RSS Feed MenuArguably, the most interesting “human” story unfolding in the U.S. is the revival of an old canard that John McCain is not the heroic survivor of Vietnamese prison camps, but one who sold out his comrades.
Allegations are not new that he campaigned against investigations and disclosures that the U.S. abandoned missing prisoners at the end of the Vietnam War, but the reports had no traction and were largely ignored.
That they have arisen again, seems largely because McCain is in a serious fight to retain the Arizona Senate Seat that he’s held since 1986. The threat is not from a Democratic contender, but from the right — ultra-conservative J.D. Hayworth whom admirers describe as a “patriotic immigration reformer,” and critics call “one of the ten dumbest members of Congress.”
Hayworth is challenging for McCain’s Senate seat after losing his own seat in the House of Representatives. By all accounts, Hayworth is something of a blowhard, who put his wife on the government payroll when he was in office. A McCain campaign video has Hayworth saying America never “formally” declared war on Germany in WWII, juxta-positioned with a newsreel of President Roosevelt declaring war on Germany.
Leading the attack on McCain is the VDare.com website, run by Peter Brimelow, who argues: “Might MIA Issue Finally Finish McCain in Arizona?” Brimelow clearly hopes it does, mainly because McCain is seen as soft on immigration which Brimelow and others see as America’s greatest threat.
Brimelow says that McCain, in his bid to secure the Republican nomination, is in “a desperate primary battle” and has done “a much-derided, vertigo-inducing, 180-degree turn on illegal immigration (from Mexico) and the need for a border fence.”
The only chance Hayworth has of unseating McCain is if the present primary rules change. If Arizona drops its “open primaries” and rules that only registered party members can chose the Republican candidate, the aggressive, conservative Tea Party movement could well oust McCain for Hayworth.
If the present “open primary” prevails, independents will assure McCain of his seat, especially since native Americans — Hopi and Navajo Indians — solidly support him.
That a genuine American hero like McCain is once again suspect by rightwing sources, is disturbing to many. Ron Unz, publisher of The American Conservative is reprinted by VDare.com, opining that McCain’s “much-touted POW record will boomerang just like John Kerry’s Swift Boat service” (in the Vietnam War) eventually undermined Kerry’s claims of heroism.
Unz says “hundreds of American POWs had been condemned to death at enemy hands by top American leaders” after the Vietnam War because they’d be “a major political embarrassment” if brought home after decades of cover-ups.
McCain is accused of being part of the cover-up. This is also the theme of Sydney Schanberg, whose Killing Fields book about genocide in Cambodia won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Academy Award movie. Schanberg is described as “one of America’s foremost Vietnam War journalists” with unmatched credibility.
If missing POWs were abandoned after the war, it would constitute an “act of monumental treachery” and McCain’s participation in official denials would be unforgiveable. McCain’s reluctance to raise false hopes among relatives of the missing is dismissed as part of the cover-up. Some 591 POWs were released by Hanoi after the war – including McCain – while some 600 are unaccounted for.
McCain’s observation that there is “some evidence though no proof,” that Hanoi might have held back some POWs, is rejected by Schanberg: “No one could meet McCain’s standard of proof as long as he is leading a government crusade to keep the truth buried.”
By way of response, Schanberg has a dubious record as a reporter. As the only Western journalist in Cambodia after its collapse, he initially didn’t believe reports of Khmer Rouge genocide. “It is difficult to believe how their (Cambodian) lives could be anything but better with the Americans gone,” he wrote in the New York Times.
The Khmer Rouge killed some 2 million Cambodians – anyone educated, or who wore glasses, read books, etc. In the midst of massacres, one Schanberg story was headed “Indochina without Americans: for most a better life.” Noting that life in Cambodia might be “hard and inflexible” under Communism, he wrote that it would be “tendentious” to forecast that a communist government might implement genocide as a national policy. So much for Schanberg’s analytical acumen.
As for McCain betraying fellow ex-POWs, the most effective rebuttal is other ex-POWs. To a man, they admire his refusal to be released early because his father and grandfather were admirals. He was relentlessly tortured and abused.
By his own admission he “broke” under torture, and feels guilt to this day. For five years he remained resolute.
He’s also a man who puts country ahead of political ambitions- witness his support for the “surge” in Iraq when colleagues were urging capitulation. It is not those who endured what he endured who attack his integrity – but those who see political gain by undermining him.
Personally, I’d argue that allegations of McCain’s betrayal of fellow POWs are mindful of conspiracy theories about President Kennedy’s assassination – without substance. None of us knows, of course, but evidence is overwhelming that John McCain, human frailties and all, is a man more worthy than those who would undermine him.
TerryF98 // May 28, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I felt some sympathy for McCain during the 2000 primary. The way the Bush campaign (Rove) treated McCain was a disgrace.
However that evaporated like snow on a June day when he chose to mount the type of campaign that he did with the Wasilla half governor.
The tactics used were downright obscene. Hence all respect gone.
