"His Friend, The Enemy" (People Magazine 26 NOV 96)

Senator John McCain learned how to say "My God!" in Vietnamese last week. This is because "Troi O" is what the man who saved McCain's life 29 years ago shouted when meeting him for the first time in Hanoi. During the Vietnam War McCain ejected from his plane into Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake. He was unconscious, with two broken legs, when Mai Van On, a member of the People's Army, swam in and fished him out with two bamboo poles. On's neighbors called him a coward for not beating the American. These days McCain is at the forefront of the push to normalize relations with Vietnam. "I didn't know why I saved him at the time," admits On, 79. "But now I know."