Vietnamese back the man they know
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
HANOI, Vietnam – Mention the U.S. election on the streets of Hanoi, and you are likely to get two very different reactions.
Among the young, the most common response is a shrug. But older people – the Vietnam War generation – are watching closely, and everybody I spoke to was backing the man they know: Sen. John McCain.
That may sound odd. McCain endured five and a half years in prison here after his Skyhawk bomber was shot down over the city in October 1967, and he parachuted into Hanoi's West Lake.
But he is remembered most for what’s happened since then – his many return visits, and his role in helping to normalize relations.
‘He’s a friend of Hanoi’
"Everybody in Hanoi knows John McCain," said 76-year-old Tran Thanh Mei, as she posted a letter. "He’s a friend of Hanoi."
Thanh Mei lives beside what used to be one of the most notorious prisons in the city, known among its U.S. prisoners, as the Plantation. McCain described routine beatings and torture there.
She remembers the tight security, and says all the neighbors knew the "American pilots" were being held there. She says she felt strangely secure there, even when bombs were falling on the city, since she thought the bombers would avoid the prison.
Some of the buildings remain, mostly still in the hands of the army, though one section has now been converted into a fashionable coffee shop, busy with young people, and a cinema has been built.
No time for history
During our visit, "Minority Report" and the "Mummy 3" were among the Hollywood movies being shown. "If they show a Vietnamese movie, nobody will go," our guide said, dismissively.
Vietnam is an overwhelmingly young country – three-quarters of the population are under 30. They look to the west – and the U.S. in particular – for fashion and culture. The war is history for them, and few are closely watching the election.
"No, I really don’t know about it," said one young woman, selling Vietnamese silk and "Good Morning Vietnam" t-shirts. While in a shop next door, another young woman told us: "I don’t have a lot of time to watch television."
There is a youth and vibrancy about modern Vietnam, and while the young look to the future, the older generation is pragmatic, recognizing that normalizing relations with the U.S. has given an enormous economic boost.
‘I hope he is elected’
During our visit we sought out Vietnamese who’d met McCain. We found 81-year-old former nurse, Nguyen Thi Thanh. In his memoir, McCain says she saved his life, fending off a baying mob at the edge of Hanoi’s West Lake, and treating his wounds, putting splints on his arms and leg, and giving him antibiotics.
"Some people were very angry," she recalled, "but I was a nurse, it was my responsibility."
She doesn’t move so fast these days, but has been closely watching the progress of the man she treated.
"Sometimes I watch him on television, and he’s got really big. He used to be so young, thin and handsome," she told me. "He used to be part of the war, but now he’s running for president, which is a good thing. I hope he is elected."
We also met one the men who had dragged a badly injured McCain out of the West Lake. He too recalls the anger, and the chants of "beat him, beat him," but forty-one years have mellowed Le Van Lua.
"I feel that he could be the winner," he now says of McCain. "If he wins, it’s good. Already through his dealings with the Vietnamese government, John McCain has really helped Vietnam."
Surprising endorsement
Perhaps most surprising of all is the man who ran Hoa Lo, the notorious Hanoi Hilton prison, where McCain spent two years after the Plantation.
These days Tran Trong Duyet, talks about his "friend" McCain, who he describes as "strong willed, but with a sense of humor."
He dismissed the well-documented reports of brutality in the prison system. "During ‘office hours’ I would call him to my office and have fierce debates about the war. But ‘after hours’ we would talk to each other as friends."
He calls McCain a "model American soldier," who helped teach him English.
As for today: "If I had a vote, I would choose the person I knew well. So I would vote for John McCain."
That must go down as one of the strangest endorsements the Arizona senator is ever likely to get.
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