TerryF98 // May 28, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Sunny all I have said is in the record. If you can prove otherwise go ahead.
jimbob54 // May 28, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I don’t know what happened back in WWII, but a newsreel of Roosevelt declaring war is not evidence that the US declared war on Germany. Under the constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war.
TerryF98 // May 28, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Jimbob.
I think you stumbled into the wrong thread. Take off the tinfoil hat and try again
LauraNo // May 28, 2010 at 2:52 pm
How can anyone claim a man who changed his positions on a whim puts country first? Either you think immigration reform is necessary or you don’t, either you think the bailouts were absolutely necessary or you don’t, either you think tax cuts for the rich at a time of war is wrong, or you don’t. My best guess is his first position on an issue is the honest one but he abandons it for political expediency. And he does it at far more often than any other politician.
ottovbvs // May 28, 2010 at 3:03 pm
TerryF98 // May 28, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Jimbob.
“I think you stumbled into the wrong thread. Take off the tinfoil hat and try again ”
…….it’s hard to make Jimbo up isn’t it…….he must be wearing the tinfoil helmet today
gmckee1985 // May 28, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I’m sick of John McCain, and have no use for him after he led the GOP to a big defeat in 08. But it’s a shame there isn’t a better challenger than Hayworth.
McCain will cruise to reelection. Hopefully they’ll find someone more worthy to take over for him next time.
LFC // May 28, 2010 at 4:36 pm
LauraNo asked… How can anyone claim a man who changed his positions on a whim puts country first?
And don’t forget his view on DADT, where he said that he’d support it if the military did. Now the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs say it’s time (pending the outcome of one more study), and McCain is threatening a filibuster.
Forget his war record one way or the other. McCain is one of the most opportunistic worms in politics today, and that’s saying something.
Arch // May 28, 2010 at 5:00 pm
McCain the soldier has my respect and thanks. McCain, the man today, has largely lost my respect. But J.D. Hayworth deserves only scorn.
anniemargret // May 28, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I have no problem, indeed, nothing but admiration, for any soldier who is in combat and is imprisoned and/or tortured by the enemy . On this, I cannot and will not excoriate John McCain. He served honorably under the most difficult circumstances.
My problem is with the Vietnam vets who were allegedly left as MIAs there, and whether or not John McCain with others, were derelict in their duty to investigate and do all that they could to find them. If this is true, as some claim, then this would put a serious asterick next to Sen. McCain’s name. It would constitute a complete lack of integrity and a horrifying abandonment of men lost to war. As a person who lost my boyfriend in combat in the jungles of Vietnam, I find this allegation as serious as they come.
As far as John McCain politically, I have no use for him. While I was a supporter during my Independent days, his apparent will-o-the-wisp stances on serious subjects show a man more interested in political hay than putting his country ‘first.’ I was appalled by his willowy and milky stance on torture. First he was against it, then he bent with the political wind.
The worst abrogation was his support of Sarah Palin. She is nothing more than an overpaid political agitator, and couldn’t stand on her own without props and sound bites. To put her near the nuclear button as he almost did is chilling. I would say, sadly, his integrity took a fall, rightly, after the 2008 elections.
ktward // May 28, 2010 at 8:17 pm
McCain, the politician, has undoubtedly enjoyed better–and younger–days.
It is unquestionably an indictment of Rove/GWB campaign machinations that they managed to eviscerate an otherwise long & highly esteemed pol. In 2000, had McCain won the nom over Bush, I would have had quite the lever-pulling decision to make.
But today is today.
While McCain has a lot to rightfully answer to post ‘07—starting with Palin and continuing with abandoning the tenets of his own immigration bill—his military service isn’t part of it. One’s West Point class ranking has zero to do with one’s wherewithal under the pressures of torture and imprisonment, and every legit investigation of McCain’s POW days is long since over. Any who wish to dissect these to score political points do so at their legitimacy’s peril.
But what a horrid irony, that those who might seek to serve in our military in all their imperfect humanness might be, one day, subject to this kind of bulls**t because of that service. Appalling.
But let me add … is this not, today, a by-the-book campaign tactic of the Right?
While the Left makes plenty of campaign hay–rightfully so– over the chickenhawks, the Right shows no shame in knifing the very bravest among us– the ones that have actually shot bullets and shed blood.
What does this tell us about the Right? and their delusional self-righteous finger they unscrupulously point?
David? Peter? These are YOUR peeps. How proud you must be.
Just curious– where were you when this kind of crap was flying at Kerry?
I’m all ears.
MSheridan // May 28, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Allegations are not new that he campaigned against investigations and disclosures that the U.S. abandoned missing prisoners at the end of the Vietnam War, but the reports had no traction and were largely ignored.
That they have arisen again, seems largely because McCain is in a serious fight to retain the Arizona Senate Seat that he’s held since 1986. The threat is not from a Democratic contender, but from the right — ultra-conservative J.D. Hayworth whom admirers describe as a “patriotic immigration reformer,” and critics call “one of the ten dumbest members of Congress.”
