Veteran's Group Attacks McCain's War Record

A mailer has been sent to South Carolina newspaper editors assailing John McCain's war record:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Supporters of Republican John McCain on Tuesday assailed a mailer sent to state newspaper editors claiming he sold out fellow POWs to get better treatment while held prisoner in Vietnam.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I know because I was there," Orson Swindle, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former prisoner of war, said in a statement about the mailing from Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain.

The group's organizer, Jerry Kiley, who said he also is a Vietnam veteran, said in a telephone phone interview that he has been trying for years to spread what he said is the truth about McCain's record.

"John McCain has created this myth that he is a hero and he is not," Kiley said from his home in Garnerville, N.Y.

Kiley's group cites as evidence a May 1973 U.S. News & World Report article by McCain in which he said he realized, on his third or fourth day of captivity after his plane was shot down in 1967, that his knee was so swollen the blood might pool in it and kill him. So he offered to give military information to his captors in exchange for medical treatment.

In the article, McCain said he told the story to make the point that the North Vietnamese only gave medical treatment to POWs if they thought they were going to get something in return. He did not say that he went through with his end of the deal.

Kiley claims information McCain gave to the North Vietnamese led to an increase in U.S. planes being shot down.

McCain's spokesman, B.J. Boling, said McCain never passed military information to the North Vietnamese. He said the campaign was publicizing the mailer "to serve as an example of how we can bring these shadowy groups out into the open."

Kiley said his group sent the mailing to 80 newspaper editors. He said he is considering sending the information to editors in states with later primaries. South Carolina's Republican primary is Saturday.

I'm no fan of McCain, but I don't think anyone can fairly judge McCain's record as a POW without knowing fully what he went through. Given that he not only served, but gave up a chunk of his life as a prisoner should pretty much give him a pass on what happened during those years.

At least he didn't try and embellish his war record as John Kerry did, and he certainly didn't come home and denigrate his fellow soldiers.