On the shores of a still and peaceful lake on the edge of downtown Hanoi, the inscription on a faded monument stands as a reminder of a violent event 51 years ago.
“On Oct. 26, 1967, at Truc Bach Lake, the military and people of Hanoi arrested Major John Sidney McCain, a pilot of the American Navy’s air force,” it says on the sculpture, which depicts an airman with his hands above his head in front of a broken plane wing.
McCain died on Saturday.
Photo: Reuters
The naval aviator was flying one of 10 planes that were shot down by the North Vietnamese military on the same day, according to the inscription on the statue, which McCain himself visited on a return to Vietnam in 2009.
“I felt compelled to come out here and bring some flowers,” said Robert Gibb, an American in Hanoi, who placed a bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums at the foot of the monument after hearing the news of McCain’s death yesterday morning.
Gibb was one of several US citizens living in Hanoi to visit the monument with tributes. One man offered a folded US flag.
“He was the last guy I ever voted for president,” Gibb said. “The moment he dropped in here changed his life forever.”
McCain was dragged out of the lake and spent the next five-and-a-half years as a high-profile prisoner of war in Hoa Lo prison — the infamous “Hanoi Hilton’ — where he said he and others were tortured.
A statue marking the spot by the lake was erected in 1967, and renovated in the 1980s and 1990s.
The US embassy in Hanoi yesterday said it planned to launch a fellowship to support a “young Vietnamese leader committed to public service” to travel to the US on a study tour annually.
The program is to be named the “McCain/Kerry Fellowship” in honor of McCain and former US secretary of state John Kerry, another Vietnam War veteran who has promoted US-Vietnam issues during his political career, the embassy said in a statement.
Le Ma Luong, the former director of the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi who met McCain soon after 2010, said he remembered McCain as an articulate and professional man who contributed greatly to building relations with Vietnam.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS