As our attention goes to the Republican contender, McCain should be used to such unfair practices more than others – since his failed campaign in 2000 none other candidate has fallen victim to such a number of unfair accusations. Eight years ago, when the Arizona senator was considered as a man who can cripple the career of the young fGeorge Bush, supported by the Republican power elites, the smear campaign around him included claims about his homosexuality, his wife’s drug addiction, black child out of wedlock and cooperation with North Vietnamese regime during his years as a POW. Those days it proved to be successful. Now, as Bush’s days are coming to an end, the presumptive Republican nominee is free from ruthless besmirching as the one done by his party colleagues back then.
John McCain lying in hospital bed in Hanoi (1967)
With one exception, though. The Manchurian Candidate hypothesis was on the table during the previous attacks on McCain and now it resurfaced. In a flyer distributed by otherwise unknown Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, just days before the South Carolina primaries, potential voters could find information that McCain was keen on releasing classified information to his Vietnamese captors in exchange for lighter treatment – to such a degree he was allegedly called by fellow prisoners “Hanoi Hilton Songbird” (“Hanoi Hilton” was a nickname sarcastically given by the POWs to a military prison in North Vietnam’s capital). However, the actual statements given by McCain’s cellmates prove the opposite. The senator released to the Vietnamese only the minimal amount of information, such as his name and name of his unit, which is allowed by the Geneva Conventions and the Code of the U.S. Fighting Force. Due to high position of his father, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command , McCain was offered an earlier parole in exchange for public condem nation of the war, which would have been great propaganda trick for Vietnam, but refused, fearing to break the code.
The man behind the organization is one Jerry W. Kiley, also the Vietnam veteran, who holds McCain responsible for sacrificing the lives of the POWs left in Vietnam after American withdrawal in exchange for normalization of Washington-Hanoi relations. Kiley refers to the bipartisan trip made by senators McCain and Kerry (against whom he also campaigned) to Hanoi where they investigated the possibility of American POWs remaining in Vietnam long after the cessation of hostilities. The hypotheses about American soldiers improsoned in Vietnamese secret facilities (one of which is said to be located right under Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum) have been never ultimately disproved, but the trip found nothing to support them and helped to reestablish contacts between two countries. The senators might have omitted some details for the sake of political profit but suggesting one of them is traitor because of that seems a little overblown.
John McCain in Iraq
Other accusations are much more based on facts and at least they refer to the candidate's actual actions and statements, not hypotheses about his origin and secret identity. One of the favorite topics for McCain-bashers is Iraq. One of the Democratic National Committee web ads featured several clips of Republican candidate speaking about the situation in the Gulf and implied McCain has no clear vision of withdrawal and has nothing against prolonged occupation – perhaps even as long as 100 years. Another ad, prepared by VoteVets.org asserts McCain would like to remain in Iraq indefinitely, even without the consent of Iraqi government. It’s true the Republican nominee did not announced the specific date of withdrawal and probably does not have one on his mind. Nevertheless, in his public statements he promotes the idea of a great reduction of troops during the next few years (if, of course, the conditions will allow it). In his major policy speech from May, outlining the vision of his presidential term McCain predicts if he will be elected the U.S. soldiers come back home at 2013.
The American military presence in Iraq will be maintained but in a greatly reduced number and not as an occupation force. U.S. garrisons will serve as a factor guarantying stability in the region and preventing future conflicts, much like the troops stationed in South Korea, Japan and other parts of the world. This was the vision described by John McCain when he said about the possibility of stationing soldiers in Iraq from 50 to 100 years and it probably does not have to equal the prolonged war. As for the consent of Iraqi government, McCain takes it for granted, as he mentioned in the recent CNN interview and does not imagine the possibility of a sudden change of attitude but this not yet automatically implies he would keep troops against the wishes of Iraqis.
Maciej Józefowicz
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