country.
After news of his death broke, Vietnamese who once scrambled into air shelters as American bombs rained down on Hanoi mourned the senator’s passing.
Hoang Manh Cuong, 60, recalled running to Hanoi’s Truc Bach Lake in 1967 when news spread that the American pilot had been captured there. On Monday morning, he bowed and prayed at a concrete monument to the former U.S. senator beside the lake, which residents have turned into a makeshift shrine with flowers and incense.
“Although he was once our enemy, he did a lot to help restore relations between the U.S. and Vietnam,” Cuong said. “That helped open the economy and improved our lives dramatically. We owe him for that.”
The former Navy pilot was North Vietnam’s most prominent prisoner of war. After returning from 5 1/2 years of captivity, McCain began a congressional career that made him a force in national and international politics. He ran for president in 2000 and 2008, winning the Republican nomination in his second campaign but losing to Democrat Barack Obama.
Ref: Property Report
