In ’74 Thesis, The Seeds Of McCain’s War Views

From The New York Times:

About a year after his release from a North Vietnamese prison camp, Cmdr. John S. McCain III sat down to address one of the most vexing questions confronting his fellow prisoners: Why did some choose to collaborate with the North Vietnamese?

Mr. McCain blamed American politics.

“The biggest factor in a man’s ability to perform credibly as a prisoner of war is a strong belief in the correctness of his nation’s foreign policy,” Mr. McCain wrote in a 1974 essay submitted to the National War College and never released to the public. Prisoners who questioned “the legality of the war” were “extremely easy marks for Communist propaganda,” he wrote.

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My Comment: John McCain is not the man that he was 35 years ago. I know that I am not. He wrote an essay that I am sure that when he rereads it .... there will be many parts that he would still agree with, and many parts that he will not.

Enemies, combatants, victims .... when a long period of time has passed the emotions and feelings changed. My father fought against the Germans in World War II for 4 years, in the end he and many others forgave the German people for what they did. I am sure that John McCain is no different.