Now, some comments from one who served.

In return for medical treatment at a civilian hospital, a privilege never granted to other injured POWs, McCain reportedly told NVA interrogators the name of his aircraft carrier, how many Navy pilots had been lost, the number of planes in his flight formation, tactics used during bomb runs and the location of rescue ships in
the Tonkin Gulf.

Because of the revelations which McCain repeated in propaganda radio broadcasts,the North Vietnamese contemptuously nicknamed him “Songbird.”

On June 4, 1969, a U.S. wire service story headlined, “PW Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral,” described one of McCain’s radio recordings: “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of the United States commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”

During his six-week hospital stay and for months afterwards, McCain continued to cooperate with NVA interrogators. He made more radio broadcasts for the enemy
and met with foreign dignitaries, enjoying hot tea, coffee and cigarettes in posh settings while back at the Hanoi Hilton and other internment camps, his fellow POWs struggled to stay alive.

In one case,while meeting with Cuban journalist Fernando Barral, McCain voluntarily spoke in Spanish, even though he was obligated as an American POW to be evasive during their conversation. Had McCain feigned ignorance of Barral’s native language, the meeting might not have lasted five minutes.

…

Also in his 1999 autobiography, while admitting to accepting special favors from the enemy — i.e. drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes — McCain conveniently omitted the fact he had conversed with Barral in Spanish, a more serious Code of Conduct
violation.

True or not about the specific details of his collaborations, McCain said in Faith of My Fathers (page 198 of the hardcopy edition) that he revealed “information about my ship and squadron.” In the same paragraph, he claimed, “The information was of no real use to the Vietnamese.”

Well, that’s not what retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper believes.

A veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Hopper contends the information McCain disclosed was used by North Vietnam to fine-tune their air defense system.

Hopper’s son, Air Force Lt. Colonel Earl Pearson Hopper, was shot down over North Vietnam and later declared “Missing in Action.” As a result of his loss, the elder Hopper co-founded the National League of Families, an organization devoted to the return of Vietnam War POWs.

On March 25, 1999, two POWs, Ted Guy and Gordon Larson, told the Phoenix New Times they could not guarantee McCain had been tortured before his interrogations. Larson told the New Times, “Between the two of us, it is our belief, and to the best of our knowledge, that no prisoner was beaten or harmed physically in that camp [known as 'The Plantation']. My only contention with the McCain deal is that while he was at The Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted’s, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from.”

So, maybe “Songbird” is the Manchurian (or Vietnamese) candidate.