John McCain during an 1973 interview with U.S. News after his release from captivity in Vietnam.
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 31, 1973, issue of U.S.News & World Report.
Commander McCain spent 5½ years as a war prisoner. Because he was the son of a top U. S. admiral, his captors made every effort to wring propaganda from him. His first-person story appeared in this magazine's May 14, 1973, issue. Now, nine months after his return, he reports on what being home has been like.
Commander McCain, what has life been like for you in the nine months since your release from prison camp in Hanoi? Was there, for example, a big letdown after the initial joy of being free?
There certainly has been no letdown. The reception that we, as prisoners of war, received was overwhelming and somewhat embarrassing, because we felt that we were just average American pilots who had been shot down. We never anticipated such a feeling of warmth. It still shows no signs of letting up.
The only thing that has been somewhat of an adjustment is the difference in the pace of living now, as compared to in prison.
There, the big event of the day usually was when it came your turn to go out of your cell to bathe. I still seem not to have enough time to do all the things that I want to do—or have to do.
Readjustment has its amusing aspects, too. The other day I was talking with some friends about a movie star I remembered and somebody said, "Why, she's dead now."
I said, "What? She can't be!" And my wife, Carol, said: "You have to excuse John. He's only caught up to 1969 so far." It's become a big family joke.
Do the memories of those long years haunt you in any way? Do you, for example, have nightmares?
No, I sleep very well. But sometimes, a little thing can bring back those days in a flash. For instance, one of the most unpleasant aspects of living in a cell is to hear the keys rattle in the door at an unusual time of day—or night—when you know it isn't routine. That usually meant you were going for interrogation, and that could often turn into a long period of no sleep, no food, or severe torture.
A couple of times recently, I've heard keys rattle at a door, and for a very brief instant I've tensed up just as I did over there. But that's very rare.
Have there been surprises—things you didn't expect or anticipate—since you have returned and picked up a normal life here in America?
In prison, I think, you become very idealistic. You get a feeling that in your country everything is perfection. Now that I'm back it disturbs me to find people so critical of our country and our way of life and our Government. I think that many Americans have a tendency to neglect the really fine things and the benefits that we have here and concentrate on the faults.
What are some of these benefits, as you see them?
One, of course, is the basic standard of living. Another is our freedom to speak out, to move around at will. I don't think in any other country, except perhaps in England, do they approach the basic freedoms that the individual has in this country.
Another surprise is the emphasis that is being made on ecology—and it's fine.
The greatest change, and, to me, the most heart-warming improvement has been in the area of equal opportunity. When I left the U.S. seven years ago, we were having riots and demonstrations in the streets. Cities were being destroyed. Now I find none of that, and I have not seen any really overt racial discrimination.
How do you account for the fact that most of the POWs have made such a good readjustment?
I think there are a number of reasons for this. The major one is that the last two years that we were there the treatment was relatively mild. If we had come out, say, in late 1969, the problems of readjustment would have been far more severe. Starting in 1971, the food improved considerably. We were allowed to be together more and set up educational programs, and work out some simple entertainment and do a lot of things for each other, to keep our minds active.
Would you have liked to see the POWs charged with collaborating brought to trial?
The decision was made by the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Army not to bring these men to trial who were charged by the senior officers among the POWs.
All of us who had knowledge of their behavior were given a hearing. Although I was in favor of their going to trial, I certainly understand and support the official decision.
But I do think that it is very important for us to consider that we have a code of conduct for American prisoners of war that must be upheld for others to follow in future wars. We were not interested in trying to get two individual officers but to have a trial that would either clear them or convict them. There has been some misconception as to why these men were charged by our senior officers. It was not because they were against the war in Vietnam.
The charges, specifically, were that they had caused great difficulty, and sometimes injury, to individual POWs and to our military organization in the camp.
When you left to fight in Vietnam in early 1967, did you have the feeling most Americans supported the war?
Yes, I did.
Were you shocked when you returned and found out that the war had become so divisive?
I was surprised at the degree of the divisiveness. Of course, the North Vietnamese told us every antiwar statement that was made by any well-known American. But we had a great tendency to disbelieve anything that the North Vietnamese had to say. And so I would say I was surprised to find out how the attitude of so many Americans had changed drastically. I don't think that the goals which we had when we entered that war changed. It was the long duration and the methods by which the war was prosecuted that changed people's minds.
Since you've been back, has this Watergate business changed your opinion of the President?
No, it hasn't changed my opinion. It has certainly made me sad that this situation should have arisen. However, I feel that in the context of history that Watergate will be a very minor item as compared with the other achievements of this Administration, particularly in the area of foreign affairs. I do hope that this country will get over Watergate and get going again on the very serious problems that we're facing today.
To return to the personal problems of readjustment, do you have an explanation for why so many POWs have separated from their wives?
I think you start with the fact that the overall divorce rate in this country is high. Divorce is no longer considered so unusual when a marriage is under strain. Next, you should realize that many of these men had been married only a short time before they left for Vietnam.
But the most basic factor in the rather large number of separations and divorces among the POW families was the long separation and the difficulty of communication between husband and wife.
Many of the wives did not know how our views about the Vietnam war and our hatred of Communism had crystallized in prison camp. And back home great forces were being brought to bear on these women by the antiwar groups that promised to get letters and packages through to their husbands—to bring them home—if only the wives would endorse the antiwar propaganda.
So, in cases that I know of personally, while a man was being tortured for refusing to make a propaganda statement, his wife had gone along with the antiwar movement back home, because she thought it was in her husband's best interests. But this created a wound that in many cases could not be healed.
Let me emphasize that there were many, many fine women who supported what they knew their husbands believed in. My wife, Carol, was one of those, and I'm very proud of her.
Commander, you mentioned the warm reception you got on your return. Are letters still coming to you?
All told, I have received more than 4,000 letters, many from those who wore my POW bracelet. About 800 came from people who read my story in your magazine [issue of May 14, 1973] and out of those only two were critical—the writers called me a fascist.
I'm still getting letters at the rate of half a dozen a day. It is simply overwhelming.
