McCain’s Hanoi Hilton jailor recalls ‘stubborn’ POW
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 jailors.
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,” retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet told AFP.
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 divebomber 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. His captors quickly learned McCain’s father was a navy admiral, and the young prisoner soon developed the nickname “Crown Prince”. The early years were grim.
McCain was held in solitary confinement and suffered from dysentery. For months on end, he was fed only bread and pumpkin soup. He communicated with fellow inmates by tapping codes on the thick concrete walls. In his memoirs, McCain wrote that solitary
“put me in a pretty surly mood” and that he would ward off depression by hol-
lering insults at guards. And then there were the interrogations and beatings.