On one bank of the Truc Bach lake a small electricity sub-station is plastered
with flyers touting a local plumber. Along the road is an aerobics studio
where youngsters lazily sip coffee and browse the papers. Thirty yards out
across the water – rancid and bobbing with dead fish – is moored a handful
of pedal boats shaped like swans.
It was within this unlikely triangle of landmarks – exactly 41 years ago this
Sunday – that John McCain crash-landed and, say his captors, began his run
for the United States presidency.
For even if the cold, barely conscious US Navy officer did not know it at the
time, says Le Van Lua and the other Vietnamese whose lives entwined with Mr
McCain’s that day, this little spot of Hanoi is undoubtedly where pilot
turned politician. If fury had prevailed, it is a transformation that might
never have happened, says Mr Lua, 61, a factory worker who was the first on
the scene after the crash and swam out to retrieve the battered, politically
valuable prize.
He mimes clutching Mr McCain’s hair in one hand and a kitchen knife in the
other: “I didn’t care about the politics, I just saw a man who had killed so
many Vietnamese that I longed to kill him. He was injured badly and at the
time I was desperate to finish him off. We only stopped because we were told
he was more valuable alive. Now I’m glad I did stop: that day was truly the
turning point in his life.”
Mr Lua’s account of that day – along with Vietnamese accounts of the five and
a half years that Mr McCain spent as a prisoner of war – differ
significantly from the presidential candidate’s own record. Mr Lua speaks of
quickly getting Mr McCain to the safety of a police station (now the
aerobics studio) before any harm was done. Mr McCain writes of mob attacks
on his shoulder, ankle and groin with rifle-butt and bayonet.
Where the accounts differ most starkly is in the period of Mr McCain’s long
incarceration as a PoW – first at the prison known as the Hanoi Hilton, then
at The Plantation.
Tran Trong Duyet, the former prison director who now surrounds himself with
caged birds in a house in Hai Phong, first met Mr McCain a year after he had
been shot down. He recalls a defiant rule-breaker, the patriotic son of an
admiral and a fervent believer in the war. What he does not recall, however,
is a victim of torture or violence.
“I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff,” says Mr Duyet
in contradiction of Mr McCain’s account and those of other prisoners. “The
Americans were dropping bombs on military and civilian targets – so it’s not
as if they had important information we needed to extract.” Mr Duyet says
that he sympathises with Mr McCain and other PoWs for claiming that they
were tortured. “It’s up to the Americans to decide whether or not he counts
as a hero. He was very brave, very manly, he dared to argue with me and he
was very intelligent. But all the talk of being tortured is for the sake of
votes.”
The McCain campaign refused to comment on the claims yesterday. Mr McCain did
eventually sign a confession to his supposed crimes against the Vietnamese
people and holds that it was only extracted after weeks of pain inflicted by
his tormentors. In a more recent interview Mr McCain explained the signing
of the confession as his failure.
Nguyen Tien Tran, another of the directors at the prison, confirms his
colleague’s story: “We had a clear code of taking care of the injured. We
did our best to patch McCain up and he was treated by a good doctor. Why
would he say that he was tortured?”
Mr Tran recalls Mr McCain’s persistent rule-breaking and even remembers an
angry threat to deny him medication if the defiance continued. He also
denies that there was any ill treatment of the prisoners, and even remembers
sleeping next door to Mr McCain in the hospital to protect him from anyone
trying to kill the “crown prince”.
Even with differing accounts, those that played a role in his crash, rescue
and imprisonment all draw direct lines between themselves and Mr McCain’s
political ambition.
Back in 1967, what is now the small electricity sub-station by the lake was a
sprawling plant that supplied power to much of the North Vietnamese capital.
For the Americans it was a hugely desirable target and what Mr McCain had been
ordered to destroy that morning – his 24th bombing mission since the war
began.
Flying across the city in a wide sweep, Mr McCain’s A4 bomber turned for its
final run but was hit by a missile launched 12 miles away. Now a ball of
fire, the plane was screaming towards earth as its pilot ejected, broke his
arms and knee, and plummeted into the Truc Bach lake.
