Obituary - John McCain, American politician and Vietnam veteran

Died: August 25, 2018

SENATOR John McCain, who has died aged 81 after suffering from brain cancer, was a long-serving US Senator for the Republican Party, a former presidential candidate and a decorated war hero.

He was respected on both sides of the American political divide, and internationally, for his willingness to utter views that went against the party line. He was a stern critic of the conduct and policies of President Donald Trump - including the separation of migrant children from their families which he called an affront to American democracy. It made him, in the eyes of some, a traitor to the Republican cause, and in the eyes of others, a beacon of decency and reason.

A naval aviator during the Vietnam war, he was shot down in October 1967 and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for six years. While being held in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” (Hoa Lo prison) he was tortured and subjected to beatings and prolonged solitary confinement.

The injuries he sustained affected his long-term health and prevented him achieving high rank in the military, leading him to go into politics instead. He was elected as Senator for Arizona six times.

McCain’s ambition to get ahead in politics was evident from the beginning. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but lost out to George W Bush. He finally won the endorsement of his party convention in 2008, running against Barack Obama and choosing Alaskan Senator Sarah Palin, a darling of the right-wing Tea Party movement, as his running mate. This was an attempt to counterbalance his own record of liberal opinion and broaden the campaign’s appeal. It proved fateful, with Palin parodied by press and opponents for her ignorance and poor judgment. Sen McCain never blamed Palin for the campaign failure and stressed the strength of the Obama campaign.

John McCain was no political tribalist and gained a reputation as a maverick. He blended traditional conservative positions on issues such as abortion with progressive liberal views on other matters, such as global warming. He was one of only two Republican senators to vote against the Bush tax cuts, arguing they helped the rich disproportionately, and lobbied Senate Republicans to back a blanket ban on torture during the Bush administration. He co-sponsored legislation designed to curb carbon emissions; co-sponsored a bill in February 2018 designed to pave the way to citizenship for “dreamers (undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children), against the wishes of the Trump administration; and voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. He was an advocate of Native American sovereignty.

Sen McCain was also a stern opponent of so-called pork barrel spending (the spending of federal money, lobbied for by politicians, on projects in their constituencies) and was a defender of free trade, attacking President Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs as damaging to the US economy and relations with allies. He was a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and called President Trump's joint news conference with the Russian President one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.

John McCain III, as he was known, said that his values were shaped by his relationship with, and respect for, his eminent father and grandfather. Both were four-star admirals (the highest rank achievable in the US Navy). John McCain I commanded the US Navy’s strongest aircraft carrier force during the Second World War, while John McCain Jnr, his son, commanded all US forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War.

John Sidney McCain III was born at the Coco Solo Naval Station in Panama, the second of three children.

The McCain family moved between naval bases in the United States and overseas, and the younger John was sent to boarding school at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He subsequently attended the US Naval Academy, passing out in 1958 and becoming a naval aviator in ground attack aircraft.

His bomber was hit by a surface-to-air missile over Vietnam and he ejected. The force of the ejection broke both arms and his right leg, and knocked him unconscious. He landed in a lake, entangled in his equipment, and sank, but kicked his way back to the surface, opening his life jacket with his teeth, after which he was dragged to shore by Communist North Vietnamese, who battered him in the right shoulder with a rifle butt, shattering the joint, and bayoneted him in the abdomen and foot.

He spent days being brutally interrogated, giving nothing but his name, rank and serial number, and was only given medical treatment when his captors discovered he was the son of an admiral. His right leg was operated upon but the surgeons damaged his ligaments, leaving him with a permanent limp.

John McCain refused the offer of early release given by the Vietnamese, who were seeking a PR victory. In August 1968, he was beaten every two to three hours for four days, breaking his left arm and cracking ribs, in a bid to make him confess to war crimes. On the verge of suicide, McCain agreed, reflecting later: “I felt just terrible about it… Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”

McCain was released on March 14, 1973. He was awarded a host of honours, including the Silver Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.

He was assigned as the Navy’s liaison to the US Senate in 1977 and retired from the Navy in 1981, at the rank of captain.

John McCain married Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, in 1965, becoming stepfather to her two children. The couple had a daughter, Sidney, in 1966. John McCain later had an extramarital affair with Cindy Lou Hensley, daughter of a multimillionaire beer distributor in Phoenix. He and Shepp divorced in 1980 and he married Cindy, with whom he had three children. The couple also adopted a baby girl from Bangladesh who had been orphaned and would have died without medical treatment.

After leaving the Navy, John McCain moved to Arizona and worked in his father-in-law’s business while building up political connections.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and 1984, and then to the Senate in 1986, continuing to serve until his death.

President Trump sought to undermine Sen McCain’s status as a war hero during the Republican race for the presidential candidacy in 2015 when he jeered at the idea Sen McCain had been a “war hero”. Sen McCain responded by calling on Trump to apologise to military families, especially those of POWs.

After being diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in July 2017, John McCain continued to take as full a part as possible in proceedings on Capitol Hill, often voicing the concerns of Democrats and moderate Republicans alike in his outspoken criticisms of Donald Trump.

He is survived by Cindy, his seven children and four grandchildren.

Rebecca McQuillan