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John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-PersonAccount -

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J o h n M c C a i nP
, r i s o n eo
r f W a r : A F i r s t - P e r s oA
nc c o u n t
By John S. McCain III,

Lieut. Commander,

U.S. Navy

By JLlHhl 5. I"ICCAIN
.lanuarv 28, ?008

Joh;t McCain spent 51/zyears in captivity as a NW in North Vietnam. His first-person account of that
harrowing ordeal was published rn U,S. News rn May 1973. Shot down in his Skyhawk dive bomber on Oct. 26,
7967, Navy flier McCain was taken prisoner with fractures in his right teg and both arms. He received minimal
care and was kept in wretched conditions that he describes vividtv in the U.S. News special report:
This story originally appeared in the May 14, 1973, issue of IJ.S.News &Wortd Report. It was posted online on
January 28, 2008.
O f t h e r n a n y p e r s o n a l a c c o u n t s c o n i n g t o l i g h t a b o u t t h e a l n r o s t u n b e l i e v a b l yc r u e l t r e a t r n e n t a c c o r d e d
A r n e r i c a n p r i s o n e r so f w a r i n V i e t n a m , n o n e i s n r c r e d r a r n a t i c t h a n t h a t o f L i e u t . C o m r n a n d e rl o h n S . M c C a i n I I I
- N a v y f l i e r , s o n o f t h e a d n i r a l w h o c o m n r a n d e dt h e w a r
in the Pacific, and a prisonerwho carre in "for special
rtion" during 572years of captivity in North Vietnam.
N o w t h a t a l l a c k n o w l e d g e d p r i s o n e r s a r e b a c k a n d a s e l f - i m p o s e d s e a l o f s i l e n c e i s o f f , C o m n r a n d e rM c C a i n i s
free to answer the questions rnany Arrericans have asked:
What was it really like?How prolonged were the toftures and brutality? How did the captured U.S. airrnenbear
u p u n d e r t h e m i s t r e a t r n e n t - a n d y e a r s s p e n t i n s o l i t a r y ? H o w d i d t h e y p r e s e r v et h e i r s a n i t y ? D i d v i s i t i n g " p e a c e
groups" really add to their troubles? How can this country's military rnen be conditioned to face such treatrnent
in the future without crumbling?

Here, in his own words, based on alnFst total recall, is ConrnanderMccain's narative of 5l/2 years in the hands of the North VietnanEse.
The date was oct. 26, 1967. I was on rrry 23rd rdssion, flying right over the heart of Hanoi in a dive at about 4,500 feet, when a Russian
nissile the size of a telephone pole canE up-the sky was full of thenFand blew the right wing off nry skyhawk dive bolrber. It went into an
inverted,alrrcststrajght-downspin.
I pulled the ejection handl, and was knocked unconsciousby the force of the ejection-the air speed was about 500 knots. I didn,t realizeit
at the rmnEnt, but I had broken rrry right leg around the khee, nry right arm in three places, and rrv left arm. I regainedconsciousnessjust
before I landed by parachute in a lake right in the comer of Hanoi, one they cal,ed the Westem Lake. tvy helnEt and nry orygen nEsk had
been blown off.
I hit the water and sankto the bottom. I think the lakeis about 15 feet deep. nEybe 20. I kickedoff the bottom. I did not feel any painat
t
,rYE,and was ableto riseto the surface,I took a breath of air and staded sinkingagain.Of couEe, I was wearing50 pounds,at least,
of equipnEnt and gear' I went down and rYEnagedto kick up to the surface once rylre. I couldn't understand why I couldn,t use nry right leq
or nry arn l was in a dazedcondition.I went up to the top againand sank back down, This tinE I couldn'tget back to the surface.I was
weadhg an inflatablelife-presrver-type thing that looked like water wings. I reached down with nry nbuth and got the togqle between rny
teeth and inflatedthe preserverand finallyftoatedto the top.
SonE Notth Vietnarneseswam out and pulled rrE to the side of the lake and inrnediatelystarted stripping rne, which is their standard
procedure.of course,this beingin the center of town, a huge crowd of peoplegathered,and they were all holleringand screaningand
cursing and spitting and kickingat nE,
When they had rnost of nry clothes off, I felt a twinge in nry right knee. I sat up and lookedat it, and nry right foot was resting next to nry
left knee, iust in a go-degree position. I said, "l4y God--rfiy leg!" That seenEd to enraqe them -I don't know why, one of them slanrrEd a
rifle butt down on rny shoulder,and snEshed it pretty badly. Another stuck a bayohet in nry foot. The nDb was rea y getting up-tight.
lohn S llccain III, 37, is a 1958graduateof the lJ. S. NavalAcadenryand a trdinedNavy pilot. Hisfather, Adm,JohnS. Mccain,Jr., was
coFrrEnderin chief of all tl. S. forces in the Pacificdudngthe Vietnamwar. Hisgrandfatheralso was a four-staradlriral,his great-unclean
Anrry general during world war I. Lieut. convnanderMccain is rnarried,with three children. Their perrnanenthonE is in orange park, Fla.
Durinqcaptivity his weight dropped as low as 1OOpounds. He still walk wth a limp from his injuries. He plans to stay in the Navy, has been
assignedto attend the NationalWar Collegethis August.
About this tinE, a guy carE up and started yellingat the crowd to leavenE alone.A wonEn canE over and proppednE up and held a cup
of tea to nry lips, and sonE photogrdpherstook sofi pictures. This quieted the crowd down quite a bit. Pretty soon, they put re on a
stretcher,lifted it onto a truclt and took rE to Hanoi'snEin pdson.I was taken into a cell and put on the floor. I was stillon the stretcher,
dressed only in nry skivvies, with a blanket over rne,
For the next three or four days, I lapsedfrom cohsciousto unconsciousness.
Duringthis tinE, I was taken out to interrogatioh-whichwe
calleda "quiz"-severaltinEs. That's when I was hit with all sorts of war-crininalcharges.This started on the first day. I refusedto give
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them anythjngexcept rry narne,rank,serialnunber and date of birth.They beat nE arounda little bit, I was in such bad shapethat when
they hit nE it wouldknocknE unconscious.
They kept saying,'You will not receiveany rnedicaltreatnEntuntil vou talk.,,
I didn'tbelievethis. I thouqht that if I just held out, that they'd take nE to the hospital,I was fed srnallanbunts of food by the guardand
alsoallowedto drinksonE water. I was able to holdthe water down, but I kept vomitingthe food.
They wanted nilitary rather than political infoffytion at this tinE, Every tinE they asked nE sornething,I'd just give my narp, ranKano
serialnunber and date of birth.
I think it was on the folrth day that two guardscarE in, insteadof one. one of them pulledback the blanketto show the other guardrtry
injury. I lookedat nry knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I renEfibered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow
had ejectedfrom his planeand brokenhis thigh. He had gone into shock.the bloodhad pooledin his leg, and he died, whichcarE as quite a
surpise to us-a nEn dyingof a brokenleg. Then I realizedthat a very sjnilarthing was happeningto nE.
When I saw it, I saidto the guard,"o.K., get the officer."An officercanE in after a few ninutes. It was the rmn that we carE to know
very well as 'The Bug."He was a psychotictorturer, one of the worst fiendsthat we had to deal with. I said, ,,O.K,I,llgive you nilitary
infonmtionif you willtake rneto the hospital."He left and carneback with a doctor, a guy that we called'zorba,'who was cormtetetv
inconpetent.He squatteddown, took nry pulse.He did not speakEnglish,but shookhis head and jabberedto 'The Bug.'I asked.,Are you
goingto take nE to the hospital?"'TheBug"replied."It's too late." I said, "If you take rrE to the hospital,I' get well.,,
"zorba"took nry pulseagain,and repeated,"It's too late."They got up and left, and I lapsedinto unconsciousness.
SoFEtinE later, 'The Bug"canE rushing into the room, shouting, 'Your father is a big adniral; now we take you to the hospital.',
7 rthe story to rnakethis point: There were hardlyany aryputees
arnongthe prisoneGwho canE back becausethe NorthvietnanEsejust
\e-uld not give nEdicaltreatrrEntto sonEonewho was badly injured-they weren'tgoingto waste their tirre. For one thihg, in the trdnsition
from the kind of life we lead in AnErica to the filth and dirt and infection, it would be very difficult for a guy to live anyway. In fact, nry
trcatrEnt in the hospitalalnpst killed nE.
Three cenerations of a Famous Naw Family
In 1906, the first lohn s. l4ccain was graduated from the U.s. Naval Acadenryat Annapotis.He served in World war I as a junior officer, In
world War II, he rose to the rank of a four-star admiratin the Pacifictheater. At war's end, he witnessed the Japanesesurrenderaboard
the
u.S.S. Mlbsoud.
In 1931,Johns. Mccain,lr., won his cormissionas an ensignat Annapolis.He conpileda brilllantrecordas a sublmrinecorrmnder in
world warlI Then he becamea top adnirdl,clinExinghis Navycareeras conrrEndeaih chiefofatl [J.s. forcesinthe pacific.He retired
in
1972, and lives now in Washington,D. C.
In 1958,lohn s. MccainIII left Annapolisas an ensiqnand went on to win his wingsat Pensacola.He servedas a Navyflier in the
caribbean
during the Cubanrrissile crisis in 1962. His first rdssion over North Vietnam was in rrid-1967.
I woke up a couple of tinFs in the next three or four days. PlasnEand blood were being put into nE. I becar fairty lucid. I was in a room
which was not particuladysrEll-about 15 by 15 feet-but jt was filthy dirty and at a lower levet?so that every tinE it rained, there'd be
about a half inch to an inch of water on the floor.I was not washedonce whileI was in the hospital.I alrDst neversaw a doctoror a
nu6e. DoctorscanE in a coupleof tinEs to lookat nE, They spokeFrench,not English.
d guard, I was assigneda 16-yeai-old kid-right out of the rice fields. His favorite pastirrE was to sit by nry bed and reacta book that
had a picturein it of an old rnanwith a rifle in his handsitting on a fuselageof an F-105 which had beenshot down. He woutdpoint to
hidrself,and slap rE and hit nE. He had a lot of fun that way. He fed nE because both nv anrE were broken. He would conE in with a cup
t

