A decade ago, on one of his seemingly countless visits to Iraq, John McCain, who was generally immune to the charms of introspection\u2014\u201cStop trying to get me on the couch, you shit\u201d he once said, smiling, when I tried to encourage him toward self-analysis\u2014talked about the dominion of human cowardice, and the story of Anne Frank, in a way that I found startling.<\/p>\n
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We had been discussing the American war in Iraq, which he supported steadfastly, even after everything went sideways. The cause, he said, was just. The execution, at least until the troop surge of 2007, was a disgrace, but this didn\u2019t move him off his principles. \u201cI hated Saddam,\u201d he said. \u201cHe ruled through murder. Didn\u2019t we learn from Hitler that we can\u2019t let that happen?\u201d His hatred of Saddam, like his hatred for all dictators, burned hot; his contempt for Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush\u2019s first defense secretary, was ice-cold. It was Rumsfeld\u2019s arrogance and incompetence, McCain believed, that helped discredit the American invasion. \u201cHe was the worst,\u201d McCain said.<\/p>\n
I offered a qualified dissent in response. I supported the invasion for more-or-less the same reason McCain did\u2014I wanted to see the Kurdish people, the preeminent victims of Saddam\u2019s genocidal fury, suffer no more. But unlike McCain, I had come to believe that the theory of the American case was no match for heartbreaking Middle East reality. I wasn\u2019t sure that even the most perspicacious secretary of defense could successfully lead an effort to renovate a despotic Middle Eastern country. I suggested to McCain that this sort of grandiose undertaking was not necessarily a core competency of the United States. \u201cBut genocide!\u201d he said. \u201cGenocide!\u201d His argument was not only concise, but morally superior. Not analytically superior, but morally, no doubt.<\/p>\n
We spoke every so often about the Holocaust, and its supposed lessons (one lesson, he told me once, in a mainly, though not entirely, devilish way, was that Jews should be well-armed). He said that, in the post-Holocaust world, all civilized people, and the governments of all civilized nations, should be intolerant of leaders who commit verified acts of genocide. That, he suggested, is the most salient lesson of all.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
McCain laughed at the compliment. Then he became serious. \u201cI like to think that in the toughest moments I\u2019d do the right thing, but you never know until you\u2019re tested.\u201d I found this to be an absurd thing for him to say. Few men had been tested like John McCain; few men have passed these tests in the manner of John McCain. Of all the many stories of McCain\u2019s heroism in Vietnamese captivity, the one I\u2019ve always found most affecting is this one: When presented with the opportunity to be freed\u2014he was the son of an important admiral, and his release would constitute a propaganda victory for the North Vietnamese\u2014McCain demurred; it was not his turn (prisoners were generally released based on their time in captivity), and he would not skip to the head of the line. When he rejected the Vietnamese offer, he knew that intense torture would be his reward. And he did it anyway. His sense of honor would allow him to do nothing else.<\/p>\n
I pressed him on this point. \u201cI\u2019ve failed enough in my life to know that it\u2019s always an option,\u201d he said. \u201cI like to think I would do what it takes, but fear will make you do terrible things.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t stand it anymore. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure you\u2019d kill Nazis to defend Anne Frank,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
He smiled. \u201cIt would be an honor and a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
John McCain possessed many sterling qualities; two of the most admirable were on display in this conversation. The first was his visceral antipathy for powerful men who abuse powerless people. A few years ago, I asked him about a fight he was then having with President Obama. McCain wanted Obama to supply Ukraine with weapons it could deploy against Russian invaders. Obama, quite logically, believed that these weapons would be ineffective against the Russian juggernaut, and might actually provoke Vladimir Putin into even more aggressive action. McCain understood the possible ramifications of a decision to arm the Ukrainians. But his sense of honor\u2014and his Hemingway-influenced romantic fatalism\u2014led him to a different conclusion.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen people want to fight for their freedom, we have to be there with them.\u201d As one of his aides later explained, \u201cHe believes it\u2019s better to die fighting than just die.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked McCain, Is this the American way? \u201cIt should be,\u201d he said. \u201cIt always should be.\u201d (McCain\u2019s amanuensis, his former chief of staff, Mark Salter, told me recently, when I asked him if McCain is more frustrated by Putin\u2019s existence or by the fact that some Americans\u2014I had in mind one American in particular\u2014don\u2019t seem to understand Putin\u2019s nature, \u201cThere\u2019s always a Putin somewhere in the world, and you\u2019re meant to oppose them with all the skills God gave you.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Read a story from the archives: Is there any war McCain thinks can\u2019t be won?<\/a><\/p>\n The second quality on display in our conversation was self-doubt\u2014or, at the very least, self-knowledge. It is almost impossible, in our era, for politicians to keep from becoming hollowed-out (assuming they weren\u2019t hollow to begin with). There is no reward in American politics for public displays of self-awareness or self-criticism. And yet, John McCain understood human nature, and his own nature, enough to state the plausible: That in moments of great testing, it is possible for any human, including the bravest human, to fail.<\/p>\n Once, on a lightning-fast trip to Hungary (all of his trips seemed lightning-fast; as The Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s Josh Rogin recalls<\/a>, McCain\u2019s aides would refer to his overseas adventures as Bataan Death Marches), I raised the subject of imperfection\u2014not his, but America\u2019s. McCain was visiting Budapest to buttress the democratic opposition there, and to fire a warning shot at the country\u2019s autocratically minded president. I asked him if it ever felt hypocritical to argue for a set of values that we live in America only aspirationally. \u201cWe get things wrong all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s true. But the ideals are great, they\u2019re perfect. They\u2019re something to aim for.\u201d<\/p>\n John McCain was far from perfect. But as his former campaign adviser, Steve Schmidt, said Saturday night, shortly after McCain died, \u201che perfectly loved this country.\u201d<\/p>\n A man apparently devoid of any redeeming qualities currently occupies the Oval Office. It is important to remember that America is also capable of producing leaders like John McCain.<\/p>\n