In a sleepy village two hours outside the capital and surrounded by statues
and portraits of Ho Chi Minh, Major Nguyen Lan, 78, traces the day’s events
on a dog-eared map of wartime Hanoi. “It seems that because of what happened
that day I am an important part of his political career,” he says quietly.
Mr Lan points to the spot where his Russian-built surface-to-air missile unit
was hidden and describes the joy of carefully second-guessing Mr McCain’s
flight path, giving the launch order at precisely the right moment, and then
cheering with delight as the blip disappeared from the radar screen. “I was
so angry with America then but time has passed. Shooting down McCain is a
happy memory from a terrible war.”
Like many Vietnamese, Mr Lan believes Mr McCain has ultimately been a force
for good in improving postwar relations between Hanoi and Washington, and
holds out hope that, as president, he would continue to strengthen political
and economic ties.
“If he does become president it would be good to see him again,” says Mr Lan
with a chuckle. “We both know that there was a time — that day 41 years ago
— when I was more powerful than him.”
He offers Mr McCain best wishes for the election but is puzzled at the idea
that the candidate could possibly describe himself as a “war hero”.
To demonstrate this Mr Lan pulls out an old tin box stuffed with medals he won
during a lifetime of military service. Several bear images of burning B52
bombers. The collection includes one of the highest military honours,
awarded by “Uncle Ho” himself.
“In Vietnam we are taught to honour the whole unit, rather than the individual
but I know it is different in America. Even so, I really don’t think that
McCain qualifies as a hero. The truth of that day is that he failed and I
succeeded. He failed to destroy what he was supposed to bomb and just killed
some fish. That is not a hero.”
Nguyen Thi Thanh, now a chirpy 81-year-old who is following the US election
closely, also briefly had power of life and death over the brash young
pilot. As the nurse who first attended to him after he was dragged from the
lake, Ms Thanh describes the agonising choice of whether or not simply to
kill him in revenge for the destruction that his bombs had rained on her
city.
“As a nurse I had to help him. As a Vietnamese I just wanted to kill him.
Everyone around me wanted him dead too but we had to follow the Ho Chi Minh
ideology. As I walked home from the nurse station, people were furious —
screaming at me for saving his life.”
She wonders aloud about what sort of president he would make. “In the end I
think that he must have known that what he did was wrong. If he does become
president of the US, he must do good things. But everyone has secrets hiding
in their minds. I’m sure he’s still extremely angry.”
As the months of captivity in the Hanoi Hilton and Plantation rolled on, Mr
Duyet wanted to examine those attitudes for himself. He describes a growing
fascination with Mr McCain and a series of regular discussions the two had.
“I wanted to deal with him. I wanted to talk about the war and to discuss who
was right and who was wrong. In the end I don’t think either of our opinions
changed. Maybe after the war, or as he was leaving, he saw the destruction
that had been done and saw he was wrong.”
He is clear that he played a role in turning Mr McCain from a pilot into a
politician. “If he says it was the war that changed him it must be true,
because he spent most of the war with me. I was there to do two jobs in that
prison — one was practical, the other political — and I believe I succeeded
in both.”
Of all the Vietnamese who knew Mr McCain, Nguyen Tien Tran, the director at
The Plantation between 1965 and the release of the PoWs in 1973, believes
that he has the deepest insights into the man’s character.
“He’s not [morally] good enough, not enough to call himself a
‘good man’ after everything he did, with the bombing and the destruction and
the thousands he killed. He has done good things for Vietnam-US relations
but none of it is enough for him to call himself a good man. If he makes it
as president I want him to come back here and admit that the war was wrong.”
Critically, Mr Tran believes that it was during one of their regular
conversations that Mr McCain first mooted the idea of becoming a politician.
“I once asked him, ‘What are you going to do when you get home?’ I asked him
because of his injuries — I could see that he wasn’t going to remain a pilot
for much longer. He paused, and thought about it, and told me he would
become a politician.
“Now he stands on the brink of becoming the world’s most powerful man, I want
to tell him that I’m like his father. I was the one who gave him a second
birth.
“He’s come back here ten times but he’s never met the people who saved his
life. So I can’t believe he’s a good person.”
Life on the inside
“I was hauled into an empty room and kept there for four days. At intervals,
the guards returned to administer beatings. One held me while the others
pounded away. They cracked several of my ribs and broke a couple of teeth.