that had noodlesand sone giistle in it, ahd fill a spoon and put it in nry rnouth. The gristle was very hard to chew, I,d get nry rnouth full
after three or four spoonfuls,and I'd be chewing away on it. I couldn't take any nbre in nry nDuth, so he'd just eat the rest hin6elf, I was
getting about three or four spoonfulsof food twice a day. It got so that I kindof didn'tgive a darm-even though I tried
as hardas I could
to get enoughto eat,
After I had been there about 10 days, a "gook"-which is what we called the North VietnanEse-canE in one rmminq. This rnanspoke
Englishvery well. He asked nE how I was, and said, "we have a FrenchnEnlvho is here in Hanoivisiting, and would like to take a nEssage
back to your fanily." Beinga littte naive at the tinE-you get srEfter as you go along with these people-I figured this wasn,t a bad deal at
all, if this guy would conE to see nE and go back and tell nry fanily that I was alive.
I didn't know at the tinE that nry nanE had been released in a rdther big propagandasplash by the North VietnanEse, and that thev were
very happyto have capturednE. They told a nunber of rry friendswhen I was captured,"We have the crown pdnce,'whichwas sonEwhat
arrusing to nE.
"It Looked to Many as ifI Had Been Drugged"
They told nE that the FienchnEn would visit rrE that evening. About noon, I was put in a rolling stretcher and taken to a treatrrent n om
where they tried to put a cast on nv right arm, They had great difficulty putting the bones together, because nty arrn was broken in three
placesand there were two floatingbones.I watched the guy try to nEnipulateit for about an hour and a half trying get
to
all the bones
lined up. This was without benefit of Novocain. It was an extrernelypainful experience,and I passed out a nunber of tilrEs. He finally just
gave up and slappeda chest cast on rE, This experiencewas very fatiguing,and was the reasonwhy later, when
sonE TV film was taken,
it lookedto rEny peopleas if I had been drugged.
When this was over, they took nE into a big room with a nice white bed. I thought, "Boy, things are really lookjng up.', My guard said, "Now
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you'regoingto be in your new room."

About an hour later ih carre a guy called'The Cat." I found out later that he was the rnanwho up until late 1969was in chargeof all the
POWcanps in Hanoi.He was a rather dappersort, one of the petty intelliqentsia
that run NorthVietnam.He was from the politicalbureauof
the Vietnarse WorkersParty.
The fiEt thing he did was show rrp Col.lohn Flynn'sidentification
card-now Gen.lohn Flynn-who was our seniorofficer.He was shot down
the sanE day I was,'The Cat" said-throughan interpreter,as he was not speakingEnglishat this tinE-'The FrenchtelevisionrEn is
coning " I said,"Well,I don't think I want to be filrEd," whereuponhe announced,'You needtwo operations,ahd if you don't talk to hirn
then we will take your chest cast off and you won't get any operations."He said, 'You will say that you'regratefulto the VietnanEse
people, and that you're sorry for your crirnes."I told him I wouldnt do that.
Finally,the Frenchrnancarne in, a rnan nanEd Chalais-a Conrrunist, as I found out later-with two photographers.He asked nE about nry
treatnEnt and I told him it was satisfactory.'The Cat" and "chihuahua,"
anotherinterrogator,were in the background
tellingnE to say that
I was grateful for lenient and hunbhe treatnEnt. I refused, ahd when they pressed nE, Chalaissaid, "I think what he told nE is sufficient.,'
Then he asked if I had a nEssage for nry farily. I told him to assure rry wife and others of ryryfanily that I was getting well and that I loved
them. Again,in the background,'The Cat" insistedthat I add sornething
about hopingthat the war would be over soon so that I couldgo
horYE.Chalaisshut him up very finrly by saying that he was satisfied with nry answer. He helped rrE out of a difficult spot.
Chalaiswas from Paiis lqy wife later went to see him and he gave her a copy of the film,which was shown on CBStelevisionanthe u. S.
As soon as he left, they put nE on the cart and took rrE back to nry old dirty room,
/

