The "ropes" was one of several torture methods employed at the Hỏa Lò Prison, popularly known as the Hanoi Hilton. The site was used by the North Vietnamese Army to house, torture and interrogate captured servicemen, mostly American airmen shot down during bombing raids (including USAF officer Joseph Kittinger, and US Navy pilot later US Senator John McCain). The aim of the torture was usually not acquiring military information; rather, it was to break the will of the prisoners, both individually and as a group, and to get written or recorded statements from the prisoners who criticized U.S. conduct of the war and praised how the North Vietnamese treated them.