Weakened by beatings and dysentery, with my right leg again almost useless,
I found it impossible to stand.
“On the third night I lay in my blood and waste, so tired and hurt that I
could not move. Three guards lifted me to my feet and gave me the worst
beating yet. They left me on the floor moaning from the pain in my arm.
Despairing of any relief from pain and further torture, I tried to take my
life.”
Adapted and extracted from Faith of My Fathers, by John McCain (Gibson
Square)
I do recognize the authentic politician only who that struggles for making the war perpectually an unprofitable business. McCain obviously does'nt belong to this kind of authentic polician.
Nhuan Hoang, Hanoi, Vietnam
like Iraq, it was an illegal war, the Americans never seem to understand that other people feel loss when their relatives are killed. When she no longer exist then the world would be truly free, death to tyrants. And that is what John McSame is.
Roger, Seattle, USA
41 years later these people are still fighting the war.
In questioning whether McCain was a hero or good man, they are attempting to put their own life on a higher pedestal.
Whether he is a hero or good man, I don't know, but I do believe that he has been truthful about his time in Vietnam
Paul, Toronto, Canada
It sounds as if they might have given him a good old kicking but it's not as if he was stripped and attacked with dogs or put into degrading positions with other prisoners nor even subjected to "waterboarding".
Wan Hung Lo, Birmingham,
Check Senator McCain's voting record on blocking the release of thousands of photos and documents concerning the missing in action and POWs during the Vietnam War. Those docements would answer many questions for the families. Why the successully negative votes by Senator McCain?
Adam Goodman, San Diego, USA
Believing a power hungry man in charge of the jail where McCain was kept is ridiculous. Tran refers to himself as McCains father, demanding respect. No where in the interview does this man sound merciful. I'm sure Tran knew better than to admit to war crimes. - I'm still voting for Obama
Jason, Ruston, United States
I believe all the doubt about how McCain was treated as a POW in Viet Nam would be put to rest if the world couold have access to McCain's US military records and to the records of his captivity held in Viet Nam. McCain has had them sealed. He has been accused of blocking attempts to locate MIAs.
John Daviso, Morton, United States
I agree with Nguyen Tien Tran, any American who does not want to admit that, there was no reason whatsoever to go over and kill Vietnamese people - you aren't a good person McCain. You are un-reconstructed - Vietnamese people never attacked America, it was a war based on lies like Iraq.
OH, Adirondack, USA
Just because torture is sanctioned in American military jails doesn't mean that this is true elsewhere. And if a Vietnamese pilot had crash landed in the US, he would've undoubtedly been lynched on the spot. McCain was super-lucky and should thank his Vietnamese captors with all his heart.
John, Hong Kong,
McCain the self proclaimed hero enjoyed his stay in the Hanoi Hilton so much he opted to extend his time there rather than be released.
Everything about this guy comes across as rotten.
No Nelson Mandela he.
john, colombo, sri lanka
Dana of Tacoma, given the experience with US civilian and military over Iraq and Afghanistan, I am prepared to believe anybody but an American official, either civilian or military. So this guards story should be investigated.
Jack Bauer, NY,
Is this story true? Most likely. Who would you trust? A republican? or a vietnamese who has no reason to lie after all these years.
Naturaly americans trust McCain....just as they trusted Bush and the neocons.
Americans like Mccain were bombing civilians...hed have deserved all he got!
brian, sydney, australia
Interesting article because McCain has really had more than 30 years of unchallenged response to his pow story as it vaulted him to high public office. Obviously, the American press like the narrative of a defiant John McCain while John Kerry was being swiftboated by fellow vets. Who is the hero?
JohnT, Venice, FL, USA
I am sure this is just as true as the story I have heard that the Germans never killed any Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, etc.
Nona, New York City, USA
Yes, I'm sure this guy is telling the truth. The tens of thousands of other Vietnam veterans that were held by the North Vietnamese that tell of torture and mistreatment are lying, too, just like McCain. Take the word of a communist prison guard over that of an American officer, that's my motto.
Dana, Tacoma, USA
The people ordering you to use agent orange are the criminals not the soldiers!!! Get it right!!
