Con Dao prison was built on February 1, 1862, right after the French invaded Con Dao and since then it has become "hell on earth". The Vietnamese political prisoners were detained under a brutal and brutal regime. In the Con Dao prison system, we don’t forget and mention the existence of the Tiger Cage, where the guards hold secret activities that the world won't know until 30 years later.
French Tiger Cage (Phu Tuong Prison)
Secretly built in 1940, the Tiger Cage was discreetly camouflaged by the French deep in Phu Tuong prison with two entrances. The system of the Tiger Cage and the prison is only separated by a small locked door, disguised as a door that has not been used for a long time. Except for the prison guards, no one knows about this secret place of solitary confinement. Political prisoners are brought here when tortured to the point of fainting, and then brought in through another door as a distraction... All prisoners have not been able to locate the prison, so the possibility of escape is can not...
In the early 1970s, in Saigon, there were continuous protests by the Student Union to demand the release of students and students who were detained in Con Dao by the government. Faced with this pressure, on the morning of May 25, 1970, the authorities were forced to release five students who were being held at the Tiger Cage: Cao Nguyen Loi, Nguyen Minh Tri, Tran Van Long, Nguyen Thanh Tong and Nguyen Tuan Kiet.
The secret would not have been discovered had it not been for a sudden shower of rain that morning when 5 students had just stepped out of the prison gate. They were taken to shelter from the rain on the opposite porch. One hour shelter from the rain is an ideal opportunity to observe, memorize the entire location and entrance to the Tiger Cage. It seems that the diagram leading to the secret door where "hell on earth" has been memorized and imprinted in the minds of them.
Arriving in Saigon, 5 students did not go home, but immediately went to the House of Representatives of the old government to report the crimes of Con Dao Prison. Don Luce, an American journalist who worked for 12 years in Vietnam, brought all the information revealed about this secret solitary confinement to Life magazine (USA), shocking and shocking public opinion around the world…
In this event, Tom Harkin, a staff member of the US Congress and a delegation of 10 US congressmen immediately went to Vietnam to investigate the incident. Previously, the US congressional delegation heard rumors about the Tiger Cage and went to Con Dao, but found no clues, so the investigation was stopped. Immediately after meeting Cao Nguyen Loi, listening to the report and having in hand the diagram of the Tiger Cage drawn by this student from memory, Tom Harkin, the US congressmen and Don Luce went to Con Dao to find the secret of the Tiger Cages. They want to investigate the prison with medieval torture methods that still exist and are hidden.
Describing the entrance to the Tiger Cage, a student Cao Nguyen Loi told Tom Harkin: "As soon as you step through the first gate of the prison, don't go through the second gate because behind the second gate is just a house. You should follow the turn and find the wall by the green garden with a small gate”.
In Con Dao, the American delegation asked the island lord Nguyen Van Ve to take him to visit Phu Tuong prison. Going through the first gate, Tom Harkin remembered the details of the vegetable garden as described by Cao Nguyen Loi and stopped to ask Nguyen Van Ve: "In this prison, do you allow labor prisoners to improve their lives by themselves?".
Lord of island Ve heard that and replied: "Yes sir, we let prisoners grow vegetables to improve their lives, invite you to visit the vegetable garden". Nguyen Van Ve was too relieved because he had previously covered the path leading to the Tiger Cages and couldn't think that anyone could find the way to the secret door hidden from this vegetable garden...
When the group entered the vegetable garden, Tom Harkin saw a small gate in the corner, but did not see the path leading to that gate. If there are people walking, there must be a path. This troubled him. To prolong the observation time, he asked Nguyen Van Ve: "What kind of vegetable is this?". Thinking that Americans do not know about Vietnamese vegetables, Ve replied vaguely: "It is morning glory, sir."
In the delegation was Don Luce - a journalist who lived for 12 years in Vietnam, so he knew that the vegetable grown here was not water spinach and bent down and plucked a vegetable to prove it. The vegetable stem has just been picked up, Don Luce discovered that the vegetable roots have not yet reached the ground, indicating that it has just been planted. The path was discovered, the US Congress group asked to enter the gate, but Ve resolutely stopped: "This is just a side door that has been locked in the prison next door, can't go, you have to go through the main door". As he spoke, Ve banged his cane against the gate.
Unfortunately for Nguyen Van Ve, the guard inside heard the voice of the island lord, heard the familiar sound of a cane, thought that the island lord was on patrol, and opened the gate. The gate was opened, the whole delegation immediately entered and witnessed with their own eyes the secret prison with 120 isolated cells and 60 cells without a roof to take prisoners out to dry in the rain and sun. This prison is the Tiger Cage.
After returning to the US, Tom Harkin and the Congress group vehemently condemned the existence of the Tiger Cage, and provided more photos and documents for Life magazine on July 17, 1970. This event caused a large wave of protests in Vietnam, the US and many parts of the world. The world public opinion is very angry about the photos and information posted, pressuring the Saigon government to destroy the entire tiger cage and move 480 prisoners out. Some prisoners were sent to other prisons, others were sent to mental hospitals...
The French Tiger cages was demolished to appease public opinion, but in early 1971, the American-style tiger cage was formed on a more severe scale and level.
American Tiger Cage (Phu Binh Prison)
The American Tiger Cages from outside the gate is disguised by the kitchen and warehouse area with rows of very simple barbed wire. But behind there are 384 solitary confinement rooms divided into 4 zones: AB-CD-EF-GH, each block has 2 blocks and each block has 48 rooms. This is a special type of prison made of concrete, without a bed, the prisoners must lie under the damp cement floor. The top of each cell has iron bars similar to the French Tiger Cages, but there is no upper corridor.
Instead of a low corrugated iron roof, the sun shone down like burning. In the cell without a pedestal, the prisoner lying on the floor was exposed to damp, earthy air when moving back late at night. Prisoners have to urinate in wooden crates, every time prisoners struggle, they will be fined for not emptying the litter box for three days, five days, or for weeks or longer… Stool and urine are all over the body of 8 people up to 10 prisoners in a solitary cell about 5m2.
This is the harshest prison in the final stage of Con Dao prison. American and South Vietnam govetnment used the unfavorable elements of nature to exile people. Without the need for a whip, the American Tiger Cages tortured the prisoner very delicately, causing the prisoner to slowly die.
With brutal forms of torture, it seemed that political prisoners could no longer resist, but this was the first uprising place of political prisoners at 12 pm on April 30, dawn on May 1, 1975 (in the GH area) captured Con Dao prison, ending its operation after 113 years as "hell on earth".
