where anything is possible and citizenship as our patriotic obligation and forever remains that way. few of us have been tested the way john once was or required to show the courage that he did. all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. at john s best, he showed us what that means and for that we are all in his debt. our condolences to cindy and his family, president barack obama. also, a statement coming in from bill clinton. this and secretary clinton, as well. in their statement it reads, senator john mccain believed that every citizen has a responsibility to make something of the freedoms given by our constitution. and from his heroic service in the navy to his 35 years in
from presidents of both sides remembering in very affectionate ways senator john mccain. in fact, you were just reading what bill clinton had to say to memorialize what john mccain did in helping bill clinton to normalize relations with vietnam. i was covering the white house at the time and was very involved in the coverage then of the fact that both john mccain and john kerry, who were on opposite sides of the war, both serving in the war, but having come back and having been tortured and stayed in the hanoi hilton for five years, and john kerry s opposition to the war was not something he appreciated. yet, in the senate, they came together and worked together on a commission to try to recover p.o.w. remains and account for the missing from that terrible war and also to help bill clinton with the vietnam
memorial here in washington, d.c., to reach the stage, where he, who was criticized sharply by his critics, when he was running in 1992, bill clinton as president, for not serving in vietnam. they helped him normalize relations with vietnam. it was an incredibly honorable thing that john mccain did because he certainly, most likely did not respect what bill clinton did during the war. he was accused of being a draft dodger. that was a big issue in the new hampshire primary in 1992. mccain validated bill clinton s efforts to reach out and reach reconciliation with vietnam. it was a foreign policy decision that helped to heal the wounds of that war. you mentioned roberta mccain. she is 106 years old. her sister died just years ago. they were going to france every summer, the mccain sisters, to