Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.Andred Sullivan, the Daily Dish wrote:I've now heard it countless times. McCain has used what appears to be an intensely personal moment in a prison camp as a reason to vote for him in a campaign ad. As he tells it today, it was the pivotal moment in his struggle to survive in the Hanoi Hilton. And yet, in his first thorough account of his time in captivity, in 1973, the story is absent. The story is also hauntingly like that recounted by Solzhenitsen, as told in Luke Veronis, "The Sign of the Cross":
As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.
As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed.(Quoting Solzhenitsyn's work)
McCain's version...McCain: …because it was Christmas day, we were allowed to stand outside of our cell for a few minutes. In those days we were not allowed to see or communicate with each other, although we certainly did. And I was standing outside, for my few minutes outside at my cell. He came walking up. He stood there for a minute, and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard, he drew a cross and he stood there. And a minute later, he rubbed it out, and walked away. For a minute there, there was just two Christians worshipping together. I'll never forget that moment.From McCain's 1999 book.
This cross in the sand story first appeared in McCain's book shortly before the 2000 campaign. It has been suggested that McCain needed an "in" with christian voters and what better way than to mention the cross.
This subject is loaded with controversy, but there are several facts that are well documented. The first time the story can be confirmed is through Billy Graham relating a comment made to him by Solzhenitsyn in 1975 or 1976, more than 20 years before McCain penned a similar fate. Some attribute the story to Solzhenitsyn Gulag Archipelago but that may not be correct.
Another interesting fact is that McCain, who professes to be "saved" did not speak of this occurrence until almost 30 years after it happened. Did McCain plagiarize the statement? Did he borrow it to gain christian voters, or did he previously read it and over the ensuing years, become confused as to whether or not he actually experienced it, after all, no one can blame him for losing a little of his mind, given what he suffered in Hanoi.
You be the judge, it's a pretty close call any way you go with this.
Footnote, for an excellent read on Vietnam POWs and POW life, read Scars and Stripes by Eugene B. McDaniel