r that, llEny visitots canE to talk to nE. Not all of it was for interrogation.Once a farrDus North Vietnarnesewriter-an old rnanwith a
h' ihi Minh beard-carne to nry roorn, wantihg to know all about Emest Herringway.I told him that Ernest Herihgway was violeh y antiConrrunist, It gave him sorthing to think about.
others came in to find out about life in the tlnited states. They figured because nry father had such high nititary rank that I was of the
royalty or the govemingcircle. They have no idea of the way our democrdcyfunctions.
One of the fiEn who carE to see rYE,whose picture I recognizedlater, was Gen. Vo NguyenGap, the hero of Dienbienphu.He carE to see
what I lookedlike, sayihg nothing. He is the Minister of Defense,and also on North Vietnanfs ruling Central corryrittee,
After about two weeks, I w.s given an operation on nry leg which was filnEd. They never did anything for nry broken left arm. It healed by
itself. They said I neededtwo operdtions on nry leg, but because I had a "bad attitude" they wouldn't give nE another ohe. what kind of job
they did on nry leg, I do not know. Now that I'm back, an orthopedic surgeon is going to cut in and see. He has already told nE that thev
rnadethe incisionwronqand cut all the liganEntson one side.
I was in the hospitalabout six week, then was taken to a caFp in Hanoithat we called'The Plantation."
This was in 'ate Decenber,1967.I
was put in a cell with two other nEn, George Day and NorrisOverly, both Air Force rnajo6, I was on a stretcher, nry leg was stiff and I was
still in a chest cast that I kept for about two rDnths. I was down to about 1OOpoundsfrom rtly norrnalweight of 155.
I was told later on by MajorDaythat they didn'texpect rneto live a week, I was unableto sit up. I was sleepingabout 18 hou6, 20 hoursa
day. They had to do everythingfor n. They were allowedto get a bucketof water and wash nE off occasionav. Thev fed nE and took
fi-- care of fi, and I recovered veiy rapidly.
We nDved to another room just after ChristnEs. In early February, 1968, Overly was taken out of our room and released,along with David
Matheny and Johh Black.They were the first three POw's to be releasedby the North VietnanEse. I understand they had instructions, once
honE, to say nothing about treatrEnt, so as not to jeopatdize those of us still in captivity.
That left Day and rrE alone together. He was rather banged up hinEelf-a bad right arm, which he stitl has. He had escaped after he had
been captureddown South and was shot when they recapturedhim,As soon as I was able to wall( which was in l.4archof 1968,Dav was
rDveo out.
I rernainedin solilary confinenEnt from that tirrE on for rnorethan two yea6. I was not allowedto see or talk to or conrrunicate with anv of
nry fellow prisoners.My room was fairly decent-sized-I'd say it was about 10 by 10. The door was solid. There were no windows.The only
ventilation canE from two snlall holes at the top in the ceiling, about 6 inches by 4 Inches.The roof was tin and it got hot as hell in there.
The room was kind of dirft-night and day-but they always kept on a srnalllight bulb, so they could observe nE. I was in that place for two
years.
Communlcatlon Was Vltal "for Survtval,'
As far as this businessof solitary confinenEnt goes*the nEst inportant thing for survival is coFrrunication with sonEone, even if it's only a
wave or a wink,a tap on the wall, or to have a guy put his thunb up. lt nEkesall the difference.
It's vital to keep your rdnd occupied, and we all worked on that. Sorneguys were interested in rEthenEtics, so they worked out cofiplex
fo[rulas in their heads-we were neverallowedto have writingnEterials,Otherswould builda whole house,from basenEnton up, I have
n{,re of a philosophicalbent. I had read a lot of history. I spent days on end going back over those history books in nry nind, figuring out
wherc this countryorthat country went wrong,what the U, s. shoulddo in the area of foreignaffairs.I thought a lot about the nEaningof
life.
It was easy to laPseinto fahtasies. I used to write book and plays in nry nind, but I doubt that any of them would have been above the
levelof the cheapestdirr novel.
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Peoplehdve asked rYEhow we could renErrber detailed things like the tap code, nunbers, nafis, all softs of things. The fact is, when you
don't have anything else to think about, no outside distractions, it's easy. since I've been back, it's very hard for me to refiElrber sirDte
things, like the nanE of sorrEonet've just nEt.
Duringone period while I was in solitary, I rEfiFrized the nanEs of all 335 of the rEn who were then prisoneE of war in North Vietnam, I
can still renEnber them.
One thing you have to fight is worry. It's easy to get uptight about your physical condition. One tinE I had a hell of a henbnhoid and I
stewed about it for about three days. Finally.I said, "Look,Mccain,you'veneverknownof a singleguy who died of a herErrhoid.,'SoI
iust
ignored it as best I could, and after a few nbnths it went away.
The story of EmieBrdceillustrateshow vital conrrunicationL1/as
to us. while I was in the prisonwe called'The plantation.'inoctobei, 1968,
there was a roombehindrE. I heardsonE noisein there so I started tappingon the wall, our call-upsign was the old ,,shaveand a haircut,',
and then the other guy wouldconE back with the two taos, ',sixbits.,,
Fortwo week I qot no answer,but finally,back canE the two taps. I started tappingout the alphabet--onetap for,,a,,,twofor..b,,'and
so
on. Then I said, "Putyour ear to the wall " I finallygot him up on the wall and by putting nry cup againstit, I couldtatk throughit and
rmke
him hear nE. I gave him the tap code and other inforrnatioh.He gave rne his nanE--Emie Brace, About that tirrE, the guard cane
around
and I told Emie."O.K,,I'll call vou tonbrrow.',
It took nE severdldays to qet him back up on the wall again.WhenI finallydid, all he couldsay was, 'I,m EmieBrace,'.and then
hed start
sobbing.After about two days he was able to controlhis emtions, and withina week this
9uy was tappingand coryrruhacating
and dropping
notes, and from then on he did a truly outstandingjob.
r

: was a civilianpilotwho was shot down over Laos.He had just cornefrom 31/2 years'livingin a banboo cage in the junqle
with hisfeet
in stocks, and an iron collar around his neck with a rope tied to it. He had neady lost use of his legs. He escaped three
tinEs, and after the
third tinE he was buried in the ground up to his neck,
In those days-still in 1968-we were allowed to bathe every other day, supposedly.But in this canp they had a water probtem
and
sorEtinEs we'd go for two or three weeks, a rn nth without a bath. I had a real rat for a tumkey who usually would take
nE out tast, The
bath was a sort of a stall_likeaffair that had a concrete tub. After everyone else had bathed, there usually was no water
left. so I'd stand
there for rry allotted five minutes and then he'd take nE back to nv room.
For toilet facilities, I had a bucket with a lid that didn't fit. It was enptied daily; they'd have sorEbody else carry
it, because I walked so
badly.
From the tinE that overly and Day left nE-ovedy left in Febmary of 1968, Day left in t4arch-nry treatrnent was basica y good.
I would get
caught conr, nicating,talkingto guys throughthe wall, tapping-that kindof stuff, ahd they,djust say, ,Tsk, tsk; no, no,,'Reay,
I thought
things were not too bad.
Then, about June 15, 1968,I was taken up one night to the interrogation
room.'The cat" and anotherfiEn that we called.The Rabbit,,were
there. 'The Rabbit"spokevery good English,
'The cat" was the
conrrEnderof all the canps at that tinE. He was nEkingbelievehe didn'tspeakEnglish,althoughit was obviousto rfie,
after sorE conversation,that he did, because he was asking questions or talking before ,The Rnbbit',trdnslated what
I had said.
-r
Oriental, as you rrEy know, likes to beat around the bush quite a bit. The first night we sat there and ,The cat', talked to nE for
about
two hours. I didn't khow what he was driving at. He told rne that he had run the French Pow canps in the earty 19sos
and that he had
releaseda couple of guys, and that he had seen themjust recently and they had thanked him for his kindness.He said
that overly had gone
honE "with honor."
'They Told Me I'd
Never co Home"
I really didn't know what to think, because I had been having these other inteirogations in which I had refused to co-oDerate,
It was not
hard because they were hot torturing nE at this tinE. They just told rE I'd hever go honE and I was goihg to be tried as
a war cdninal.
That was their constantthenE for rnanyrDnths.
Suddenly 'The Cat" said to nE, 'Do you want to go horE?',
I was astonished,and I tell you franldythat I said that I wouldhave to think about it. I went back to nry room,and I thought
about it for a
long tin. At this tinE I did not have corrrYunicationwith the canp senior rankingofficer, so I could get no advice, I was wonied whether I
couldstay aliveor not, becauseI was in rather bad condition.I had been hit with a severecase of dysentery,which kept on for about
a
year and a half. I was losingweight aga,n.
But I khew that the code of conduct says, 'You will not accept paroleor amesty," and that 'Vou will not accept speciatfavors,,,For
sorrEbodyto go horE eariier is a specialfavor. Therc,s no other way you can cut it.
I went back to him three nights later. He asked again, "Do you want to 90 honE?" I told him "No.' He wanted to know why, and I totd him
the rcason. I said that Alvarez [first Anrican captured] should go first, then enlisted nph and that kind of stuff.
'The cat" told nE that
PresidentLyhdon Johnson had ordered rE honE. He handed nE a letter from nry wife, in which she had said, ,I
wishedthat you had beenone of those three who got to core honE."of course,she had ho way to uhderstandthe ranificatiohsof
this,
'The Cat" saidthat the
doctorshad told himthat I could not live unlessI got rEdical treatrEnt in the united States.

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we went throughthis routineand still I told him "No."Three nightslater we went through
it all over again.on the nDrnrngof the Fourthof
luty, 1968, which happenedto be the sanE day that rrry father took over as coryrnander
in chief of u. s. Forces in the pacific, I was led into
anotherquiz room.
'The Rabbit"and 'The

Cat" were sitting there. I walkedin and sat down, and ,The Rabbit,,
said, ,,Ourseniorwants to know your finalanswer.,,
"My final answeris the sanE. It,s 'No."'
'That is your final

answer?.

