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http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm
(SNIP)
John McCain is, and as such, his character can and should be examined.

What is the real story behind his days as a POW? The U.S. Veteran Dispatch had an article in June of 1996 entitled "POW Songbird McCain Wrongly Described As A Hero." It recounted numerous instances where John McCain violated the Military Coda of Conduct, which specifically orders American personnel to give the enemy no information other than name, rank, serial number, and date of birth. It requires that they accept no favors from the enemy, and to make no written or oral statement disloyal to the United States.

The fact is, in exchange for better medical treatment, McCain violated this code four days after being captured on Oct. 26, 1967. In a U.S. News and World Report interview dated May 14, 1973, two months after he was released, McCain admitted that he exchanged military information in exchange for spending six weeks in a hospital normally reserve for North Vietnamese Military officers.

U.S. government records show that less than two weeks after he was taken to the hospital, Hanoi's press began quoting specific military information, including the name of the aircraft carrier on which McCain had been based, information about the location of rescue ships and the order of which his attack was supposed to take place. The records demonstrate, according to the Dispatch article that McCain continued to collaborate with the Communists after he recovered from his injuries. He did a number of propaganda broadcasts that were aimed at destroying the moral of American servicemen fighting in the jungles of South Vietnam, On June 4, 1969, a U.S. Wire Service story reported one of McCain's broadcasts.

The service reported "Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of the U.S. Commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praised medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner."

McCain committed other breaches of the Code of Conduct by meeting with and giving interviews to foreign news reporters and anti American delegations.

McCain admits to talking with numerous high-ranking North Vietnamese leaders, including General Vo Nguyen Giap, their Minister of Defense.

He also did a cozy interview over coffee, oranges, and cake wish a Cuban psychiatrist, which took place in the Hanoi office of the Committee for Foreign Cultural Relations.

He failed to "evade answering questions to the utmost of his ability;" by actually conversing with his interviewer in Spanish.

Perhaps these are some of the reasons why John McCain hip been so instrumental in discounting any suggestion that live prisoners of war still languish in Southeast Asia. It certainly does explain to me why he traveled to Hanoi in May of 1993 with soon-to-be Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson, and convinced the Communist leadership to agree that they would NEVER MAKE PUBLIC THEIR INTERROGATION FILES OF AMERICAN POWs.

It should have made him ineligible to sit in judgment of those men who still wait for freedom. I believe it clearly makes him morally unfit to ever lead this nation, to be the Commander of all our armed forces someday.

http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm

(snip)
THE DEATH OF THE MYTH OF THE HERO

Ted Sampley is a former Green Beret and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He has long been a political activist who, according to the Wilmington, NC, Morning Star, "has never shrunk from a fight, even when his allies were few and his enemies numerous..." He once even received an accolade for his reporting in the "Darts & Laurels" column of the Columbia Journalism Review, a remarkable achievement in view of his political orientation relative to theirs. Sampley, who maintains the U.S. Veteran Dispatch Web site, broke the story that the "unknown soldier" from the Vietnam War was quite well known to Army authorities and had been for years. The Army was obliged, with much embarrassment, to hand over the remains to the dead soldier's family, who had not been properly notified until Sampley blew the whistle. More recently Sampley has been exposing Sen. John McCain's intemperate, and at times vicious, attacks upon his fellow former POWs whose only "offense" would seem to be that they have tried to assist the families of American POWs who have been callously abandoned by their government to years of hellish torment. McCain has repeatedly slandered authentic war heroes such as "Red" McDaniels, whose boots he isn't fit to shine, and even had the Justice Department investigate organizations whose sole purpose was to get an accounting of the fate of family members, with a view to bringing criminal action against them. According to Sampley "He accused the activists of fraud because in some of their fund-raising literature they claimed that the U.S. government knowingly left U.S. POWs behind after the Vietnam War and that some remain alive today." The JD could find no grounds for such action, indeed they would have stirred up a hornet's nest had they brought indictments, because all indications are that the government did, in fact, knowingly leave POWs behind. Why then has Sen. McCain been so vindictive in going after these groups? What possible political benefit could he hope to gain thereby? Perhaps more to the point, why has he been so diligent in playing Little Sir Echo to the government of Vietnam by seconding every demand on their wish list? And if, as he recounted in his book, "Faith of My Fathers," his captors had strung him up by his fractured arms, causing him hours of excruciating agony, why did he hasten to embrace the Grand Inquisitor, Col. Bui Tin, on the occasion of the latter's visit to Washington to testify before a Senate committee? Surely he must have been aware that Bui Tin was responsible for the torments suffered not only by himself, but by his fellow prisoners at the "Hanoi Hilton." It is difficult to believe that the senator's great show of affection for his former tormentor was entirely genuine. Could he have been influenced by the knowledge that Col. Bui Tin was in a position to turn his interrogation records over to the committee, and had already discussed the possibility of doing just that? To characterize this man as a "war hero" seems an exaggeration, to say the least. If one examines the record it is clear that McCain had little control over the things that happened to him. Was he tortured? Yes, but so was everyone else at the Hanoi Hilton. It wasn't run like an airline -- that is, newcomers were not shown a chart of the accommodations and asked, "Which do you prefer, tortured or non-tortured?" Getting batted around by the staff was a regular part of the room service at the Hanoi Hilton. McCain implies in his book that he was singled out for "special attention" because his father was an important Navy admiral. Yet foreign press accounts published at the time indicate that it was McCain himself who called the attention of his captors to his father's important position.

