Hanoi Hilton
English
Etymology
From Hanoi + Hilton. An alliterative construction, pairing the location Hanoi (metonymically referring to North Vietnam) with a word referring to lodgings. An ironic reference to the Hilton chain of luxury hotels.
Proper noun
- (US, military, slang, historical, euphemistic) Hỏa Lò Prison in Vietnam, where prisoners of war were held and tortured.
- 1999 May 30, Luba Vangelova, “From the Hanoi Hilton To the Hilton Hanoi”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN:
- The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel has opened, a few blocks from Hoa Lo, the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” where American prisoners were held during the Vietnam War. (The few remaining cells of that prison have been preserved as a museum.)
- 2025 November 19, Jeré Longman, “Robert L. Stirm, Returning P.O.W. in Pulitzer-Winning Photo, Dies at 92”, in The New York Times[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- Those thoughts sustained him after he was shot down and forced to eject from his F-105 Thunderchief during a bombing mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 27, 1967, and they continued to sustain him in prison camps, including the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” where he was starved, tortured and subjected to mock executions.