'That is nryfinalanswer.',
with this 'The cat," who was sittingthere with a pileof papersin front of him and pen
a
in his hand,brokethe pen In two. 1nkspurtedall
over' He stood up, kickedthe chairover behindhim, and said, 'They taught you too
well.They taught you too well,,-inperfect English,I
rright add He turned, went out and slantrEd the door, leaving 'The Rabbit"and
nE sitting there. ,The Rabbit,,said,,Now,Mccain, it will be
very bad for you. Go back to your rcom.
what they wanted, of course, was to send nE honE at the sarrE tinE that rny
father took over as conrrEnder in the pacific. This would
have nEde them look very hunEne in releasingthe injured son of a top u.
s. officer. It would also have given them a great lever against nry
fellow prisoners,because the North vietnanEse were always putting this
"class"businesson us. They could have said to the others ,,Look,
you poor devils, the son of the rYEnwho is running the war has gone
honE and left you here. No one cares about you ofttinaryfellows,,,I
was deterrined at all tinEs to prcvent any exploitation of rry father and rny tanity.
There was another considerdtionfor rrE. Even though I was told I would not
have to srgn any stateryEnts or confessionsbefore I went
'
:, I didn'tbelievethem. They wouldhave got rneright up to that airplane
and said, "Nowjust sign this lit e statenEnt..,Atthat point, I
doubt that I could have resisted, eveh though I felt very strong at the tinE.
But the prinEry thing I consideredwas that I had no right to go ahead of rEn
like Alvarez, who had been therc three years before I,,got
killed"-that'swhat we say insteadof "beforeI got shot down,"becausein
a way becor ng a pfisonerin Northvietnamwas rjkebeingkilled.
About a nDnth ahd a half later, when the three rrEn who were selected for release
had reached ArrErica, I was set up for sonE very severe
treatrnent which lasted for the next year and a half.
one night the guards canE to rny room and said 'The carp conrrEnder wants
to see you," This rnan was a particulany idiotic individual.we
calledhim "Slopehead.,,
one thing I should nEntion here: The canps were set up very sirilar
to their Arnv. They had a canp conrrbnder, who was a nititary rnan,
basicallyin chaEe of the ruintenanceof the canp, the food, etc. Then
they had what they calleda staff officer-actuaflya politicalofficer
-who was in chaBe of the interrogations,
and providedthe propagandaheardon the radio.
we also had a guy in our carnp whom we narrEd 'The soft-soap Fairy." He was
from an irnportant fanily in North vietnarn. He wore a fancy
uniform and was a realsharp cookie, with a doninant position in this canp. 'The
soft-soap Fairy,',who was sorEwhat efferinate, was the
nice guy, and the canp conYnander-"slopehead"-was the bad guy. old 'soft-soap"
would always conE ih whenever anything weht wrong
and say, "oh, I didnt know they did this to you. All you had to do was co-operare
and everythingwould have beeno.K.'
To get back to the story: They took rne out of rny room to "slopehead,"who
said, 'you have violated all the canp regurations.you,re a
I
: cririnal You rrust confessyour crinEs."I said that I wouldnt do that, and
he asked,,,whyare you so disrespectful
of guards?'I
answered,"Because
the guardstreat rE likean animal.,,
when I said that, the guards, who were all in the rconFabout 10 of thern-really
laid into rrE. They bounced nE from piltarto post, kickjng
and laughingand scratching.After a few hoursof that, ropeswere put on nE and
I sat that night boundwith ropes.Then I was takento a
srEll room For punishnEntthey would alnbst always take you to another room where you
didn,t have a rnosquitonet or a bed or any
clothes Forthe next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards.
My left arm was brokeh again and my ribs were
c racked.
They wanted a statenEnt saying that I was sony for the crinEs that I had
conm'tted against North vietnanEse peopteand that t was
grateful for the treatnnt that I had received from them. This
was the paradox-so fiEny guys were so rristreated to get them to say they
were qrateful. But this is the Conrrunist way.
I held out for four days Finally,I reachedthe lowest point ofnry 5t, yearsin North
vietnam.I was at the point of suicide,becauseI saw
that I was reachingthe end of nry rope
I said, O.K.,I'll write for them.
They took nE up into one of the interrogation roonE, and for the next 12 hours we
wrote and rewrote, The North vietnanEse Interrogato,
who was pretty stupid, wrote the final confesslon, and I signed it, It was in their language,
ahd spoke about black crirEs, ahd other
generalities lt was unacceptableto them. But I felt
iust terdble about it. I kept saying to nryself, ',oh, God, I really didn't have any choice.,,
I had leamedwhat we all leamedover there: EveryrlEn has his breakingpoint.I had
reachedrdne.
Then the "gook" rnadea very serious fiistake, because they let nre go back and rest
for a couple of weeks. They usually didn,t do that with
guys when they had them reallybusted l think it concemedthem
that my ann was broken,and they had nEssedup nry leg. I had been
reducedto an anirEl duringthis periodof beatingahd torture. My arm was so painful
I couldh,tget up off the floor. with the dysentery,it
was a very unpleasanttinE.

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JohnMcCain,Prisonerof War:A First-Person

Thank God they let rE rest for a couple of weeks. Then they called rE up again and wanted sonEthing else. I don't renEnber what it was
now-it was sor kindof statenEnt. This tinE I was able to resist.I was ableto cany on. TheV couldn't"bust"nE again.
Prayer: "I Was Sustained in Times ofTrial"
I was finding that prdyer helped. It wasn't a question of asking for superhurEn strength or for God to strike the North Vietnarnesedead. lt
was askng for rmral and physicalcourdge,for quidanceand wisdomto do the right thing. I askedfor coryfortwhen I was in pain,and
sonEtinEs I received relief, I was sustained in nEny tirnes of trial.
When the pressurewas on, you seerEd to go one way or the other. Either it was easierfor them to break you the next tilrE, or it was
harder, In other woids, if you are going to fiEke it, you get tougher as tinE goes by. Part of it is just a transition from our way of life to that
way of life. But you get to hate them so bad that it gives you strength.
Now I don't hate them any nDre-not these particularguys. I hate and detest the leaders,SonE guardswouldjust conE in and do theirjob.
When they lvere told to beat you they would conE in and do it. SoryEseenEd to get a big bang out of it. A lot of them were honEsexual,
althoughnevertoward us. SonE, who were pretty darmed sadistic,seenEdto get a big thrill out of the beatings.
Frcm that tifiE on it was one round of rough treatnEnt followed by another, SonEtinEs I got it three or four tinEs a week. SonEtinPs I'd be
off the hook for a few weeks. A lot of it was rrry own doing, because they realizedfar better than we did at first the value of conirunicating
with our fellow AnEricans.When they caught us corrrrunicating, they'd take severe reprisals.I was caught a lot of tinEs. One reason was
becauseI'm not too srmrt, and the other reasonwas becauseI livedalone.If you live with sonEbodyelseyou have sonEbodyhelpingyou
out, helpingyou survive.
&'r I was never going to stop. Conyrunicationwith your fellow prisonerswas of the utnDst value-the difference between being able to
.t and not being able to resist. You nEy get soryEargunEnt from other prisonerson that. A lot depends on the individual.SonE nEn are
,
rruch nDre self-sufficient than others.
Conrrunication prinErily served to keep up nDrale. We would risk getting beat up just to tell a nEn that one of his friends had gotten a
letter frDmhonE, &rt it was also valuableto establisha chainof comrand in our canps, so our seniorofficerscouldgive us adviceand
guidance.
So this was a period of repeated, severe treatnEht. It lasted uhtil around October of '69, They wahted nE to see delegations.There were
antiwar groups coning into Hanoi, a lot of foreigners-Cubans, Russians,I don't think we had too nEny AnErican "peaceniks"that early,
although within the next year it got rruch greater, I refused to see any of them. The propagandavalue to them would have been too great,
with rnv dad as conrnanderin the Pacific,
David DellingercanE over. Tom HaydencarE over. Three grcups of releasedprisoners,in fact, were let out in custody of the "peace
groups." The first ones releasedweht honE wlth ohe of the Eenigahbrothers. The hext group was a whole crew. One of them was JanEs
lohnson, one of the Fort Hood Three, The wife of the "Ranparts" nEgazine editor and RennieDsvis were along. Altogether, I think about
eight or nine of them were in that outflt. Then a third group followed.
The North VietnanEsewanted fiE to nBet with all of them, but I was able to avoid it. A lot of tinEs you couldn't face them down, so you
had to try to get aroundthem. "Face"is a big thing with these people,you larow,and if you get aroundthem so that they couldsave face,
then it was a lot easier.
xanple,they wouldbeat the hellout of nE and say I was goingto see a delegation.I'd respondthat, O.K.I'd see a delegation,but I
would not say anythingagainstnry country and I would not say anythingabout nry treatrEnt and if asked,I'd tell them the truth about the
conditionsI was kept under,They weht back and conferredon that and then wouldsay, 'You have agreedto see a delegationso we will
take you." BUtthey nevertook nE, you see.
f

