The prison was built in Hanoi by the French, in dates ranging from 1886–1889[1] to 1898[2] to 1901,[3] when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. It was intentioned to hold Vietnamese prisoners, particularly political prisoners agitating for independence who were often subject to torture and execution. The French called the prison Maison Centrale[1] - a usual term to denote prisons in France. It was located near Hanoi's French Quarter.[2] A 1913 renovation expanded its capacity from 460 souls to 600.[2] It was nevertheless often overcrowded, holding some 730 prisoners on a given day in 1916, a figure which would rise to 895 in 1922 and 1,430 in 1933.[2] By 1954 it held more than 2000 people,[1] and had become a symbol of colonialist exploitation and the bitterness of the Vietnamese towards the French.[1] The central urban location of the prison also became part of its early character. During the 1910s through 1930s, street peddlers made an occupation of passing outside messages in through the jail's windows and tossing tobacco and opium over the walls; letters and packets would be thrown out to the street in the opposite direction.[4] Within the prison itself, communication and ideas passed. Indeed, many of the future leading figures in Communist North Vietnam spent time in Maison Centrale during the 1930s and 1940s;[5] in the end the prison served as an education center for revolutionary doctrine and activity, and it was kept around after the French left to mark its historical significance to the North Vietnamese. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hilton

American prisoners were held at the Hoa Lo prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton from 11 August 1964 to 28 March 1973. The French built this prison near the turn of the century, with construction completed in 1901. http://www.vietnamwar.com/hanoihilton.htm

Par le vous une francais? The French built the Hilton

Paris Hilton's ancestors. http://www.poplife.biz/?p=1316 http://www.shanghaigonzo.com/American%20Nightmare/part4/index.htm