From the pages of a book to a real life character: McCain and ‘The Faith of My Fathers’
Posted by Eva Oude Elferink at 10/13/2008 09:00:00 PMOne of the many things McCain and the Republican camp keep on raving about since McCain started his presidential campaign, is his heroic past during the Vietnam War. This has however not always been the case. According to an online article in the New York Times today, up to 1998 McCain has resented people bringing up is ‘heroic past’. The article cites an interview he gave to Esquire magazine in 1998 where McCain said: “When somebody introduces me like, ‘Here is our great war hero,’ I don’t like it. Jesus, it can make your skin crawl.”
However, as the article notes, this all changed with the publishing of his memoir in 1999 called ‘The Faith of My Fathers’. This memoir revolves around his imprisonment in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and what its effect has been on him as a person. And, as the article says, this book shows the origin of his drive ‘to serve a cause’ larger than himself. Whatever his reasoning might have been to completely change positions on talking/not-talking about his past, it raises some questions about his motivations and aspirations.
Even today McCain does not seem to have any problem talking about his time in Vietnam, as we al might have witnessed over the last couple of months. To the contrary; he brings it up himself. In interviews, in speeches, during the Republican Convention.; he keeps on referring to his imprisonment, the harsh times he went through and his honor as a soldier.
I will not say that his past is not relevant or unimportant because obviously it is. What bothers me is the double standards McCain handles. As soon as he noticed that using his war past would help him and his message of patriotism and ‘country first’ he did not hesitate to use it at any convenient time. I think his past should be known by the American people, but I don’t think his time imprisoned should be used as some sort of selling tool to make McCain look like a patriotic hero and therefore ‘the best candidate’ to be elected President of the United States.
What McCain has done while imprisoned is an absolute honorable thing, but by using it as a way to sell his message I think he is not doing credit to his past. To the contrary, I think that by constantly referring to the hero he is in the pages of ‘Faith of My Fathers’, he makes himself look like a fictive character in real life instead of the real person he is in his memoir.
However, as the article notes, this all changed with the publishing of his memoir in 1999 called ‘The Faith of My Fathers’. This memoir revolves around his imprisonment in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and what its effect has been on him as a person. And, as the article says, this book shows the origin of his drive ‘to serve a cause’ larger than himself. Whatever his reasoning might have been to completely change positions on talking/not-talking about his past, it raises some questions about his motivations and aspirations.
Even today McCain does not seem to have any problem talking about his time in Vietnam, as we al might have witnessed over the last couple of months. To the contrary; he brings it up himself. In interviews, in speeches, during the Republican Convention.; he keeps on referring to his imprisonment, the harsh times he went through and his honor as a soldier.
I will not say that his past is not relevant or unimportant because obviously it is. What bothers me is the double standards McCain handles. As soon as he noticed that using his war past would help him and his message of patriotism and ‘country first’ he did not hesitate to use it at any convenient time. I think his past should be known by the American people, but I don’t think his time imprisoned should be used as some sort of selling tool to make McCain look like a patriotic hero and therefore ‘the best candidate’ to be elected President of the United States.
What McCain has done while imprisoned is an absolute honorable thing, but by using it as a way to sell his message I think he is not doing credit to his past. To the contrary, I think that by constantly referring to the hero he is in the pages of ‘Faith of My Fathers’, he makes himself look like a fictive character in real life instead of the real person he is in his memoir.
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