One tinE, they wanted ryE to wn'te a nEssage to rny fellow prisoneF at Christrnas,I wrcte down:
'To nry frlendsin the canp who I have not been allowedto see or speakto, I hopethat your faniliesare well and happy,and I hopethat
vou will be able to write and rceive letters in accordance with the GenevaConventionof 1949 which has not been allowed to vou bv our
captors. And rnay God bless you,"
They took it but, of course, it was never published.In other words, sonEtinEs it was better to write sonEthing that was laudatory to your
GovemrEnt or against them than say, '1 won't write at all"-because a lot of tinFs it had to 9o up through channels, and soryEtinEsyou
could buy tinE this way.
How Dlck Stratton Was " Really Wrung Out"
At this point I want to tellyou the story of Capt. DickStratton, He was shot down in May of 1967,when the AnEricanpeacegroupslyere
clainingthat the UnitedStates was bonbingHanoi.We were not at that tirne,
Dickwas shot down well outsideof Hanoi,but they wanted a confessionat the tinE an AnEricanreporterwas over there. That was in the
spdng and surn,Er of '67-renEnber those stories that canE back, very sensationalstories about the AnEdcan bonb danEge?
'The Pabbit"and the others worked on Dck Strdtton very hard. He's got huge rope scais on his anr6 where they Lrere infected. They really
wrung him out, becausethey werc goingto get a confessionthat he had borrbedHanoi-this was to be livingproof.They alsopeeledhis
thunbnailsback and burnedhim with cigarettes.
Dick reachedthe point where he couldn'tsay "No."But when they got him to the prcssconference,he pulledthis bowingact on therFhe
bowed90 degreesin this dlrection,he bowed90 degreesIn that direction-fourquadrants.This was not too wild to the "gooks,"because
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they're usedto the bowingthinq. But any AnEricanwho sees a pictureof anotherAnEricanbowingto the waist every tum for 90 degrees
knowsthat there'ssorthing wrongwrth the guy, that sonEthinghas happenedto him.That's why Dickdid what he did. After that they
on himto say he wasn't tortured.They todured himto say that he wasn't tortured,It gets to be a bad nErrycontinuedto keeDDressure
go-roundto be on.
tJick rnadesonE very strong statenEnts at his press conference here in the States a few week ago. He said he wanted the North
'The Plantation"
togetherfor a longtirE, and he did a very fine job
VietnanFsechargedwith war crinEs.He'sa fine nBn. He and I were at
religious
man
and
a
deeply
AnEdcan,
there. He's an outstanding naval officer, a very dedicated
I think a great deal of DickStratton. He just was very, very unfortunatein gettingthe worst that the "gooks"could dishout
We had a particularlybad spring and sunftEr in 1969 because there had been an escape at one of the other carnps. Our guys carried out a
welFpreparedplan but were caught. They were Ed Atterberry and John D|-anEsi.Atterberry was beaten to death after the escape.
There,s no question about it: DrdnEsisaw Atterberry taken into a room and heard the beating staft. Atterberry never canE out. DranEsi, if
he wash't such a tough cookie, would probably have been killed, too. He's probably one of the toughest guys I've ever rrEt -from south
Philly. His otd rrBn was a pio boxer, and he was a wrestler in college.
The reprisalstook placeall throughthe other carps. They started tortudngus for our escapeplans.The food got worse.The room
inspectionsbecanEvery severe.You couldn'thave anythingin your room-nothing.For exarrple,they used to give us, once in a while,a
little vialof iodinebecauserrnv of us had boils.Nowthey wouldn'tlet us have it becauseDranEsiand Atterberryhad used iodineto darken
their skin before they tded to escape, so they would look like Vietnarnese.
Thqt surnrEr, from May to about Septerber at our camp, twice a day for six days a week, all we had was punpkin soup and bread. That's a
iy rough diet-first, because you get awfully darm tired of purpkin soup, but also because it doesn't have any real nutritionalvalue. The
I
only thing that could keep any weight on you was the bread, which was full of lurnpsof soggy flour.
On Sundaywe got what we calledsweet beansoup.They wouldtake sornesrnallbeansand throw them in a pot with a lot of sugarand
cook it up, with no ryEat whatsoever. A lot of us becarrE thin and ernaciated.
I had the singularrisfortune to get caught connunicating four tirs in the nbnth of Nlay of 1969. They had a punishnEnt room dght acrcss
the courtyaid from nry cell, and I ended up spendinga lot of tirE over therc.
It was also in May, 1959, that they wanted nE to write-as I remenber-a letter to tJ. S. pitots who were flying over North Vietnam asking
them not to do it, I was being forced to stand up continoously-sorretins they'd rnakeyou stand up or sit on a stool for a long period of
tinE. I'd stood up for a couple of days, with a respite only because one of the guards-the only real hurmn being that I ever nEt over there
-let nE lie down for a couDleof hours while he was on watch the niddle of one night.
One of the strategies we worked out was not to let them nEke you break yourself. If you get tired of standing, just sit down-rEke them
force you up. So I sat down, and this little guard who was a particularlyhateful rnancarne in and iurrped up and down on nry knee. After
this I had to go back on a crutch for the next year and a half.
''fhe
That was a long, difficult sunrrEr. Then suddenly, in October, 1969, there were drdstic changes around the carp, The torture stopped.
Soft-Soap Fairy" cafiE to nry room one day and told nE that I would get a roofitrEte. The food inproved greatly and we started getting
extra rdtions. The guards seenEd alnDst friendly. For exanple, t had a tumkey who used to just bash nE around for drill- The door would
- and he'd conE in and start sluggingnE. They stopped that kind of thing. I attribute all this directly to the propagandaeffort that
(
was directedby the Adninistrationand the peoplein the UnitedStates in 1969.
My younger bmther, Joe, was very active in the NationalLeague of Fanilies of AnErican Prisonersof War and Missingin Action in Southeast
Asia. That was the unbrella for all the POWfanily groups. So he has filled nE in on why the North Vietnarneseattitude toward the AnErican
prisonerschanged, and given nE this infonrBtion:
As the bonbing of the North picked up in 1965, 1966, Hanoi rEde its first propaqandadisplay by paradingbeaten, subjugated AnEfican pilots
through the streets. To their surprise,the press reaction arcund the world was generally negative.
Next, the North VietnarEse tried the tactic of forcing Cdr. Dck Stratton to apPearand apologizefor war crinEs. But he had obviouslybeen
nistreated, and was doing this onty under extrer duress. That bacKired, too, They followed this by releasingtwo groups of three POW'Sin
Februarv and October, 1968. These rEn had been there less than six npnths and had suffered no significant weight loss and were in pretty
good shape.
Untilthe NixonAdninistration canE to office in 1969, the GovemnEnt back hornehad taken the attitude: "Don't talk about the prisoner-ofwar situation lest you hurt the AnEricans still over there." Secretary of DefenselvlelvinLaird, early in 1969, went over to the peace talks
with the North Vietnarse and Viet Cong in Paris. lTalks had begun under Presidentlohnson late in 1968.] Lairdtook pictures of severely
beaten nEn, such as FrishnEn,Strdtton, Hegdaht-all of whom had suffered extrerYEweight loss. He got the photos thrcugh foreign news
services. He told the North VietnanEse: 'The GenevaConventionsays that you shall release alt sick and wounded prisoners.These nEn are
sick and wounded.whv aren'tthey released?"
In August, 1969, Hanoilet FrishrnancorrE horrF. He had no elbow-iust a linp rubbery ann-and he had lost 65 pounds. Hegdahlcan out
and had lost 75 pounds. Also releasedwas wes Runbull, who was in a body cast because of a broken back
FrishnEnwas allowedto hold a Dressconference and spilled out the details of torture and rEltreatrEnt, Headlinesappearedall over the
worjd, and from then on, starting in the fall of 1969, the treatnEnt began to lnprove. We think this was directly attributable to the fact that
Frishlrranwas living proof of the nistreatnEnt of AnEricahs.
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the yearswent by, was to say, "God,I

