John McCain’s Vietnamese jailer pays tribute to ‘stubborn’ prisoner
McCain was also celebrated for his role in reconciling the United States and Vietnam, which in the half-century since the war’s end have become close allies
As a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton”, navy pilot John McCain was known as uncompromising, frank and an avid reader who fiercely debated the war with his Vietnamese jailers.
One of them, the former director of the infamous Hoa Lo prison, recalls verbally sparring with the famous inmate and says McCain’s refusal to budge on his views eventually earned his admiration.
“It was his stubbornness, his strong stance that I loved when arguing with him,” said retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet.
In the decades following the Vietnam war, McCain – who died on Saturday at the age of 81 – forgave the enemies who once held him captive, and helped reconcile the two countries that today enjoy strong ties.
His five-and-a-half years in prison began in October 1967 when McCain was thrown into the French-built jail after his Skyhawk dive-bomber was shot down over Hanoi’s Truc Bach lake.
Fished out with a broken leg and two broken arms he was shipped to the cold, crowded facility where some 500 prisoners of war were held.