Senator John McCain Praised Overseas

Senator John McCain Praised Overseas

While condolences and remembrances pour in for the late Senator John McCain in the United States, he is also being remembered overseas, including in the nation where he was a prisoner of war for five years.
McCain, who died Saturday at the age of 81, was shot down flying a bombing mission in Vietnam in 1967, but is known more in that country for what he did in mending ties and normalizing relations with the United States in recent years.

Flowers have been left at a monument near where his plane went down, and a book of condolences at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi allows residents to pay their respects.

Vietnam war veteran Pham Minh Chuc credited McCain with building a lasting peace.
"I admired him, that he understood what was right and what was wrong, to be alongside Vietnamese people to overcome the past and build a better future for the two countries," he said. "With his help, I believe there will not be any war between Vietnam and U.S. from now on."

In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko told of an episode in which he and McCain visited Ukrainian marines who were under fire. Poroshenko said McCain was upset when it was suggested he stay back.
"When I proposed to him to visit and congratulate Ukrainian marines in Shirokino, he postponed his trip to Georgia, saying his place is here, in Ukraine," Poroshenko recalled. "Ten kilometers before we arrived to Shirokino, my presidential security service told me that marines were shelled by the enemy. I told him, "You are an American Senator, you do not have to be there. Me, as the President, I have to be with my soldiers. This was the first time when John was upset by me for even for thinking that I could suggest to him to do that."
Sunday, during a state visit to Lithuania, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised McCain as a friend to Israel.

McCain will become the 13th senator to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, and former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are to speak at his funeral service.

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