I won’t claim that people on the left never made such claims–I’m quite sure I remember seeing several of them do so back in the day. However, to my recollection the specific allegations always had originally come from campaigns targeting him from the right and then been picked up later. I am not a fan of Senator McCain, and I don’t personally believe that war hero status is a qualification for high office, especially when it is earned for suffering rather than achievement, but I do think that during his captivity he DID do his duty and if he was broken (as he says he was) that he honorably endured to the full extent of his ability.
ShawninPHX // May 28, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I feel no pity for Senator McCain. He sat on the sidelines in 2004 when the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” lambasted Sen. Kerry’s verifiable Vietnam record. Or when Republicans chose to slam triple amputee Max Cleland as ‘un-American.’
As they say – what goes around comes around.
You chose your side. Now live with it.
anniemargret // May 28, 2010 at 11:02 pm
shawnnPHX: “I feel no pity for Senator McCain. He sat on the sidelines in 2004 when the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” lambasted Sen. Kerry’s verifiable Vietnam record. Or when Republicans chose to slam triple amputee Max Cleland as ‘un-American.’
I agree. I meant to add that to my blogpost above but glad you mentioned it. I was seriously disapppointed in John McCain, who supposedly was a friend of John Kerry’s. What they did to smear him and Cleland was nothing short of shameful. But as I noted above, when it comes to making brownie points, McCain will err on the side of infamy rather than truth…. it is a sad footnote for a man who had a great start and who had many admirers.
ShawninPHX // May 28, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Senator McCain long ago sold his soul and he deserves what he gets. I was taught that holding doors open for people; respecting others and treating people well would come back to you in life. I still think this is true.
Senator McCain has no one to blame but himself for this mess. No person should question his devotion, but I – like Senator McCain in 2002 and 2004 – will hold my tongue and not attack those who do. When you have the audacity to sit on the sidelines (while your fellow soldiers are being ambushed) then you have to pay a price. Practice what you preach, Senator. Good soldiers and honest men were thrown to the wolves and you defended their ‘right to free speech.’
And, yet, now you speak up when it’s your hide. Too little too late.
Good riddance to bad men.
BoolaBoola // May 29, 2010 at 2:23 am
McCain is a fake. He would have washed out of the Academy on three separate occasions but didn’t cos daddy was a famous admiral.
“I’m a war hero cos I crashed a plane and they tortured me!” What a loser.
He never finished saying f*ck you to the people who tortured him, that’s why he’s such a psychopath. His first impuse when he sees another person is to kill them. He has to keep restraining himself.
Sunny // May 29, 2010 at 10:13 am
Just for the record:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cleland
“The ad, which Cleland supporters claimed questioned the senator’s patriotism,[9] was removed after protests from prominent politicians including Republicans like John McCain and Chuck Hagel”
http://articles.sfgate.com/2004-08-06/news/17440104_1_swift-boat-veterans-mekong-delta-bush-and-kerry-campaigns
“Vets group attacks Kerry; McCain defends Democrat”
Try googling Ted Sampley. He’s the source of many of the first wild allegations against both Kerry and McCain — and it may well be that McCain got targeted early on (not this race) not only because he supported normalizing relations with Vietnam, but because he defended Kerry.
Sunny // May 29, 2010 at 10:41 am
Point being, that it doesn’t take all that much effort to find out if what somebody remembers about a couple of years ago matches the truth. You just have to actually care about the truth.
5/29/10 Links | HBD Books // May 29, 2010 at 1:31 pm
[...] Forum attempts to refute the McCain POW story. Against Schanberg’s eye witness reports and testimony from government [...]
PW43 // May 29, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Wow! if being wrong about something brings into question ones ability as a reporter than Peter Worthington is in trouble. Up here in Canada we know all about Worthington and fellow Canadian who headed south David Frum. They are ideologues who are wrong more often than right because they stick to their ideologies and distort the truth to fit them. Schanberg was wrong about the Khmer Rouge initially. He’s since admitted as much. Worthington was wrong about Iraq and wrong about Canada getting into Afghanistan yet he will never recognize that he was wrong.
The issue is American POW’s left behind and whether American governments since Nixon(along with politicians like McCain) have known about them but lied that none were left behind. On this question Schanberg makes a compelling case for a coverup, with McCain right in the middle of it. Worthington has made no case against the coverup allegation, except to drag out the oft used wacko conspiracy theory argument. Lazy journalism at its best. But I’ve never considered Worthington a real journalist. Reporters are suppose to seek the truth, not spin it.
athensboy // May 30, 2010 at 11:14 am
McCain was a true war hero, but today he’s a blathering,pandering idiot.I wish he’d just go away.
tequilamockingbird // Jun 1, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Well, Worthington, you’ve written a long post that makes some reasonable points. But you jumped the shark with this:
“He’s also a man who puts country ahead of political ambitions …”
That’s flat-out preposterous. Whatever he may have been at one time, he’s become a pandering, self-serving disgrace. Stick to arguing his war record, where there are legitimate differences of opinion.
jakethesnake // Jun 3, 2010 at 1:48 pm
” …other ex-POWs. To a man, they admire his refusal to be released early…”
Really? Sure enogh? ALl of them, to a man, eh? Wow. You must been pounding the phones pretty hard.