(h/t to Martin Wisckol, OC Register)
John McCain accused former OC Supervisor Edison Miller, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and many other medals, as a turncoat alleging traitorous behavior during the Viet Nam War. The accusation was in McCain’s book, “Faith of My Fathers” co-written with Mark Salter.
According to an article in the OC Register,
Former Orange County Supervisor Edison Miller is lashing out at John McCain, saying the presidential candidate falsely fingered him as a turncoat who was “actively aiding the enemy” while the two were imprisoned during the Vietnam War.
“He lied about me,” said the Irvine resident, who retired as a Marine Corps colonel shortly after the war. “The attacks on my character and integrity are totally without merit or justification. I did stand up and say the war was wrong. I would speak against the war, but I never spoke against my country. And I gave up no secrets.”
In McCain’s book, “Faith of My Fathers,” the Republican presidential candidate writes about two “camp rats” who “had lost their faith completely.”
“They not only stopped resisting but apparently crossed a line no other prisoner I knew had even approached,” McCain wrote. “They were collaborators, actively aiding the enemy.”
While McCain did not name the two in the book, Miller and Walter Eugene Wilber are identified as the POWs in question in a June 15 New York Times story on McCain’s 1974 essay about POW traitors. Miller said the newspaper story brought McCain’s claims to his attention.
And McCain goes on,
For instance, McCain wrote of Miller and Wilber, “The guards would bring them eggs, bananas, and other delicacies to eat.”
Miller says he never saw an egg during his internment, that he never met McCain face to face, and questioned how McCain would have ever been in a position to see the food brought to him.
Irvine resident Miller has been plagued by these allegations ever since returning and no one has been able to make them stick. They surfaced when he was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 1979 and continue to reappear periodically since. Miller was one of a number of POWs to have questions about the war.
After the war a fellow POW, Rear Admiral James B. Stockdale, tried to bring charges against Miller and Wilber of mutiny, refusal to obey orders, and aiding the enemy. But then-Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird declared that no POW would be prosecuted for propaganda statements made under the duress of captivity.
My final quote from Wisckol’s article
“We’ve had a dumb president for the last eight years and we don’t need another one,” he said when asked about McCain’s candidacy.
And you know John McCain is lying, how? Because Edison Miller says so? Collaborators rarely admit their collaboration, Bill.
I’d be happy if John McCain could stick to one story or state one position, flip flopper that he is….
And you know John McCain isn’t lying, how? Because John McCain says so? Liars rarely admit their lies, Jubal.
These false accusations of cheating by the Obama camp just shows what a lack of character these sore losers have. Obama has been getting a free pass from the beginning of the primaries. Obama looked like the rank inexperienced amateur that he is in the Saddleback debate … while McCain looked decisive and competent. The election is only about 70 days from now, and if Obama hasn’t already come up with positions on these crucial questions by now, he is certainly not qualified to be President of the United States. Crying and accusations of cheating because Obama lost the debate, only makes Obama look smaller and less deserving of the office.
I knew Edison Miller. I was a Marine Sergeant in his unit. For a while I was the Police Sergeant and worked very close to LtCol Miller.
I believe that he got his fill of dropping napalm on people and making “crispy critters” out of them.
I never condem his objection to the Vietnam war. I saw too many pilots who enjoyed making crispy critters.