During President Joe Biden's visit to Vietnam, followed by the G20 summit in India, images of a visit to a memorial were widely shared. The media reported about the president's trip to a statue located in front of Lake Trúc Bạch in Hanoi, which is known as the monument to Senator John McCain, who died in 2018.
The idea was to commemorate the U.S. senator and soldier, who fought in the Vietnam War. President Biden even kissed the statue. But what monument did President Biden actually visit during his time in Hanoi?
Biden kissed John McCain's memorial in Vietnam pic.twitter.com/HnfhKSInyW
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 11, 2023
McCain, pilot in the Vietnam War
The so-called McCain monument is a stone statue depicting a man on his knees with his arms raised. Behind the human figure is the broken wing of a burning plane. On the right side, you can see the star the American Armed Forces cockade. On the left, there is a text in Vietnamese.
The image comes to recall an event from the Vietnam War. In October 1967, an area mission composed of several A-4 Skyhawks took off from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany to bomb the Viet Cong positions and the Yen Phu power plant. Among the pilots who were part of the mission was then-Navy Air Force Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain. It was the 23rd such mission for McCain, but this time, a Soviet S-75 missile hit his aircraft. The pilot parachuted into Lake Trúc Bạch before being rescued and imprisoned by members of Vietnamese Soviet forces.
Monument to Vietnamese gunners
Along with McCain's aircraft, 10 others were shot down by Viet Cong air defenses during that battle. As a result, Vietnamese authorities decorated Nguyen Xuan Dai, the gunner who shot down McCain's A-4 Skyhawk. He was awarded the title of "Hero of the People's Armed Forces" of Vietnam. Shortly after, the monument was erected, which directly alludes to the surrender and capture of the American pilots, who like McCain were tortured in the prison known as the "Hanoi Hilton." John McCain spent five years in captivity.
The monument was remodeled in 2015 when McCain visited Hanoi. The Republican senator was one of the participants in reforming the relationship between the United States and Vietnam in order to put the war behind them and establish a new diplomatic framework. Former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius blogged about the changes to the memorial. The comparison between the two versions makes it clear that the monument's original intention was not to honor McCain, but rather those who shot down his plane.
Prior to 2015, the plaque read as follows:
NGÀY 26-10-1967 TẠI HỒ TRÚC BẠCH QUÂN VÀ DÂN THỦ ĐÔ HÀ NỘI BẮT SỐNG TÊN JOHN SNEY MA CAN THIẾU TÁ KHÔNG QUÂN MỸ LÁI CHIẾC MÁY BAY A4 BỊ BẮN RƠI TẠI NHÀ MÁY ĐIỆN YÊN PHỤ. ĐÂY LÀ MỘT TRONG 10 CHIẾC MÁY BAY BỊ BẮN RƠI CÙNG NGÀY.
Which translates as:
On Oct. 26, 1967, at Lake Truc Bach, the people and armed forces of Hanoi captured USAF Maj. John Sney Ma Can [sic.], who was piloting the downed A-4 aircraft at the Yen Phu power plant. His was one of 10 planes shot down that day.
The new version corrected McCain's name, which was misspelled, but also removed and changed some details. The most important is the qualifier "Tên" to refer to McCain. Tên, which has no direct English translation, is a Vietnamese term used to refer to despicable individuals, like enemies, thieves, robbers, cheaters and rapists, as Ambassador Ted Osius took the trouble to explain in his blog.
