美国参议员约翰·麦凯恩（John McCain）于8月25日去世。麦凯恩曾在越南光荣服役，后成为美国一位具有深远和永久影响的政治领导人。美国和越南两国人们纷纷对他表示深切的缅怀。

麦凯恩在美国参议院（U.S. Senate）服务达30多年之久。他最重要的功绩之一是作为参议员促使1995年的美越关系和解，成为他个人政治生涯上浓墨重彩的一笔。

1967年，麦凯恩作为美国海军（U.S. Navy）一名年轻的飞行员驾驶飞机执行任务，在越南河内（Hanoi）上空被击落，遂成为战俘身陷囹圄，度过5年半极端艰苦的生活。多年后麦凯恩回到河内从事一项完全不同的使命——使这两个一度相互作战的国家愈合创伤，终于成为现在的战略伙伴。

为了纪念麦凯恩个人的功绩及其政治成就，同时也为了抚慰过去的创伤，越南人民在麦凯恩当年飞机被击中后跳伞降落的地点建立了一个纪念碑。今天他们向当年的战俘和现在象征着和解精神的麦凯恩表示崇高的敬意。

U.S. Senator John McCain’s life and legacy remembered in Vietnam

The death of U.S. Senator John McCain on August 25 has evoked an outpouring of sentiment in both the United States and in Vietnam, where McCain’s honorable military service and political leadership made a profound and lasting difference.

In the United States, John McCain served in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades. One of his most significant contributions as a senator was to help reconcile U.S. relations with Vietnam in 1995 — an achievement of both personal and professional significance.

As a young U.S. Navy pilot, McCain was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1967. He spent the next five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in extremely harsh conditions. Years later, Senator McCain returned to Hanoi on a very different mission — to heal the relationship of two countries once at war, and now strategic partners.

To honor McCain’s personal and political achievements, and to commemorate the wounds of the past, the people of Vietnam erected a monument on the spot where McCain landed after parachuting from his damaged jet. Today they pay their respects to the once prisoner of war, now a symbol of reconciliation.