One vet observed sardonically, "He [McCain] used his celebrity, his father was Adm. McCain, to gain special treatment for injuries received. Although everyone has a breaking point his was amazingly low! He has referred to POW/MIA families as "whiners and vultures, and lunatic fringe."

And that would appear to be the sticking point with many former POWs; why has McCain been so disrespectful, not to say abusive, to the families of POW/MIAs? They come to Washington in desperation, seeking help to locate their loved ones only to be subjected to a torrent of abuse by the terrible-tempered senator, who then goes so far as to sick the Justice Department on them. This sort of behavior by an elected official requires some explanation, but none has been forthcoming. (Needless to say, McCain's bootlicking toadies in the mainstream press would never dream of asking him such awkward questions). Instead we are offered boilerplate endorsements by pro-McCain veterans who, for all their impressive decorations, seem a bit shell-shocked by it all.

J. Thomas Burch Jr., chairman of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Committee in supporting George W. Bush had attacked John McCain's record on veteran's affairs, alleging that the senator had neglected legislation dealing with Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome and had done virtually nothing to assist families of POW/MIAs still missing in Vietnam. That is putting it almost too charitably -- in pushing for an investigation of "malfeasance" by MIA activists, McCain said, "The people who have done these things are not zealots in a good cause. They are the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam." Yet, when Mr. Burch suggests that the senator was not as supportive as he might have been, the whole kneejerk- liberal, mainstream media propaganda apparat goes into high dudgeon. Mr. Burch would seem to have touched a nerve. Ignoring the senator's scurrilous and unfounded allegations against the families of POW/MIAs, the McCain campaign issued the following announcement regarding charges leveled at their brave lad:

"Distinguished POWs and Medal of Honor recipients have publicly repudiated these offensive, shameful statements. Perhaps the most absurd statements came from a veteran named Tom Burch, who, while appearing with Governor Bush, said, McCain came home (from 5 years as a POW in Vietnam) and forgot us (veterans)."

Speaking of offensive, shameful statements, I wonder how McCain's flacks would characterize his statement that Navy Capt. Eugene "Red" McDaniel (Ret.) is "a fraud and a dishonorable man who preys upon the families of those still unaccounted for in the war." McDaniel, who has been characterized by journalist Monika Jensen-Stevenson as "one of the most tortured Americans in the history of war" (and who, in contrast to Sen. McCain, did not break), had committed the unpardonable offense in McCain's eyes of drafting a letter, signed by fifty of his fellow POWs, urging that our government not lift the embargo on Vietnam until they provided a full accounting of all American POW/MIAs. The McCain campaign document featured statements by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam POW, Colonel Bud Day, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) and Lieutenant Colonel Orson Swindle, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), also a Vietnam POW, who lauded McCain "for his service to our nation and to the welfare of our veterans." Don't get me wrong, the country owes a debt of gratitude to anyone who wears the Congressional Medal of Honor and to those who underwent the extreme rigors of captivity in Vietnam. While their statements are chock-a-bloc with fulsome praise of the senator and run through the usual laundry list of goodies that most any politician would offer veterans: "reforming the military health care system; improving veterans health care, and eliminating federal income taxes for military service members who are deployed or stationed overseas," etc., McCain's defenders are a little short on specifics as to why the senator invariably seemed to place the interests of Vietnam above those of American POW/MIAs. For example when the Missing Service Personnel Act of 1996 came up on the Senate Floor for debate, Senator McCain characterized this legislation as "un-necessary" and "burdensome." Nevertheless, this "unnecessary and burdensome" legislation was backed by the man who wore a POW bracelet for McCain throughout the years of his captivity, then-majority leader Bob Dole.

The McCain campaign statement cites the senator's support for "legislation requiring disclosure of classified POW/MIA information and improving accounting methods, McCain has devoted considerable time and energy to seeking the fullest possible accounting of our POW/MIAs..."

Promises, promises. How is it then that a full accounting has never been made? (In order to understand that we must read the fine print).

... and to providing that all information concerning their fate be subjected to full public scrutiny, so long as the declassification of this information does not violate the privacy of POW/MIA family members or compromise U.S. intelligence sources and methods.

Unh-hunh. Notice how the real kicker, the "compromising" of U.S. intelligence has been mixed in with "the privacy of POW/MIA family members" in order to muddy the issue. "National security" has been the last refuge all along of the scoundrels responsible for covering up the unspeakably shameful abandonment of American POWs held captive in Vietnam. And John McCain, for reasons he seems reluctant to explain, has played right along with their dirty game. It is time for the senator to stop hiding behind recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor and answer direct questions on this issue put to him on behalf of the REAL heroes he has slandered. People such as Maj. Mark Smith, former Green Beret and POW, and Capt. "Red" McDaniel. Advocates of the POW/MIA families whom the senator has viciously slandered have made the serious allegation that he has attempted to impede their every effort to get a full accounting. It is disheartening to see people of the caliber of Orson Swindle and Bud Day used in a political charade by a politician who is unwilling to confront his accusers face to face.

It is less surprising that five senators who served in the military during the Vietnam era would come to McCain's defense. The fact that four of them are Democrats is further confirmation that McCain is the Democrat's favorite Republican candidate. You can draw your own conclusions about their motives, which seem obvious enough to me.

The point of all this is that the smiling image of the senatorshown to us by the mainstream media is not the real man. So whois the real John McCain?

(snip)

http://www.uhuh.com/politics/mccain/mcainwnxs.htm