CORONADO, Calif. -- I am not surprised by reports that Senator John McCain's politicalenemies have been spreading rumors that his famous temper is a sign of a broader"instability" caused by his imprisonment in Vietnam.

In fact, a few weeks ago I received a call from an old friend who is also close to theGeorge W. Bush campaign soliciting comments on Mr. McCain's "weaknesses." As Itold that caller, I think John McCain is solid as a rock.

And I consider it blasphemy to smudge the straight-arrow prisoner-of-war record of aman who was near death when he arrived at Hoa Loa prison 1967: both arms broken, left legbroken, left shoulder broken by a civilian with a rifle butt.

He was eventually taken to the same rat-infested hospital room I had occupied two yearsearlier, and, like me, he had surgery on his leg. By then the Vietnamese had discoveredthat his father was the ranking admiral in the Pacific Fleet, and he received an offerthat, as far as I know, was made to no other American prisoner: immediate release, nostrings attached. He refused, thereby sentencing himself to four more years in a cell.

Quoted:

He then parlayed those experiences into a lucrative career rife with graft and betrayal, crowing on about moral authority all the while.  Fuck his hell-burning ass.

John McCain in the Crucible

By JAMES B. STOCKDALE

CORONADO, Calif. -- I am not surprised by reports that Senator John McCain's politicalenemies have been spreading rumors that his famous temper is a sign of a broader"instability" caused by his imprisonment in Vietnam.

In fact, a few weeks ago I received a call from an old friend who is also close to theGeorge W. Bush campaign soliciting comments on Mr. McCain's "weaknesses." As Itold that caller, I think John McCain is solid as a rock.

And I consider it blasphemy to smudge the straight-arrow prisoner-of-war record of aman who was near death when he arrived at Hoa Loa prison 1967: both arms broken, left legbroken, left shoulder broken by a civilian with a rifle butt.

He was eventually taken to the same rat-infested hospital room I had occupied two yearsearlier, and, like me, he had surgery on his leg. By then the Vietnamese had discoveredthat his father was the ranking admiral in the Pacific Fleet, and he received an offerthat, as far as I know, was made to no other American prisoner: immediate release, nostrings attached. He refused, thereby sentencing himself to four more years in a cell.

There was a special cramped and hot privy-like structure in that Hanoi prison reservedfor whichever American was causing the Vietnamese the most trouble. I was the first in thecamp to be locked up in it, and I gave it the name Calcutta.

There was only room for one person at a time in the cage, and after a couple of monthsI was taken out and marched back to a regular cell. As I limped along, I sneaked a peek atmy replacement: John McCain, hobbling along on his own bad leg.

As one of the few Americans who spent more than four years in solitary confinementduring that war, I know that pride and self-respect lead to aggressiveness, andaggressiveness leads to a deep sense of joy when one is under pressure. This is hardly acharacter flaw.

The military psychiatrists who periodically examine former prisoners of war have foundthat the more resistant a man was to harsh treatment, the more emotionally stable he islikely to become later in life.

The troublemakers who endured long stretches in solitary, the men we called the tigers,are for the most part more in tune with themselves now than are those who chose the easierpath of nonconfrontation, which made them "deserving" of cell mates. Thepsychiatrists tell us that many of those prisoners who chose a more docile existencemissed out on the joy of "getting even" after release; some look back on theirperformances with regret.

The psychiatrists have it partly right, but the truth of imprisonment is best learnedfrom the writings of men who have spent a lot of time in cells, like Dostoyevsky,Cervantes and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The last described his feeling of high-mindedness inhis gulag writings:

"And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed withinmyself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the lineseparating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor betweenpolitical parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all humanhearts. . . .

And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to theastonishment of those about me: 'Bless you, prison!' "

I understand that, and so does John McCain.

Quoted:
A lot of American servicemen have been captured in battle in this country's history. McCain is the only one I can think of who built a specious political career out of it.