McCain, Vietnamese Find Bond

For Hinh Nong, listening to John McCain's speech Wednesday to more than 1,000 other Vietnamese, the choice of who to back in the GOP presidential race was pretty simple.

“We would still be in North Vietnam without him,” said Nong, who spent 18 years as a prisoner.

In what he said was an emotional reunion, McCain held a colorful rally in a large and friendly Vietnamese community that harkened back to McCain's term as prisoner of war.

“It was my experience with you that was the defining period of my life,” McCain said.

The rally was rich in ethnic color, with snake dances twisting through the streets, youngsters in colorful native garb prancing about and colorful fans and balloons everywhere.

Dominating the event were scores of middle-aged Vietnamese men wearing their military uniforms, many veterans of that conflict and prisoners of the victorious north.

“There's a bond,” said Tam Ngoc Ho, a prisoner for 13 years. “He was a prisoner like we were.”

Not mentioned by McCain, or anyone in his boisterous audience, was controversy that's swirled around McCain among some in the Asian community because of racially charged language McCain has used to describe the guards at the prison camp where he was held for more than five years.

McCain has conceded he has used the term “gooks” to refer to those guards, and that's sparked criticism from those who argue that's a racially insensitive reference.

“It's a slang word we used in prison all the time,” said McCain. “Our captors were bad people and that's what we called them in prison.”

McCain has acknowledged that the term could be offensive to some.

“If I offended anybody I apologize,” said McCain. “I will not use the word again.”

McCain and his aides argue that few in the Vietnamese community take offense at his use of the term, arguing that many who fled Vietnam share his distaste for the North Vietnamese.

While there has been criticism, McCain said that's not the dominant view.

In his speech, McCain talked of how he occasionally takes an early-morning stroll to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. Though more than 50,000 Americans died in that war, far more Vietnamese suffered.

“We will never forget their service, their sacrifice,” said McCain. “Someday outside of Saigon, there's going to be another memorial.”