John W. Smithy, austin, texas
To all Americans, I still think McCain is a hero - Us Brits are not all of the hand-wringing, appeasing "liberals" persuasion - in fact most of us aren't. Just remember that we had our own Obama in 1997 - just like any fad, it will pass.
Malcolm Watson, Manchester , UK
Suzy Robertson, Cambridge wonders if this article will be printed in the American press?
Most intelligent American's know we have a much better chance of reading the truth in your UK press.
I thank you for that...and for this post!
Annie Prestine, San Francisco, USA
I hope this does show up in the American newspapers. It is time to change my cat's litterbox and I need a new liner. I support Obama and even I can see right through this.
Beth, Los Angeles, US
Matt from Berlin, GE
young man, fighter pilots from aircraft carriers did not spray agent orange, they dropped bombs, perhaps napalm and fired rockets and 20mm cannon.
Please do some research on the matter.
Agent orange would have been spread by slower flying, and low flying aircraft, ex helicopters
Tim, Berlin,
The brutality of communist regimes is well documented. McCain wasn't the only American POW who survived the North Vietnamese prison camps and lived to tell about it. They fought a war to try and prevent a communist takeover of that country. Yes, they are heroes and this story is propaganda.
Bill, Elburn, United States
Charles Rodijk you'd be speaking German or Russian if it wasn't for "the Typical American".
Charlie, Boone, NC, usa`
This is a non-story and should be avoided. Of course he doesn't admit to torturing American servicemen - I bet he got well paid for these 'revelations'. I don't think that McCain is a liar but I'm disappointed that he hasn't made a better case for being President. Palin was a huge error!
Nemo, strasbourg, France
Perhaps it is simply that a country as morally bankrupt as the US is on the international stage needs heroes so that it can continue to exist in its unquestioning vacuum.
Tony Flynn, Melbourne, Australia
The problem with history is that it can never be impartial. There will always be 2(+) sides to every story, and as they say, the winner writes the history books...
You only have to watch the hundreds of WW2 films and games to see the impression they give of the US single handedly winning the war.
Howard, Manchester,
What can one expect to hear in public from his former prison guard?
On the other hand: Has McCain ever lied, exegerated or twisted facts to gain reputation?
Cui bono?
Sfen, Germany,
I agree with Honza -take the words of a communist prison guard with moderation! But this is gonna hurt nonetheless.. vietnam is one of the few parts of the world where McCain is more popular than Obama. Find out more about McCain at http://www.spinwhip.com/John_McCain41
Nick, Brighton, UK
Yeah sure Bob in Clarksville, the people of Cambodia and Vietnam must be so grateful for all the 'generous wealth' you guys poured on them for so many years.All that napalm and agent orange.You've watched too much Rambo!
Tom, Oxford , UK
No, of course it has not been in the US corporate media,
but it has been in the alternative press.
Ray, Austin, USA
I presume many of the posters here assume that McCain has been pretending - for decades - to be suffering the affects of torture.
That his torturer denies these things is no surprise. Ex-Red Guard and Ex-SS tend to deny such things too. Why are people taking these denials at face value?
David Richards, Witham, UK
I'm probably as pro-Obama as the next European... BUT I would still suggest that everyone takes the word of a communist prison guard with a pinch of salt.
Mc Cain still has my respect.
Honza, Prague, Czech Republic
Yes, we have seen it in the American press and know it for the lie it is. The United States has liberated more people at the cost of American blood, been more generous with our wealth, and a force for good in the world as no other nation in history, and people still hate us. Such gratitude.
Bob, Clarksburg, WV, USA
Yes it has made the papers here, and others who were in the "Hanoi Hilton" have yet again been forced to recount their ordeal. Spare me the usual Euro-superiority. Your obsession with what you call "American Empire" cannot cleanse your own bloody hands.
Alex Hamilton, New York NY,
McCain has already sacrificed his credibility to such an extent that, sadly, it is impossible to know whether something as central to his personal and political life -- his account of his time as a POW -- has been honestly disclosed or thoroughly embellished.
I wish I knew the truth.
John Decker, New York City, USA
Fortunately, we don't have to guess who is telling the truth. Other POWs, European and American reporters, the bayonet scars on McCain's body, rib and limb fractures seen on X-rays (of different ages, so not from the crash), and even former guards from the Hanoi Hilton all support McCain's version.
