Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Era of Unease Addendum, McCain ordeal

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Era of Unease Addendum, McCain ordeal
  • Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:55:16 -0700

The McCain ordeal Bush dishonored.

hen McCain's plane was downed Oct. 26, 1967, he was fished out of Hanoi's Truc Bach lake by a Vietnamese civilian. He made a 15-minute visit there today, walking with his wife and son alongside a retaining wall to a memorial of the incident.

"Everything happened very quickly," McCain said. "I broke both my arms and a leg, and I was dragged ashore and I was beaten once I was pulled ashore."

His reception was friendly today. A crowd gathered at the sight of McCain and a throng of media, and several Vietnamese came up to shake his hand and pose for pictures with his family.

McCain was held until March 1973 at Hoa Lo Prison, which the POWs nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton." He said his hardships included beatings, a lack of proper medical treatment for injuries, and a total of three years in solitary confinement for what his captors called a "bad attitude."

He twice tried to hang himself, using his shirt as a noose, but was caught both times by the guards, who then beat him.

"I couldn't control my despair," McCain wrote in his autobiography. "All my pride was lost, and I doubted I would ever stand up to any man again. Nothing could save me."

McCain visited the prison on one of his previous seven trips to Vietnam, saying today that it brought back "a flood of memories."






  • [Homestead] Era of Unease Addendum, McCain ordeal, Tvoivozhd, 09/30/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page