When the United States was at war with Vietnam, it became official policy of the North Vietnamese government that if an American pilot was shot down but still alive, he was to be brought to a certain Prison (actually built by the French in the 1800's) in the center of Hanoi. Hoa Lo Prison. These American pilots were to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity, and given the best treatment a POW could hope to receive. That is how it is told in Vietnam today. It is also told that the pilots were treated so well that they began to call the prison the Hanoi Hilton, because while still very uncomfortable and of course imprisoned, it felt like the hotel version of being a POW, hence the name, the Hanoi Hilton.