government keep information about POWs classified. He says he opposes McCain because of the senator's efforts to normalize relations with the Vietnamese communist government and because, in his view, McCain has helped the U.S. He describes his group as a one-man operation unaffiliated with any political party or campaign. Kiley, 61, of Garnerville, N.Y., who says he served in Vietnam for about a year. The man behind the flyer is Gerard "Jerry" W. "ĭay, a Medal of Honor winner who also is supporting McCain's campaign, said the flyer is "the most outrageous f- lie I've ever heard." I almost died, and the Vietnamese people saved my life. But Timberg, the biographer, said McCain deliberately used misspellings, grammatical errors and Communist jargon to show he was writing under duress: "I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. He was heroic."Īt one point, McCain broke down and signed a confession. He, like every one of us, submitted to severe torture. "John McCain never collaborated with the enemy. "We were all tortured and we wrote confessions under the pressure of torture," said Swindle, who was a cellmate with McCain and is active in his campaign. George "Bud" Day and Orson Swindle, fellow POWs, told PolitiFact that POWs sometimes were forced to talk when they were tortured, but they tried to tell lies to mislead their captors. He also gave the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line and said they were members of his squadron.Īsked to identify future targets, he mentioned North Vietnamese cities that U.S. When he was later interrogated, McCain gave his ship's name and squadron number and confirmed the target of his failed mission, he wrote. But, he wrote, "I didn't intend to keep my word." In his memoir Faith of My Fathers, McCain says that he initially offered the information because he was badly injured and afraid of dying. There is some truth to these claims, but collectively they do not prove McCain was involved in "collaborations with the enemy," as the flyer alleges. That he broke the military code because he answered questions from a Spanish psychiatrist who had apparently been cooperating with the North Vietnamese.That the Hanoi news media reported he had given information about his flight, rescue ships and the order of U.S.That he told his captors "Okay, I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.".The flyer contains 1 pages of criticisms of McCain, but only a few support the accusation that he was helping the enemy: The flyer has a caricature of a surly-looking McCain in a prison cell under the words, "Hanoi Hilton Songbird." The second page is headlined "FACT SHEET: Military Record of John Sidney McCain III" and it begins with some accurate biographical information. The flyer probably would have been ignored, but the McCain campaign issued a statement calling it "a vicious attack." The flyer was sent to about 80 media organizations in South Carolina and is posted on the group's Web site. McCain provided the North Vietnamese with anything of value," Timberg said. "I've never known of any occasion in which Sen. Robert Timberg, author of John McCain: An American Odyssey, who has interviewed many POWs who served with McCain, said there's no evidence that he ever collaborated with the North Vietnamese. Your support directly impacts our abilility to provide objective reporting on issues that matter.ĭonate to our Spring Campaign. You may not realize this, but as a nonprofit news organization, we depend on - and answer to - you.
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