I,m Droudof the part loe and nry wife, Carol,playedhere at honE. The tenptation for the wives, as
'lust to get him hone is not enouqh
was,
line,
her
answer
pressed
this
to
take
was
carcl
\rant them horE underany circurrEtances,,'when
for rne, and it's not enough for John-I want him to corYEhonE standing up "
nE have only one during
I received very few letters from Carol, I got three in the first four rrcnths after I was shot down. The "gook" let
one a year'
the last four years I was there. I received nry first package in May of 1969. After that, they let nE have approxinEtely
treatfiEnt of prisonersof
The reason I got so little nEil was that carol insisted on using the channels provided by the Genevaconvention for
war'sherefusedtosendthingsthroughthecorfiitteeforuaisohwithFani|iesruhbytheahtiwargroups.
This bringsme to sonEthingthat I want to discussin nEre detail:
the Frenchvote6
As you may know, back in 1954,the Noith vietnarEse had a big hand in topplingthe FrenchGovemrnt in Parisbecause
VietnanEsewon in 1954had no nDre stornachfor the Vaetnamwar their GovemrrEntwas wagingat the tinE. That was the way the North
they didn'twin in Vietnam.
got backiust one
The Frenchagreedto pullout of Indo-Chinawith no questionsaskedwhen they signedthe agreenEnt.As a result,they
third of their POW'S.
nErshal worid
I,m cohvinced that Hanoihoped to wtn in our case by underrining nDrale arnongthe people at honE in ArrErica.They had to
'69
we were
opinion on their side. I renEriber in 1968 or
[North Vietnam Preryier]PhamVan Dong'sspeech to the NationalAssenbly, because
'The whole world supportsus," not, 'we HaveDefeatedthe lJ'
was,
his
address
The
title
of
touct-speakers,
blastedwith these thingson the
S, AggressoE,"or anythinglikethat.
.969, after the three guys who were releasedwent backto the U. S. and told about the brutalityin the POWcaflps, PresidentNixon
this fact. tt broughta drasticchangein ourtreatnEnt And IthahkGodforit, becauseif it hadn'tbeen
g-.e the greenlightto publicizing
r

for that a lot of us woutdneverhave retumed.

from seeing out'
lust one srnallexanple of the way things inproved: Over nry door were sonE bars, covered by a wooden board to keep nE
and pulled
canE
around
hirEelf,
canp
connEnder
the
1969,
"Slopehead,"
of
Septenber,
the
end
and to block ventilation. One night, around
pulled that transom so I could get
this thing off, so that I could have sofiE ventilation. I couldn't believe it. Every night from then on they
sonE ventilation. We started bathihg rnore often, It was all very arEzing
built by
In Decenberof 1969I was rmved from'The Pentagon"over to "LasVegas.""LasVegas"was a srnallarea of HoalaPrisonwhichwas
',Hanoi
people
place
were
that
first
Hotel"is alsothere-that's the
Hilton"to AnEficans."Heartbreak
the Frenchin 1945.It was knownas the
and then funneledout to other canps'
usuallvtakenfor their initialinterroqations
just three roorrEcalled the "Gold
This whole prison is an area of about two city blocks. At "Lns Vegas," I was put in a srnallbuildingof
'Thunderbird,""Stardust," "Riviera.""GoldNugget"and the "Desert
was
the
Nugget." We nanEd the buitdingsafter the hotels in Vegas-there
Inn."
with the lTEnaroundthe canp, becausethe
Nugget,,'andinmediatelyI was ableto establishcorfirunications
I was ryFvedinto the ,,Gold
I stayed
bath area was right out nry window,and I could see throughcracksin the doorsof the bath and we would conYrunicatethat way.
in that one, in solitary confinenEnt, until March of 1970.
which seerEd to increaseas the tinE went on. Blt there wasn't any torture. ln
Th.re was pressureto see AftEdcanantiwardelegations,
'The
Cat." He told fiE that he wanted rE to see a foreignguest. I totd him what I had always
.ary of 1970,I was taken to a quizwith
I
told him before: that I woutd see the vlsitor, but I would not say anything against nV country, and if I was asked about nry treatnEnt
it' I
have
to
think
about
l'd
I
told
him
you
anything."
don't have to say
wouldtell them how ha6h it was. Much to rny surprisehe said,"Fine,
go
that
I
should
he
thought
went back to rrry room and I asked the senior ArErican officer in our area what his opinionwas, and he said
ahead.
questionsabout
so I went to see this visitor who said he was from spain, but who t later heard was from cuba. He never asked rE any
I would do it
that
what
I
did,
and
renDrse
about
him
I
had
no
I
told
war.
the
controversialsubjects or nry treatrEnt or rny feelings about
North
of
the
he
was
a
sympathizer
because
nEke
him
angry,
to
over againif the sanE opportunitypresenteditself.That seenEd
VletnanEse.
'The Cat" that I didn'twant any such publicity'
carE in and took a coupleof pictures.I had told
At the tirrE this happened,a photogfttpher
had broken his
So when I caryEback-the interview lasted about 15, 20 minutes-l told him I wasn't going to see another visitor because he
policy that we should not see any
word. Also at that ti|lE Capt. terernah Denton, who was runningour canp at that tin, establisheda
delegations.
he rlved in,
In March, I got a roorrrEte, cot. John Finley, Air Force. He and I lived together for approxirnatelytwo rntnths. A nonth after
,The cat,.told rrE I was going to see another delegation. I refused and was forced to sit on a stool in the "Heartbrcak"courtyard arca for
three days and nights. Then I was sent back to nry room.
that they called
The pressurecontinued on us to see antiwar delegations.By early in lune I was rnovedaway from ColonelFinley to a room
very hot'
was
very,
in
it,
and
it
ventilation
with
no
by
2
feet
prisoners.
was
6
feet
It
"Calcutta,',about SOyards away from the nearest
u/ere
Washing
facilities
was
very
ill.
I
and
dysentery.
tinEs,
Duringthe surrrEr I suffered from heat prostration a couple or three
nonexistent. Iqy food was cut down to about half rations. sorEtinEs I'd go for a day or so without eating.
All during this tinE I was taken out to interrogation and pressuredto see the antiwar people. I refused.