Katherine Anderegg, Charleston, SC, USA
One thing that is apparent from this article whoever you believe, is that McCain has not learnt anything about compassion or humanity from his Vietnam experience! The fact that he got shot down would appear to contradict his statement that he knows how to win wars. (Napoleon - is he a lucky general)
Kevin Sullivan, London,
Of course it has been reported in the American press (broadcast and print). The press in the US is overwhelmingly and rabidly pro-Obama and they wouldn't miss the chance to report something like this, even knowing full well that it is a bald-faced lie.
Katherine Anderegg, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
The one thing about America that everyone hates is the ability to turn anything into support for your argument. The idea that this article originated "somewhere with the Obama camp" highlights the pathetic thought process that seems to be disturbingly de rigueur in the US.
Marvin, London, UK
I’m sure he’s still extremely angry.”
and therein lies the rub
haralambos, joburg,
there are always two sides to a story.
jossy, east molesey, UK
With all respect to Mr. McCain: The real point of the story is that bad, ungodly and nefarious things are not real. It is all in one's head. Sen. McCain should take heed of this in politics, understanding it, in all honesty, like mind control. Maybe he wouldn't be 10 points down then.
Robert Curley Jacobs, Shorewood, WIsconsin, USA
Yes, Suzy Robertson - the story has been all over the press, months ago if not longer, and the jail director and a couple of other Vietnamese have been interviewed on network television. There is ample evidence of torture from the physicals servicemen were given upon their release.
Menno Aartsen, Washington, D.C., USA
A guy who sprayed Agent Orange on villages and children isn't a war hero.. he's a war criminal who used chemical weapons against civilians and should be brought to justice.
Matt, Berlin, Germany
Whether John McCain was tortured or not, he can never absolve his responsibility in an immoral and unjust war.
CT Wong, Voorschoten, The Netherlands
My mother was 7-10 years old during Korean war. She said that the most friendly soliders were China's people's army. In her memory North Korea's soliders were well trained and disciplined. Instead, American soliders became rapist at night and South Korean soldiers were the most cruel to civilians.
Yoon Hyowon, Seoul, Korea South
McCain is typical American - ruthless, selfcentered, without concern about the damage done to other people. Look at 4 million Iraqis displaced, 1 million dead and their land in ruins - and they tell the world they are winning! 2 million without homes and they bailout the bankster. Brrr!
Charles Rodijk, Calpe, Spain
I wonder if this article will make it into the US papers and what the response will be?
Greg, Toronto, Canada
And we're supposed to believe the words of his Vietnamese captors as pure truth? Give me a break! Where will the pro-Obama stop in most of the US and British media?
anthony, nyc,
manipulation,
disgusting
Thierry vidal, London, UK
I know all too well their is a lot of mis-truth in this article. Since when were the Viet Cong ever so merciless as to not stoop to torture, beatings and abuse?
Michael Lilly, Charlotte Hall, USA
The man served his country and almost died (he was badly injured) that hero enough, surely. Anyway, I don't think McCain has ever described himself as a War hero - others have done that.
Kevin, Kuala Lumpur,
No surprises huh John Taylor? Americans lead the world in massacaring human rights huh? Go tell that to one of the American boys buried on your land defending you John. I have to believe there are still a few people left in the UK who don't agree with likes of John Taylor, maybe I'm wrong.
Charlie, Boone, NC, usa
Amazing, whose is the true ? I watched one debate then for me passed an impression that he was tipic american man: white, protestant and brash. Neither moment he looked for Obama, it was absolutely unplesant and unsympathetic.
DENISSON, CURITIBA, BRAZIL
Only God will know the truth apart from John McCain.
In wars and elections there is so much propaganda, lies, & myths one wouldnt know.
Torture does occur; and has occured under communist governments.
Id be concerned that the origin of the story might be somewhere with the pro-Obama camp.
gibo, Sydney, Australia
No surprises there... American propaganda always made the enemy look sub-human. Conversely, as Afghanistan and Iraq prove, Americans can always be trusted to lead the world in massacaring human rights...
John Taylor, London, UK
I wonder if this has been printed in the American press!
Suzy Robertson, Cambridge,