Part 2
[Editor’s Note: Here is the concluding installment of an essay that Maj. Mark A. Smith, U.S. Army (ret.), himself a former Prisoner of War, wrote in 1999, before Sen. John McCain’s first run for the White House in 2000. See Part 1, “Why I Cannot Support Sen. McCain for President,” Feb. 22, in Op-Ed.]
The reason I cannot support Sen. John McCain is simple.
His life in prison, his supposed expertise on Asia and MIAs, his knowledge of even who the longest-held POW of the Vietnam war is, are all based on myth.
The nation cannot tolerate, in its highest office, another myth. What this nation needs is a real man. A leader of men, whose past accomplishments are based on pure, unadulterated fact. I am sad to report, as the above details, Sen. John S. McCain does not fit the bill.
I feel terrible to place myself in opposition to many of my fellow returned POWs, and that includes John McCain.
Each of those who did the best they could remain in my heart, on my mind and in my prayers, always.
How professional soldiers, sailors, Marines airmen and draftees will deal with falling into the hands of the enemy in the future must be based on historical facts and not carefully constructed myths. The leadership in Hanoi, in those terrible prisons, might have felt compelled to forgive. That was their right to do.
It Was Not Their Job
It was not in their purview to forget and allow people who had stumbled ethically and morally in the prisons, to assume the pristine cloak of honorable warrior.
Some, like John, have become so falsely frocked they feel they have the right, if not the duty, to sit in judgment of other POWs. No person of such moral attitudes can be allowed to serve as President and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
The above is not written to damn pilots.
Without them, I, for one, would not be alive today.
The courage and determination of most in the face of the most brutal anti-aircraft threat environment in history, is the stuff of legend.
Heroism in the prisons of Southeast Asia knew no single branch of service or position upon capture as its home. As on the battlefield itself, a man’s own personality will be a far greater determinant of his performance than any school he ever attended or whether he drove or walked to the war. The prisons were full of heroes of all branches, and if that is to be a prerequisite for President, John McCain must stand in line behind many people, more qualified than he was or will ever be.
How Could You Know?
Recently, Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, U. S. Marine Corp. (ret.), has come forward to champion Sen. McCain and to condemn Larry Stark, Mike Benge and myself for not supporting John McCain for President. One of his comments was that we were not there and did not know John McCain in prison.
I can read, and if you give an interview in prison to a Communist publication, detailing the accident aboard your ship, the state of morale, a description of the chain of command and other details, you have not given a “propaganda statement.” You have given military intelligence.
As far as my not knowing Sen. McCain in prison, what Orson Swindle says is absolutely true. I was in Cambodia, but I had to read the statements of McCain and listen to the daily statements over “The Voice of Vietnam” of “highly trained pilots” who were not being tortured in 1972 to “make them talk.”
They did not hear me, and they did not hear the voice of Robert Garwood. But, McCain and the others have no problem attacking him and continuing to accuse him of things a court of law acquitted him of doing.
So much for knowing those of whom we speak.
I Was Busy, Too
Every year Swindle and McCain spent in Hanoi, I spent on the battlefields of Southeast Asia fighting.
Not sorting socks but fighting.
Then I spent 10 months in a hole, chained after being wounded 38 times. I detested the winning damnation of my President and my country, by men, most of whom had not been tortured since 1969.
I, like Orson Swindle, detest people who pontificate on things they know nothing about.
That is why I cannot support John McCain.
He knows nothing about MIAs or the battlefields of Southeast Asia in general. Yet, he set himself up as the “expert.”
He never knew Garwood, but, he set himself up to be his persecutor.
“Honor?”
I will support no member of the “Keating Five” for President of the United States.
Please don’t tell me he gave the dirty money back. The question of character is based on if he took it to begin with.
About Suicide
Lastly, if what is being put on the internet about John twice attempting suicide in Hanoi, and he has detailed that in his upcoming book, I sadly would have another reason not to support him.
I hope and pray he has not said this in his book.
The pressure of the Presidency outstrip anything Sen. McCain endured in Hanoi.
If we returned POWs are so full of ourselves, we don't realize this, we are in bad shape.
I suppose it all boils down to simple truth. Unlike some others, the most important things that I am most proud of did not take place in a prison camp in Cambodia.
My high points were on battlefields across all of Southeast Asia. I was there when most of my fellow POWs arrived on the scene, and the last thing I would wish to be remembered for is that I was captured by my hated enemy. Once that happened, I treated them with the same disdain I did on the battlefield. I would not give them the satisfaction of breaking my spirit nor would I attempt to end my life and allow them to know they had killed me.
Learning to Take the Worst
Frankly, if I hear another pilot/POW expound on his expertise on Southeast Asia, I may become ill.
We learned one thing in the prisons of Southeast Asia, and that was how to endure.
Of that we can be proud.
However, if I had to endure your propaganda and winning after 1969 I will not support you for any office. If you arrogantly stand up and damn another POW, of whatever rank, you better not have ever stumbled yourself. I had to listen to too many but, they never heard me. That allows me to take the stand I have taken.
Copyright 1999, by Mark A. Smith, Major, U.S. Army (ret.), who served in Vietnam and Cambodia. He was a Prisoner of War.
