Korean Job Discussion Forums

[regicide]

McCain has said repeatedly that he was afforded no special treatment while in the "Hanoi Hilton". Yet when he was first interviewed by the North Vietnamese he is shown at a hospital reserved for Vietnamese military and he was seen by Soviet Surgeons. He was drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while being interviewed. This was a far cry from the way the rest of the POWs were treated.

His wife at the time, was a member of the National League of Families and she fought to make sure that John McCain came home. He rewarded this loyalty by divorcing her after his return.

He was shot down October 26, 1967, and by November 9, 1967 he was giving interviews to foreign correspondents, providing information on his prior command, casualties and tactics, in direct violation of the Code of Conduct. (The U.S. military Code of Conduct is the definitive code specifying the responsibilities of American military personnel while in combat or captivity. Article V of the Code is very specific in ordering U.S. military personnel to avoid answering questions to the utmost of their ability and to make no oral or written statements disloyal to the United States and its allies, or harmful to their cause. Any willful violation of the Code is considered collaborating with the enemy.)

The Communist Vietnamese erected a bust of John McCain beside the lake where he was shot down. His defenders say that this is a tribute to the PAVN gunners that shot him down.

In the interview that he gave on November 9, 1967 to VNA International, he claims when he bailed out and landed in the lake, that locals pulled him out and took him to the hospital. Yet in the U.S. News and World Report - May 14, 1973. McCain is quoted as saying "I think it was on the fourth day (after being shot down) that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size of a football . . . when I saw it, I said to the guard, Ok, get the officer'...an officer came in after a few minutes. It was the man that we came to know very well as 'The Bug'. He was a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends that we had to deal with. I said, Ok, I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

While testifying before the Senate Select Committee, the very man McCain claims was responsible for his own torture, his interrogator, "The Bug" was appearing. When the moment of confrontation came, McCain rose from his seat, walked from the podium to the floor and stood face to face with the man who was responsible for torturing him and countless other Prisoners of War...McCain then grabbed the man and embraced him!

He has been a consistent advocate of lenient treatment of Vietnam.

While a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs (1991-1993) he referred to POW/MIA Family Members and POW/MIA Activists as whiners, vultures and the lunatic fringe.

Although the Senate Select Committee concluded that we left men behind, McCain crossed party lines to help lift the embargo and normalize relations with Vietnam. "It's very important for us to recognize that the war is over, ... In my view, an improvement in relations between our two countries does a whole of lot things from a practical standpoint, but it also, from a spiritual standpoint indicates that we are ready to close that chapter," McCain said. (Many POWs and families of MIAs would strongly disagree that is time to close this chapter! Improving relations with Vietnam stood to benefit the McCain�s family as they hold a large interest in the Budweiser Corporation. Surprise, surprise Bud was among the first large U.S. Corporations to enter Vietnam after relations were normalized.)

He ignored a letter from former POW, Capt. Eugene "Red" McDaniel, co-signed by 50 former POWs which asked that the embargo not be lifted and not to normalize relations and still McCain would not be swayed.

When the Missing Service Personnel Act of 1996 came on the Senate Floor for debate, Senator McCain called this bill "un-necessary" and "burdensome" even though the MSPA was sponsored by the then majority leader and the man who had considered asking John McCain to run with him, Sen. Bob Dole.

McCain managed to get the MSPA amended by removing criminal liability and several articles that were important to POW/MIA Family members.

McCain voted against campaign-finance reform in 1987/1988.. and didn't support the concept until 1990, just after the Keating story broke.

Until McCain began thinking about running for national office he was consistently anti-gay (he even spoke at a fundraiser for Oregon's anti-gay rights initiative) Now he says they are "not inclusive enough".

Keating Five Scandal
McCain received more than $112,000 in campaign contributions from one Charles Keating (including $54,000 for his Senate campaign). Between 1984 and 1986 McCain and family had vacationed at Keating's home in the Bahamas. (Keating was a corrupt owner of a savings-and-loan empire that ended up costing taxpayers $3 billion.) For these contributions Keating hoped (expected) McCain and four other senators - John Glenn, Dennis DeConcini, Alan Cranston, Donald Riegle, would protect him from federal banking regulators. After a 14 month investigation by the Ethics Committee all McCain received was a slap on the wrist for using "poor judgment"!

McCain�s Tasteless Joke
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

McCain's two-liner gives us some insight into what he considers funny (lesbianism, a young woman's physical looks), especially since this was delivered to a partisan Republican crowd. Remember, this is the same party that champions pro-family values.

That McCain had made this tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, so was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny that McCain had done anything wrong. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret. When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, noted the apology but said the joke "was too vicious to print."

Some "NO" McCain Links

RUNNING JOHN
No John in 2000 WebRing (list of sites)
POW/MIA Freedom Fighters
1992 John McCain the Manchurian Candidate
Waffle Iron Award
AII POW-MIA - FaxNetwork
John McCain
John McCain--No Hero
Hanoi Correspondent's Dispatch
Interview with McCain December 1967
Translation of Memorial at Truc Bach Lake
Sen. McCain wants to be president
The Missing Service Persons Act in the 105th Congress
U.S. Ambassador Says Vietnamese Torturers Were "Just Doing Their Jobs"
John McCain, The Dark Side
John Sidney McCain III (page has a wealth of info, including declassified FBIS reports

[igotthisguitar]

[Tiger Beer]

[stevemcgarrett]

regicide:

What, no link between McCain and Hanoi Jane Fonda? You disappoint me, Reggie. Oh, wait, I've got it! Jane secretly saw him while he was in prison and they had a romantic interlude which led to the breakup of his marriage after he confessed to his wife. Sensing his own legacy, he disassociated himself from the one person who might spill the beans and sour his aspirations for high office.

Still waiting with bated breath for you to establish some tenuous link between McCain's candidacy and the assassination of JFK.

Are you another one of those hapless Ron Paul backers on this board? That would figure, if you are.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[bucheon bum]

[bucheon bum]

[Gopher]

This reads like a desperate personal attack against a Republican candidate whose prospects are rising as we speak.

I agree that the Vietnam charge rings anachronistic and hollow. For one thing, H.W. Bush and especially Clinton normalized relations with the Vietnamese govt years ago. This culminated in W. Bush's official visit to Vietnam last November.

Normalized relations with the United States do not get any better than that. What do McCain's critics fault him for? Not promising to reverse this? Nonsense.

"Lunatic?" Look in the mirror.

[JMO]

I find it a bit galling that you question a man's treatment in a POW camp because you saw him smoking on tv.

Really Regi, you have been going even more over the edge with this and the jazz post.

[regicide]

[ultra]

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do
Luke 23:34

Then Jesus said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".
This first saying of Jesus upon the cross was Jesus' prayer for forgiveness for those who were crucifying him:
the Roman soldiers, and apparently for all others who were involved in his crucifixion.

In Matthew 5:44, Jesus exhorts his followers to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecute them.
This verse appears to reflect Jesus' teaching of unqualified love and forgiveness for all,
including those who might seem to oppose or even attack us.

[blaseblasphemener]

can you say "Swiftboat"?

[stevemcgarrett]

Gopher pointed out:

[Ya-ta Boy]

[regicide]