McCain Wins Unlikely Support in Vietnam

Ruling class thinks former POW would increase trade
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2008 10:30 AM CDT
McCain Wins Unlikely Support in Vietnam
Tran Trong Duyet, the jailer at the Hanoi Hilton when John McCain was a POW, has said he would vote for the Arizona senator.   (AP Photo)

John McCain has won admiration from an unlikely place: Vietnam, the nation he bombed 23 times during the war there. Including politicians, newspaper editors, and even his former captor, Vietnamese are voicing support for the candidate. The Republican pushed to restore ties with the country a decade ago, and many Vietnamese hope he will now push to increase trade.

McCain, who says he was routinely tortured while a prisoner of war, has no ill will against Vietnam. And the one-time commander of the Hanoi Hilton, where the candidate was held, likes to imagine he can vote for him. But one journalist noted that the admiration isn't universal: "The young people, especially the ladies, prefer Obama." (More John McCain stories.)

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