It has been said by those far more knowledgeable then we here on the FR that no person can withstand real torture for very long without telling what he knows. John McCain has admitted to breaking and has expressed his shame and guilt for doing so even though no man could have done any better unless he managed to find a way to kill himself first. I thought I read somewhere that McCain once tried to do that while a prisoner and was undergoing his 5 years of torture.
I don’t recall McCain attempting suicide (you may be thinking of fellow naval aviator Jim Stockdale) but he was definitely worked over very badly, and had opportunities to make it stop that he did not take.
In his book, McCain says he was ashamed that he gave them the name of his squadron (something they certainly already knew) but when he was asked to name officers in his squadron he gave them the names of the front line of the Green Bay Packers, and they bought it.
You’re 100% correct about people breaking under the sort of torture that the guys in the Hilton were receiving. When I was at Air force basic they told us that the Hilton had reulted in a complete rewrite of what pilots were expected to do when captured, because it was certain that the enemy would take the vast majority of them beyond their point of resistance.