Ex-Pow McCain losing the support of veterans

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, May 30, 1999

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- No current candidate for president has been more celebrated for his record of military service and heroism than Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican and former Vietnam prisoner of war whose campaign has thus far been shaped by his command of national security issues.

But as he seeks the Republican nomination for president in 2000, McCain finds he can't count on a voting bloc he might have expected to own: veterans.

The problem for McCain lies in his willingness to make peace with the Vietnamese government that imprisoned and tortured him and to view Vietnam less as a former foe than as a future trading partner.

That conciliatory stance, which may win him admiration in other quarters, has antagonized the many veterans who believe it was wrong to extend diplomatic and trade ties to Vietnam before all troops missing from the war could be accounted for.

"The community is desperately divided between those who say he is a wonderful, honorable man and those who say he is a traitor to his country and a traitor to those he left behind," said Mary Schantag of the POW Network, a Missouri-based group that seeks to provide resources and support for families of those still missing in Vietnam.

Certainly, that division of opinion is alive in the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans' organization, where McCain has been viewed as an uncertain ally ever since he led the fight to normalize ties with Vietnam.

"It would have been nice if the senator had agreed with us and worked with us," said Phil Budahn, spokesman for the American Legion, which has 2.8 million members.

The Legion and many other veterans' groups say that by opening diplomatic ties with Vietnam the United States lost what leverage it had to press for return of missing service members and of soldiers' remains.

McCain said he respects the views of the veterans who disagree with him and sympathizes with families of the missing soldiers. But his position remains unchanged.

"Long ago I learned that you have to do the right thing," he said in an interview. "I was convinced that reconciliation and healing from the Vietnam War was my number one priority, and part of that is solving as much as possible the POW-MIA issue."

For presidential candidates, veterans can be a potent political force. They are often well-organized in big cities and small towns throughout the country, providing a large pool of volunteers. Their presence at campaign events, with medals on display, can give credibility to a political candidate seeking the title of commander-in-chief. Of the 13 presidential candidates in the 2000 race, only McCain, Vice President Al Gore, and Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire are Vietnam veterans.

Unfortunately for McCain's campaign, many among the hundreds of veterans organizations are still intently focused on finding those missing in action or bringing home their remains. From the Vietnam War, there are still 2,061 Americans unaccounted for, according to the Defense Department.

"He hasn't been overly supportive," said John S. Edwards, chairman of American Ex-Prisoners of War, referring to McCain, who believes the search for the missing is essentially over.

Edwards's characterization is milder than many. Even among those who admire McCain for enduring 5 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp under inhumane conditions, some go so far as to question his patriotism for pushing to normalize relations with Vietnam.

Schantag said many families of POWs believe McCain should have insisted that Vietnam provide something in exchange. "He's willing to give them all the concessions in the world for nothing," she said. "That's a tough pill to swallow for some family members who are desperate."

Other major veterans' groups are not nearly so harsh, even if their characterizations of McCain tend toward the tactful or tepid. The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, with nearly 2 million members, has no quarrel with McCain on any veterans' issue. In fact, the VFW worked with McCain last year to get hardship duty pay for troops currently searching for American remains in Vietnam.

"I know that some veterans groups do have a problem with Senator McCain," said Bruce R. Harder, director of national security and foreign affairs for the VFW. "We do not. . . . We don't agree with those who say he's a traitor."

Of the eight senators who are Vietnam veterans, six, including McCain, voted to normalize relations with Vietnam. He and Senator John F. Kerry took the lead in pushing the issue through Congress in 1994, working with President Clinton. They argued that normalizing relations would help, not hinder, the search for missing Americans.

That argument did not sway opponents. In 1996, some veterans and their organizations let Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole know that they would be unable to support him against President Clinton if he chose McCain as his running mate, sources close to the Dole campaign said.

Kerry, a Democrat, still gets upset when he recalls the vitriol that McCain has endured from some veterans.

"I thought the criticism of Senator McCain was so far off target and so far off the wall that it was insulting and insensitive to where he comes from and what he stands for," said Kerry, who is also a decorated naval officer and Vietnam veteran.

Provoking controversy in unexpected quarters is hardly out of character for McCain; indeed, it is his trademark.

The senator, a former naval aviator and a graduate of the US Naval Academy, has always been willing to embrace unpopular positions during his years in Congress. For example, he is a champion of campaign-finance legislation, despite the opposition of his party and of key interest groups, such as the National Right to Life Committee and the National Rifle Association.

During a recent day of campaigning here that included Memorial Day services at Manchester's Central High School and Memorial Day parades in Amherst and Sunapee, McCain said he believes that Vietnam is cooperating fully when it comes to finding and returning American remains. And he said he is skeptical that there are any Americans being held in Vietnam against their will.

"There is no evidence that there are Americans alive that is in any way compelling," he said.

Since the last American forces left Vietnam in 1975, only one American, Marine Private First Class Robert Garwood, has returned from Vietnam alive, and he was court-martialed for desertion and collaborating with the enemy.

McCain also believes that some people are making money from the suffering of families still hoping to find a relative after so many years.

"Every time someone has alleged there is an American alive somewhere and we pursued it, we found out it was a fabricated piece of evidence that is cruel in the extreme to the families and loved ones of those missing in action," he said.

McCain said he remembers being called off the Senate floor one afternoon to meet with a man whose father had been missing for years. The family had been given what was purported to be a photo of the father taken recently in Vietnam.

"The son said to me, 'Senator McCain, why are you keeping my father from coming home,' and starts crying," McCain said.

"We found out, guess what, this picture was of three Russian farmers in a Russian magazine," McCain said. "There's somebody intentionally manufacturing this, for what reason?"

At Central High School Friday, McCain was the honored guest at the annual Memorial Day ceremony, complete with a Marine Corps honor guard and a wreath to commemorate those who died in past conflicts.

The young Marines jockeyed to have their pictures taken with McCain. A teacher asked him about America's role in the Kosovo situation. Students clustered around, hoping to shake his hand.

To the side, Lionel LeBlanc, a retired member of the US Air Force and a 1943 graduate of Central High, took in the commotion. Asked his view of the senator, LeBlanc at first said only that McCain is doing a good job as senator. Then he added that he doesn't believe the United States should have normalized relations with Vietnam and that he doesn't believe the United States should send ground troops to Kosovo, two positions strongly held by McCain.

"I can't understand why he was so nice to the North Vietnamese," LeBlanc said. "They almost disemboweled him."