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FinallyI nDved in Septearber

to anotherroomwhich was back in the canp but separdtedfrom everythingelse.That was what we called
'the Rjvierd" I stayed in there
until Decenber, 1970. I had good conyrunications,because there was a door facing the outside and a kind of
louvered window above it. I used to stand up on rny bucket and was able to take nry toothbrush and flash the code to other prisoners,and
they would flash back to rne.
In Decenter I nDved into 'Thunderbird,"one of the big buildingswith about 15 roon6 in it. The conyrunication was very good. We would tap
betweenroonE.I leameda lot about acoustics.You can tap-if you get the right spot on the wall-and heara guy four or five roor6 away.
Late ih Decenber,1970-about the twentieth, I guess-I was allowedto go out duringthe day with four other nEn. On ChristnEsnight we
were taken out of our room and rnoved into the "Canp LJnity"area, which was another part of Hoala. We had a big room, where there were
about 45 of us, nDstlyfrom'Vegas."
There were seven large roonE, usually with a concrete pedestal in the center, where we slept with 45 or 50 guys each room We had a total
of 335 Drisonersat that tinE.
There were four or five guys who were not in goodshapethat they kept separatedfrom us. The ColonelsFlynn,Wynn, Beahand Caddisalso
were kept separate. They did not ryDvein with us at that tinE.
Our "den fibther" was 'The Bug" again, rruch to our displeasure.He rnadelife very difficult for us. He wouldn't let us have nEetings of nDre
than three peooleat one tinE.
They were afraid we were going to set up political indoctrination.They wouldn't let us have church service. 'The Bug,'wouldnot recognize
our senior office/s rank. This is one thing that they did right up until the end, till the day we left. If they had worked through our senio6,
they would have gotten co-operationout of us. This was a big sourceof iritation allthe tinE.
i. ,archof 1971the seniorofficersdecidedthat we would have a showdownover church.This was ah irportant issuefor us. It also was a
good one to fight them on. We went aheadand held church.The nEn that were conductingthe servicewere taken out of the room
inrrEdiately.We beganto sing hyrms in loud voicesand'The Star-Spangled
Banner.',
The "gook" thought it was a riot situation.They broughtin the ropesand were prdcticingjudo holdsand that kind of stuff. After about a
week or two they started takingth senjorofficersout of our roomand puttingthem over in anotherbuilding.
t-ater in March they canE in and took three or four of us out of every one of the seven roonE until they qot 36 of us out. We were put in a
cafip !!e called 'skid Row,"a punishnEnt canp. We stayed there from lvlarchuntil August, when we carE back for about four week
becauseof floodingconditionsaroundHanoi,and then we went back out againuntil Novernber.
They didn't treat us badly there. The guards had pemission to knock us around if we were unruly. However, they did not have perrrissionto
start torturing us for propagandastaterEnts. The roor6 were very snEll, about 6 feet by 4 feet, and we were in solitary again, The npst
unpleasantthing about it was thinking of all our friends living in a big room together. But conpared with '69 and before, it was a piece of
cake.
The great advantageto livingin a biq roomis that way only a coupleor thrce quys out of the group have to deal with the 'gooks."when
you're livinq by yourself, then you've got to deal with them all the tinE. You always have sor fiqht with them. Maybe vou're allowed 1s
ninutes to bathe, and the "gook" will say in five ninutes you've got to go back. So you have an argunEnt with him, and he lock you in your
roomso you don't get to bathe for a week. But when you'rein a biq roomwith others,you can stay out of contact with them and it's a lot
r

Dleasant.

Allthroughthis period,the 'gooks"were borrbardingus with antiwarquotesfrom peoplein high placesback in washinqton.This was the
rmst effectiveprcpaqanda
they had to use againstus-speechesand statenEntsby rEn who were generdllyrespectedin the United
States.
They usedSenatorFulbrighta great deal, and SenatorEkooke,
Ted l<ennedy
was quoted againand aqain,as was AverellHarrinEn.Clark
Cliffordwas another favorite, right after he had been Secretary of Defenseunder presidentJohnson.
When RanEeyClarkcanE over they thought that was a great coup for their cause.
The big furor over releaseof the Pentagon pape6 was a trenEndous boost for Hanoi. It was advanced as proof of the "black inperialist
schenEs"that they had beentalkingabout allthose years.
In Novenber of 1971 we carE back from "Skid Row," and they put us in one of the big roonE again in the rmin Hoala prisonarea. This was
'Carp unity." Fromthat tinE
on we pretty rruch stayed as a groupwith son other peoplewho were broughtin later. We endedup with
about 40 nEn in there.
ln May, !972, when the U. s. bonbingstarted againIn eamest,they nDved alrnostall the junior officersup to a carp nearthe china
border, leavingthe senior officers and our group behind. That was when PresidentNixonannouncedthe resurption of the bonbtnq of North
Vietnam and the nining of the ports.
"Dogpatch"was the nanE of the canp near the border.I think they were afraidthat Hanoiwould be hit, and with all of us togetherin one
carYpone bonb could have wiped us out. At this tinE, the "gook" got a little bit rougher. They once took a guy out of our room and beat
him up very badly, This rnan had rnadea flag on the back of another rnan'sshirt, He was a fine young nEn by the nanE of f,likeChristian.
They just poundedthe hellout of him right outsideof our roomand then carriedhim a few feet and then poundedhim againand pounded
him all the way acrossthe courtyard,bustedone of his eardrunEand bustedhis ribs, It was to be a lessonfor us all
"IWas Down to lO5 Pounds"
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JohnMccain, Prisonerof war: A First-personAccount- US Ner,rsand

worrd Report
Asidefr'nn bad situationsnow and theh, 1971and 1972was a sod
of coastinqperiod.The reasonwhy you see our rEn jn such good
conditiontoday is that the food and everythinggenerdllyirproved.
For exarpre,in rate ,69 I was down to 105, 110 pounds,
boilsall over
nE' suffering dysentery. we started getting packages with
vitanins jn thenFabout one package a year. we were abte
quite a
to
exercise
bjt in our rcoryEand nEnagedto get back in a lot better health.

