Henry Kissinger came to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to bestow his advice on a raft of global security threats, but he began his testimony with a story about the committee’s absent chairman, Sen. John McCain, who was in Arizona battling brain cancer.
The 94-year-old former secretary of state said he was in Vietnam in 1973 when McCain was released by the North after more than five years as a prisoner of war.
“I had been in Hanoi that day and they had offered to let me take him on my plane back to the United States and I refused on the grounds that nobody should get special treatment,” said Kissinger, who had entered the Senate chamber moments earlier amid a crowd of photojournalists.
But the two spoke again after McCain’s release, when they had both returned to the United States.
“When I met him here at the White House, he came up to me and said ‘Thank you for saving my honor,’” Kissinger said.
McCain, R-Ariz., has been the Armed Services chairman since 2015 and has invited Kissinger to testify in the past. But McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer in July and left Washington in December for rehabilitation at home, saying he looked forward to returning to work this month.
The committee did not hold meetings early in January as the Senate awaited word on McCain’s plans, but began moving ahead with business by mid-month, including the hearing with Kissinger.
“Sen. McCain has preserved the honor of our country as a great warrior but also as someone who whenever you meet with him about the unjustly persecuted, he made it clear that America was on their side and that he was not simply a warrior but a defender of our values,” Kissinger said.
McCain appeared to be watching from Arizona and was tweeting out comments and links to the hearing, which also included testimony from George Shultz, the secretary of state under former President Ronald Reagan, and Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state under former President George W. Bush.
“America needs the leadership, wisdom and experience that only statesmen of this stature can provide. The committee is grateful for their service and continued voices of reason during these troubling times,” McCain tweeted.
America needs the leadership, wisdom, & experience that only statesmen of this stature can provide. The committee is grateful for their service & continued voices of reason during these troubling times.
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) January 25, 2018
