Going After McCain's War Record

A POW captured in 1967, McCain was offered release from the Hoa Lo, known more commonly as the Hanoi Hilton, due to his father, Admiral John "Smitty" McCain, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, but he rejected it.

It's not the first time that stories like this have seen people run with them, nor will it be the last time, perhaps circled around the internet amidst conspiracy theorists or those who want to believe the worst of Senator McCain. Often times they fade off into the palpably obscure, dismissed to the realm of the unbelievable just as quickly as they come out.

By Citizen Correspondent Wyatt McIntyre

Date Posted: 06/23/08

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An assault on McCain's war record? A few months ago it was feminist icon Gloria Steinem's statements on the Republican Presumptive Nominee John McCain's war record that sparked a minor media uproar when she was stumping for then Democratic Contender Hillary Clinton, implying a gender bias against women who served as part of her larger point that McCain's eight years as a Prisoner of War during the Vietnam War was relatively unimportant. Now it's a story coming from the BBC, Britain's crown corporation broadcasting company, entitled "When John McCain was my captive."

Reporting from Haiphong, Vietnam journalist Andrew Harding, one of the BBC's veteran foreign correspondents known for coverage during the early days of the US led mission to Afghanistan and the British involvement in Iraq who is now serving as an Asian correspondent, came to interview Tran Trong Duyet. The name might not perhaps be as familiar as Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the North Vietnamese Revolution to victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam or Le Duc Tho, the General who was nominated along side former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for the Paris Peace Accord that drew the drawn out conflict in South East Asia to a close before turning it down but it could be in a long, drawn out bitter election fight.

During the Vietnam War, Duyet ran the now notorious Hoa Lo Prison, known then and now by it's nickname the Hanoi Hilton, the prison that held American Prisoners of War, including then Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain.

So what makes this story one that could potentially damaging to Senator McCain? It's what Harding refers to as "Mr Duyet's propaganda-perfect version of events" that are "impossible to verify." Yet, despite slight cautionary note found after the allegations are made, Harding runs with the story.

The controversial part? Duyet's contention that Senator McCain isn't being honest about being tortured, saying that "He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election" and that "I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners."

Claims that no prisoner was tortured at the Hanoi Hilton has been the line toed by the Vietnamese government for the better part of 25 years.