John McCain

John McCain (1936-2018) was born in the Panama Canal Zone into a Navy family and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. Shot down over Hanoi in 1967, he spent about five and a half years as a prisoner of war, was tortured and refused an early release. He served two terms in the House and from 1987 until his death six terms in the Senate, where he chaired the Commerce and Armed Services committees. He lost the 2000 Republican nomination to George W. Bush, won it in 2008 and lost the general election to Barack Obama. The press often called him a maverick.

Admirers across party lines remember McCain for his conduct as a prisoner of war, his campaign finance and anti-torture laws and his willingness to break with his party; he shared the 1999 Profile in Courage Award and received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022. Critics on the left faulted his early support for the Iraq war and his calls for intervention in Libya and Syria, while some conservatives objected to his immigration and climate positions. The Senate Ethics Committee rebuked him for 'poor judgment' in the Keating Five savings-and-loan affair, and his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate in 2008 drew criticism.