ANOI - Shaking hands with crowds of Vietnamese, a nostalgic John McCain returned yesterday to the Hanoi lake where in 1967 he was dragged ashore and beaten after parachuting from his downed warplane.
The bitter war has yielded to reconciliation, and the Arizona senator strolled with his family around the busy shorefront of the capital's Truc Bach lake, stopping at a sidewalk memorial marking his rescue.
''I put the Vietnam War behind me a long time ago,'' McCain said upon arriving in Vietnam yesterday. ''I harbor no anger, no rancor.''
People on the street seemed to feel the same way. A crowd of Vietnamese gathered around McCain as he walked, greeting him as a friend and shaking his hand.
McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war here, is now a leading proponent of rebuilding relations with the impoverished communist nation.
Vietnam celebrates the 25th anniversary of the end of the war on Sunday, and the former presidential candidate is the most prominent of the returning US veterans.
''My job here is to commemorate the beginning and continuation of a new relationship between the United States and Vietnam,'' said McCain, who was instrumental in restoring formal ties five years ago.
Still, his schedule was filled with war reminders.
Shortly after he arrived, McCain attended a solemn airport repatriation ceremony in which an 11-person military honor guard placed six small boxes of remains, believed to be from US servicemen, into silver metal coffins.
About 50 US civilians and military personnel watched as the containers were draped with American flags and carried into the hold of a C-17 cargo plane heading to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii for forensic analysis.
The remains were recovered this year as part of the ongoing American effort to account for more than 2,000 servicemen missing in Indochina, including about 1,500 in Vietnam.
Several hours later, McCain took his wife, Cindy, and son Jack on a walk along the bustling sidewalk that borders the lake, and briefly recounted the downing of his plane during a bombing mission Oct. 26, 1967.
''Everything happened very quickly,'' he said. ''I broke both my arms and a leg, and I was dragged ashore, and I was beaten.''
Did he think he would survive?
''I wasn't sure. In a situation like that, you never know,'' he said.
Tomorrow, McCain will visit Hoa Lo Prison - the ''Hanoi Hilton,'' as POWs called it, where he spent his years in captivity. He has said his hardships there included beatings, a lack of proper medical treatment for injuries, and a total of three years in solitary confinement for what his captors called a ''bad attitude.''
He twice tried to hang himself, using his shirt as a noose, but was caught both times by the guards, who then beat him.
''I couldn't control my despair,'' McCain wrote in his autobiography. ''All my pride was lost, and I doubted I would ever stand up to any man again. Nothing could save me.''
McCain, who visited the prison on a previous trip, recalled his time in captivity. ''I had the privilege of serving in the company of heroes,'' he said. ''I observed a thousand acts of courage, compassion, and love and I will always treasure that memory above all others.''
Most of the prison was torn down in 1993 to make way for Hanoi Towers, an upscale office complex and hotel in central Hanoi. One wing of the faded yellow fortress was preserved and opened as a museum three years ago.
One cell is devoted to the 300 American prisoners and includes a photo of a young McCain with several days' beard stubble. The Vietnamese have a rather different view of the men's life in captivity.
''Though having committed untold crimes on our people, American pilots suffered no revenge once they were captured and detained,'' the exhibit says. ''Instead, they were well-treated with adequate food, clothing, and shelter.''
The Vietnamese government has in the past rankled at McCain's accounts of his time in captivity, denying his allegations of torture at the hands of prison guards.
