31 October 1967 "Hanoi in English to American Servicemen in South Vietnam
[Talk: 'From the Pacific to Truc Bach Lake']

[Text]" In his newest step of war escalation--successive air strikes at Hanoi city these days--Mr. Johnson has wasted scores of U.S. aircraft and pilots.

"Adding to the ever longer list of American pilots captured over North Vietnam was a series of newcomers. John Sydney McCain was one of them. Who is he? A U.S. Navy lieutenant commander. Last Thursday, 26 October, he took off from the carrier Oriksany for a raiding mission against Hanoi city. Unfortunately for him, the jetplane he piloted was one of the 10 knocked out of Hanoi's sky. He tried in vain to evade the deadly accurate antiaircraft barrage of fire of this city. A surface-to-air missile shot down his jet on the spot. He bailed out and was captured on the surface of Truc Bach Lake right in the heart of the DRV capital.

"What were the feats of arms which McCain achieved? Foreign correspondents in Hanoi saw with their eyes civilian dwelling houses destroyed and Hanoi's women, old folks, and children killed by steel-pellet bombs dropped from McCain's aircraft and those of his colleagues.

"LtCom John Sydney McCain nearly perished in the conflagration that swept the flight deck of the U.S. carrier Forrestal last July. He also narrowly escaped death in Haiphong the Sunday before last but this time what must happen has happened. There is no future in it.

"McCain was married in 1965 to [name indistinct] and has a 10-month-old daughter. Surely he loved his wife and child. Then why did he fly here dropping bombs on the necks of the Vietnamese women and children?

"The killing he was ordered to do in Vietnam has aroused indignation among the world's peoples. What glory had he brought by his job to his father, Adm. John S McCain Jr., commander in chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe? His grandfather, Adm. John S. McCain, commander of all aircraft carriers in the Pacific in World War II, participated in a just war against the Japanese forces. But nowadays Lt. Com. McCain is participating in an unjust war, the most unpopular one in U.S. history and mankind's history too. This is Johnson's war to enslave the Vietnamese people.

"From the Pacific to Truc Bach Lake, McCain has brought no reputation for his family in the United States. The one who is smearing McCain's family honor is also smearing the honor of Washington's United States of America. He is Lyndon B. Johnson."

[end of text]



More Transcripts

09 November 1967

01 January 1968

Translation of Memorial

Return to the PoW/MIA Forum

us here!