Here is John McCain shaking hands with Vietnam’s Defense Minister, Gen. Phung Quang Thanh. Apparently McCain is on a visit to Vietnam.
This must be strange and difficult. McCain was a prisoner in North Vietnam for years in the early 1970s. He was humiliated, tortured and beaten, kept in solitary confinement, deprived of medical aid and nourishment.
I learned about McCain’s journey in his book Faith of my Fathers which I reviewed here.
I just re-read that review and this was my closing paragraph:
As I was reading this, enthralled in the story, amazed how any man could endure such hardships and make such sacrifices, I kept having to remind myself that this man I was reading about, and his time in the 1960ies, was the same man that was all over the news right now as the nominee of the Republican Party for president. It didn’t seem real, or possible.
I highly recommend reading Faith of my Fathers to anyone wanting to understand the man John McCain and the experiences of a prisoner of war. If you only read one chapter, read the one about “John McCain’s Towel.”
I can only imagine that going back to Vietnam after the tortures he has endured there must be very challenging.