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Two Sides of the Same (Mc)Coin
Use of racial slur may shed new light on candidate

Sen. John McCain was a prisoner of war from 1967 to 1973 in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” During that time, his North Vietnamese captors beat and tortured him on a daily basis, inflicting injuries from which he will never physically recover.

Upon finding out that McCain was the son of an admiral in the U.S. Navy, the North Vietnamese offered to release him, which would have allowed him to go home much sooner than he did. However, fearing that the communists would use his release as propaganda, McCain managed to muster the tenacity and perseverance to refuse the offer and wait until all the other P.O.W.s were released.

McCain’s war record has earned him the support and respect of much of the American electorate, including many in the Vietnamese American community who think highly of his efforts to fight communism in their homeland and to normalize relations between Vietnam and the United States. Indeed, exit polls from primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan show that voters who supported him did so largely because of his service in Vietnam.

Aware of the popularity that his war record engenders among people, the McCain campaign displays at state GOP conventions life-size pictures of the senator from Arizona as a dashing, young aviator in his flight suit, standing next to his aircraft.

This image of McCain is coupled with another of him as a frank, no-nonsense candidate who is unafraid of reporters’ questions (even giving them unprecedented access to himself) and who can speak his mind -- without the sanitized, political-speak that is common to politicians. His utterances are so candid that he has even gained a reputation of having a coarse sense of humor, making jokes about Chelsea Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno and the elderly.

McCain’s famed war record and his candor suffered a controversial collision last week when reporters pressed him on his habitual use of the word “gook” when referring to his captors and torturers. He unapologetically asserted that he would use the racial slur in that context “as long as I live.”

But after quickly receiving denouncements from Asian American politicians and community activists, he did apologize and promised not to say “gook” again.

The episode reveals that while McCain’s service to his country in Vietnam and his “straight talker” approach are at the heart of who he is as a presidential candidate, his references to his former captors as “gooks” have revealed another side, a corollary, to what could remain in his heart -- raising questions about his sensitivity to Asian Americans and the degree to which his wartime experiences still guide him.