mccain, the war "hero"

Because of the revelations which McCain repeated in propaganda radio broadcasts, the North Vietnamese contemptuously nicknamed him “Songbird.” On June 4, 1969, a U.S. wire service story headlined, “PW Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral,” described one of McCain’s radio recordings: “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of the United States commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”

and this:

This is one of the hardest articles I’ve ever written because John McCain once
was a big hero of mine.

Being a lifelong registered Republican, Ronald Reagan fan and Vietnam veteran
who disliked the Bush family intensely, I supported John's 2000 run for the
White House. I praised him in my 2004 book, George Dub-ya Bush, THE PHONY
FIGHTER PILOT, created a pro-McCain Web site to help boost his 2008 candidacy
and attended a fundraising dinner for the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, not far
from my home, because he was the keynote speaker.

My admiration for McCain ended in May 2008, when I began investigating rumors
about his so-called heroic POW record. During my facts-check, I ran across an
article about John by the late Colonel David Hackworth, a much-decorated career
Army officer, Vietnam combat legend and popular TV guest commentator.