'White Tornado'
John Mccain's History As A Pow Is Only Part Of His Story. He's Tempestuous, Candid And, In His Mother's Words, A 'Scamp.'
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It was Christmas eve in Hanoi, 1968, and prison guards hustled 50 American POWs from their cells to an impromptu church service. As North Vietnamese cameramen filmed the festive scene, John McCain, coming out of solitary confinement for the first time in nine months, began chatting and joking with the other inmates.
"No talking," the guards told him.
"F--- you!" McCain replied.
"No talking!"
"This is f---ing bull---t. This is terrible. This isn't Christmas. This is a propaganda show," McCain shouted, jamming his middle finger toward the cameras. His captors returned him to his cell, where, after a day off for Christmas, they resumed their savage beatings.
John McCain has changed in the three decades since. And he'll keep changing, which is part of what makes him a compelling work-in-progress this campaign season. But in essential ways, McCain remains the same spunky, intense and defiant man he was then. He learned in prison that rugged individualism isn't enough; he relied on others. Yet when he had to, as his fellow POW Orson Swindle says, "He stood alone."
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