My healthhas inprovedradicallvln fact, I think I'm in better physical

shapethan I was when I got shot down. I can do 4s push-Ljps
and a
couplehundredsit_ups Anotherbeautifulthing about exercise:
It fiEkesyou tired and you can sleep.and when you.reasreepyou,re
not
there, you know.I usedto try to exerciseallthe tinE.
FinallycanE the day I'll never forget-the eighteehth of Decenber,
1972. The whole place explodedwhen the christrnas bonblng
ordered by
PresidentNixonbegan. They hit Hanoi right off the bat,
It was the rnost spectacularshow I'll ever see. By then we
had large windows in our rcon'. These had been coverec,with
banboo nEts, but
in october' 1972'they took them down. we had about a
12o-degreeview of the sky, and, of course,at night you can
see
a, the flashes.
The borbs were droppingso close that the buildingwould
shake. The SAM,s[surface_to_airfiissilesJ ,,wereflying alt
over
and
the sirens
were whining-it was really a wild scene. when a 8.52
would get hjt-they're up at nDre than 3o,o0o feet-it would
tight
up
the
whole sky.
There would be a red qlow that alnbst nEde it like daylight,
ahd it would last for a long nE, because theyd fall a |ong
way.
we knew at that tinE that unless sorthing very forceful
lvas done that we were never going to get out of there. we
had sat there for
31/2 years tilith no borrblng goinq on--Novernberof '68 to
May of '72. we were fully aware that the only way that we
were
ever gorngto get
out was for oul GovemnEnt to tum the screws on Hahoi.
so we were very happy.we were cheeringand hollering.
The'gook" didn'tlikethat at all, but we didn,tgjve a darm
about that. It was
r' ious to us that negotiation was not goinq
to settle the problem.The only reason why the North vietnafiEse
began
negotiating in
| 'ober' 1972'was becausethey could read the pollsas
well as you and I can, and they knew ,n",
*", n""n ro nave an
overwherningvictory in his re-erection bid. so they wanted
"o""
to neg.tiate a cease-fire before the erections.
"I Admire President Nixon's Courage"
I adnire PresidentNixon'scourdge There rmy be criticism
of him in certain areas-watergate, for exarple. But he
had to take the npst
unpopulardecisionsthat I could inEgine-the rrining,
the blockade. the bonbing. I know it was very, very difficult
for
hjm to do that, but
that was the thing that endedthe war' I think the reason
he understoodthis is that he has a long backgroundin dealing
with these people.
He knows how to use the carrot and the stick. obviously,
his trip to china and the strategic AnrE Linitation Treaty
wth
Russia
were based
on the fact that we'restrohqerthanthe corrrunists,
so they weie wirlingto hegotiate.Forceis what they understand.
And
that,s
why it is
difficult for rne to understandnow, when everybody
knows that the bofibing finally got a cease-fire agrcenEnt,
peopb
why
are
stirl
cnticizing his forejgn policy-for exanple, the bonbing
in Canbodia.
Rjght after the conrrunist ret offensive ih 1968, the North
vietnanEse were ridjng high. They knew presidentJohnson
was gorngto stop the
bonbing before the 1968 elections 'The soft-soap Fairy"
told rne a nEnth before those elections that lohnson
gohg to stop the
was
borbihgs.
In lYay of 1968 I was interviewed by two North vietnanEse generdls
at separate tifiEs. Both of them said to ryE, in alrnrst
these words:
'After we liberdte
south vietnam were going to liberdte canbodia, And after carbodia
we,re goihg to Laos, and after we riberatetaos we,re
goingto liberateThailandAnd after we liberate
Thailandwe'regoingto ljberateMaraysia,
andthen Burrna.we,re goingto liberatea' of
i
heastAsia.,,
"North Vletnahese Believe 'Domino Theory.,,
They left no doubt in nry nind that it was not a question
of south vietham alone. sonE peopre,sfavorite garE is to
rcfute the ,don no
theory"'but the North vietnanEse therrEelves never tried
to refute it. They believeit. Ho chi Minh said nEny, nEny
trrEs, ,.!veare proud to
be in the front line of anrd strugqle between the socialist
canp and the u. s. inperiaiist aggressors.,,Now,this doesn.t
nEan fighting for
nationalism lt doesn't nEan fighting for an independent
south vietnam. It rEans what he said, This is what cofirrunism
is a[ about-arrned
strug9teto overthrowcapitalistcountries.
I read a lot of thelr history' They gave us propaganda
book l leamed that Ho chi [1inh was a stalinist. when Khrushchev
denouncedstalin
in the late 1950s, Minh did not go arongwith it. He was
not a ,,peacefurcoexistence,,conrrunist.
At this particularjuncture, after ret in 1968, they thought
they had the war won. They had gotten Geheralwestrncrctand
lconfiEnder of
u s forces in south vietnaml fired rhey were convinced
that they had wrecked Johnson'schances for re-erection.
And
they
thought that
they had the nEjoritv of the ArErican people on their
side. That's why these guys were speakinqvery freely as to what
their
anbitions
were, They were speakingprenEturely, Decausethey just
nisjudged the caliber of president Nixon,
go
To
back to the Decenberbornbing:Initially,the North vietnafiese
had a hellof a lot of sAM,son hand, I soon saw a lessehingin
the sAl4
activities, nEaning they nEy have used them up. Also, the
&52 bonbinqs, whlch were nbinly right around Hanoi in the first
few
days,
spreadout away fromthe city because.I think, they destroyed
all the nilitary tarqets aroundHanoi.
I don't know the nunber of 8"52 crewrEn shot down then,
becausethey only took the injuredArrEricansto our canp. The
attitude of our
nEn was good l talked to them the day before we npved
out, preparingto go horne, when they knew the agreerEnts were qoing
to be
signed l asked one younq pilot-class of '70 at west Point-"How
did your outfit feer when you were tord that the 8.52s were goinq
to bonb
Hanoi?"He said, ,,Ourrrcrdle skyrocketed,,,
I have heardthere was one &52 pilot who refusedto fly
the missionsdudngthe christrmsbonbing.you arwaysrun into
that kjnd.wheh
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JohnM ccain, Prismer of War:A First-PersonAcccunt- US Nev.6andWorld Reoort

the goir,ggets tough, they find out their conscienceis botheringthem. I want to say this to anybodyin the nilitary: If you don't know what
your country is doing,find out. And if you find you don't likewhat your country is doing,get out beforethe chipsare down.
Once you becorE a prisonerof war, then you do not have the right to dissent,becausewhat you do will be haming your country.You are
no longer speakingas an individual,you are speakingas a ryrnberof the armed forces of the United States, and you owe loyalty to the
Conrnanderin Chief, not to your own conscience. SonE of nry fellow prisonerssang a different tune, but they were a very snall ninority. I
ask nryselfif they should be prosecuted, and I don't find that easy to answer. It right destroy the very fine inEge the great nEjority of us
have brouqht back from that hellhole.RerrEnber, a handful of tumcoats after the KoreanWar made a great mjority of AnEricansthink that
rnost of the POW'Sin conflict were traitors,
If these nEn arc tried, it shouldnot be becausethey took an antiwarstance,but becausethey collabordtedwith the VietnanEseto an
extent, and that was hanrful to the other AnErican POW'S.And there is this to consider: ArrErica will have other wars to fight until the
Coffrunists qive up their doctrine of violent overthrow of our way of life. These nEn should bear sonE censure so that in future wars therc
won't be a precedentfor conductthat hurts this country.
By late lanuary of this year, we knew end of the war was near, I was rnovedthen to the "Plantation."
We were put toqetherin groupsby
the period when we were shot down. They were getting us ready to retum by groups.
By the way-a very interestingthing-after I got back, Henrylcsinger told nE that when he was in Hanoito signthe finalagreenEnts,the
North VietnanEse offered him one rnanthat he could take back to Washingtonwith hirn, and that was me. He, of course, refused, and I
thanked him very nuch for that, because I did not want to go out of order. l.4ostguys were betting that I'd be the last guy out-but you
nevercan fathomthe 'gooks."
'as January20 when we were npved to the "Plantation."
Fromthen on it was very easy-they hardlybotheredus. We were allowedout
L ray in the courtyard.But, typicalof them, we had real bad food for about two week beforewe left. Then they gave us a great big nEal
the night before we went horE.
r'

There was no speclal cererDhy when we left the carp. The Intemational Control Conrrission care in and we werc Denritted to look around
the canp. There were a lot of photogrdphersaround, but nothing fonrEl. Then we got on the buses and went to Gia Lrm Airport. My old
frlend 'The Rabbit"was there. He stood out front and said to us, "When I read your narrE off, you get on the plane and go hor|e.'
That was March 15, Up to that nbnEnt, I wouldn't allow nryself rn re than a feeling of cautious hope. We had been peaKeoup so rEny
tinEs before that I had decided that I wouldnt get excited until I shook hands with an Arnericanin uniform. That haDDenedat Ga Lam, and
then I knew it was over. There is no way I can describe how I felt as I walked toward that lJ. S. Air Force plane.
Now that I'm back, I find a lot of h.nd-wringingabout this country. I don't buy that. I think AnEricatoday is a better countrvthan the one I
left neariy six years ago.
The North VietnanEse gave us very little except bad news about the U. s. we didn't find out about the first successful nDon shot lin 1969]
until it was nEntionedin a speechby GeorgeMccovem sayingthat Nixoncouldput a r9n on the rnoon,but he couldn'tput an end to the
Vietnamwar.
They bonbarded us with the news of Maftin Luther King'sdeath and the riots that followed. lnforftEtion like that poured continuouslyout of
the loud-sDeakers.
I

rk AnEricais a better country now becausewe have beenthrougha sort of purgingprocess,a re-evaluationof ourselves.Now I see
ru'e of an appreciationof our way of life. There is rt)rc patriotism.The flag is all over the place. I hear new values being stressed-the
concem for environrEnt is a case in point.
I've received scores of lette6 from young people, and rEny of them sent nE POWbracelets with rny nanE on it, which thev had been
wearing.SonE were not too sure about the war, but they are stronglypatriotic,their valuesare good, and I think we will find that they are
going to grow up to be better AnEricans than rlEny of us.
This outpouringon behalf of us who were pdsonersof war is staggering,and a little enbarrassingbecause basicallywe feel that we are just
average AnErican Navy, Marineand Air Force pilots who got shot down. Anybody else in our place would have perfornEd just as well.
My own plahsfor the future are to rerEin in the Navy, if I am able to retum to flyingstatus. That dependsupon whetherthe corrective
surgery on rny arns and nry leg is successful, If I have to leave the Navy, I hope to serve the GovemnEnt in sornecapacity, prferdblyin
ForeignService for the State DeDartnEnt,
I had a lot of tinE to think over there, and canE to the conclusionthat one of the nDst inportantthings in life-along with a rmn's farilyis to rnakesonE contribution to his countrv.

See photos of lohn lYcCain'sprison cell here.

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