McCain let political ambition destroy his character to the point that many of his former friends (and POW mates), no longer wanted anything to do with him.
That is his legacy.
What pissed off a lot of former POWs I know was that McCain and Kerry wrote off any further information requests/demands of the No. Vietnamese about known POWS and suspected captured MIAs when they signed the friendship agreement with Hanoi about 1995. This also possibly included the return of the remains of those they tortured to death (some were returned as died of illnesses, wounds, etc., when they were seen alive and reasonably well when the were captured and brought into the POW camps/prisons - Lt. Ron Dodge was on the cover of LIFE magazine, alive and well in NVA hands).
Lt. Col. Wilmer N (Newt) Grubb was one of those tortured/beaten to death by the No. Vietnamese and possibly attached Cuban interrogators. One article that talked a little about his fate is “8 Years After His Death in North Vietnam, an American POW is Laid to Rest in Arlington”, NY Times, James T. Wooten, April 5, 1974 (dateline April 4th) page One, Second Section and cont. on p. 60, column 1.
I’ve been involved, on and off for the past 47 years, with POW/MIA issues including a congressional testimony and an upcoming book next year.
Kerry and McCain sold out their fellow servicemen for political, and in the case of Kerry, also ideological reasons (three times - 3 fake wounds (3 Purple Hearts and he was out of Nam in less than 4 months); he got several of his Swiftboat’s men to lie about serving with him - they didn’t; and then the agreement with No. Vietnam).
John McCain tried to live up to the McCain name re Navy service (his grandfather and father were both combat Admirals from WW2 thru Vietnam) but he just wasn’t like them. If he had stayed as a flier, things might have been different and better for his own legacy of service, but what he has done over the years on the POW/MIA issue has blackened his reputation with those to whom it mattered most, his fellow naval aviators/crews/POWs and their families.
That is why a lot of people who should be at his funeral won’t be there. That is “The Shame and the Pity” of his life.
MM: Vietnam/Cambodia research journalist, Fall 1970.
Thank you. I was searching for an accurate, concise summary of that issue.
I will never forgive him for the treatment of those POW/MIA families.
May any servicepersons who must be there turn their backs.
My POW MIA flag arrived yesterday.
I will be flying it this week
The WH should fly one