What McCain Claims


Only two months after his release from captivity, McCain wrote a first-person account of his ordeal, published by U.S. News & World Report on May 14, 1973, in which he admitted that he was ready to aid and abet the enemy. In the first instance, he told his North Vietnamese captors: “O.K., I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital,” because he feared that the blood pooling in his leg could kill him. McCain said they initially turned down his offer but returned soon after, when they realized his father was “a big admiral,” and then took him to the hospital. In this account, McCain did not then mention what, if any, “military information” he’d given to the enemy in return. McCain later wrote in his 1999 autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, a slightly different version. The first part essentially remained the same: “Take me to the hospital and I’ll give you the information you want.” This time McCain added something he’d somehow “forgotten” to mention 26 years earlier: “I didn’t intend to keep my word, reasoning that after my injuries had been treated, I would be strong enough to deal with the consequences of not holding up my end of the bargain.” McCain then revealed the alleged content of “the military information” he had shared with the enemy:

But McCain’s comments in the four documents cited above are decidedly more extensive than simply reciting name, rank, serial number, and the lineup of the Green Bay Packers.

In his initial account, McCain had also written in the 1973 US News & World Report that he had been tortured:

In Faith of My Fathers, his signed confession became slightly more specific:

In his 2004 bestseller, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life, McCain seemed to be reflecting on his own disgrace as a POW. “Cowardice is often a secret affair. Usually no one knows of our failure,” he wrote, and “that ‘the cover-up is always worse than the crime.’” A few pages later, he revisited his ordeal in Hanoi, but provided no new information. “In prison, I was not always a match for my enemies… my courage ran out much earlier than I had expected.” Moments later, he added, “Remarkably, no more than a mere handful of us returned without our honor, having lost the courage it demanded.” The repetition of this theme was intriguing, if not telling, when, near the end of the book, McCain wrote, “Their examples [the bravest of his fellow POWs] encouraged the rest of us to resist as best we could, though my best was considerably less than theirs.” Finally, still speaking about his captivity, he seemed haunted “by the shame I felt when I didn’t measure up.”

The fact that McCain broke under pressure was understandable and forgivable, and he has repeatedly admitted his shame and remorse. But McCain seemed to be holding something back. His behavior suggested that he may not have provided the American public with a full, accurate, and detailed account of his collaboration with the enemy while a prisoner in North Vietnam.