Visitors to the exhibition that opened at the Hoa Lo Prison relic site on December 9. (Photo: VNA) Thedisplay is held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the “DienBien Phu in the air” victory (December 1972 - 2022) and 50 years since therelease of American pilots imprisoned in the North (1973 - 2023).
Visitorswill have a chance to learn about the “silence” after US carpet bombings andfierce battles, as well as the losses and sacrifice suffered by each soldierand civilian during the 12 days and nights resisting the airstrikes.
Theycan also feel the “silence” behind stone walls of “Hanoi Hilton”, asatirical name that the imprisoned American pilots gave to the Hoa Lo Prison then,where they looked back on the war, the life, and the Vietnamese people.
Theexhibition also reflects the “silence” 50 years later, when war veterans of theUS returned to visit the former battlefield and “Hanoi Hilton”.
At the opening ceremony, visitors watched a reenactment of the promptpreparation for evacuation by people in the North and their concurrentproduction and fighting amid wartime. They also met with witnesses to history,former political prisoners who used to be incarcerated by colonialists andimperialists, former warders who cared for US pilots at the Hoa Lo Prison, and VicePresident of the Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chuck Searcy.
During the historic 12 day-and-night battle in December 1972,the Vietnamese army and people defeated US airstrikes in the North, shooting down81 aircraft of all kinds, including 34 B-52s, forcing the US to sign the Paris Agreement onending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam in January 1973.
This triumph is alsocalled the “Dien Bien Phu in the air” victory, which took the name from thevictory of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in 1954 that put an end to the French colonialrule over Indochina./.
VNA
