In land of his captivity, interest in McCain is mixed
HANOI, Vietnam — Senator John McCain’s wartime jailer thrust two fingers into the air as if he were on a campaign trail and shouted: “John McCain! My friend! Victory!”
It is a fiction he seems to revel in — the jailer who was actually the prisoner’s friend, who has watched his political career with paternal pride, and who is now hurt and offended when Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, says he was tortured by his captors.
Tran Trong Duyet, 75, was head of the guard unit at Hoa Lo prison — nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton — during Mr. McCain’s five-and-a-half-year imprisonment, which began after his bomber was shot down over the city in October 1967. Mr. Duyet presided over the neglect and torture of Mr. McCain, which was witnessed by his fellow prisoners and which left him with lasting injuries.
The experience has become a staple of Mr. McCain’s political biography, and it has given Mr. Duyet a place in a footnote of history, which he occupies with gusto.
For most Vietnamese, though, Mr. McCain’s story is an obscure artifact of a receding history. In a week of interviews around Hanoi, neither his imprisonment nor his presidential candidacy seemed to arouse much excitement.
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It is a fiction he seems to revel in — the jailer who was actually the prisoner’s friend, who has watched his political career with paternal pride, and who is now hurt and offended when Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, says he was tortured by his captors.
Tran Trong Duyet, 75, was head of the guard unit at Hoa Lo prison — nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton — during Mr. McCain’s five-and-a-half-year imprisonment, which began after his bomber was shot down over the city in October 1967. Mr. Duyet presided over the neglect and torture of Mr. McCain, which was witnessed by his fellow prisoners and which left him with lasting injuries.
The experience has become a staple of Mr. McCain’s political biography, and it has given Mr. Duyet a place in a footnote of history, which he occupies with gusto.
For most Vietnamese, though, Mr. McCain’s story is an obscure artifact of a receding history. In a week of interviews around Hanoi, neither his imprisonment nor his presidential candidacy seemed to arouse much excitement.