Senator John McCain (Photo: Reuter)Hanoi, (VNA) – Senator John McCain, whohelped lay the foundation for a cooperative Vietnam-US relationship, passedaway on August 25 (US time) at the age of 81.
McCain himself served in the invadingwar of the US in Vietnam. He joined in the Rolling Thunder air campaign in1967, bombing targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (northern Vietnam). His plane was shotdown on October 26, 1967 and McCain was taken prisoner. He was returned to the US in an exchange of prisoners in 1973.
Returning from Vietnam, McCain joined politics and was one of the first personscampaigning for normalization ofUS-Vietnam relations through promoting humanitarian issues such as removingunexploded ordnance left by the war, searching for missing-in-action personnel,supporting people with disabilities caused by the war, and detoxifying areaspolluted by dioxin.
In 1994, the US Senate approved a resolution sponsoredby McCain and Senator John Kerry, calling to end the economic sanction againstVietnam, paving the way for the normalization of relations between the twocountries one year later.
Following the normalization of bilateral ties, McCainand Kerry visited Vietnam many times to address the issue of Americanmissing-in-action soldiers (POW/MIA).
Along with pushing for the normalization of relationswith Vietnam, Senator McCain also supported the Vietnamese community in the US,serving as a bridge between them and the US authorities as well as theVietnamese Government.
At a meeting with the Senator in Washington DC onJanuary 21, 2016, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh praised theSenator for his great contribution to the friendly and cooperative relationsbetween the two countries.
In reply, McCain said he always attaches importance tothe US-Vietnam relations, and for him, Vietnam has an important position and rolein the region.
Senator McCain is one of the persons who have laid thefoundation for the Vietnam-US ties to develop into a comprehensive partnershipwith remarkable progress across the fields, benefiting both countries atpresent.-VNA
