Vietnam: John McCain helped 'heal the wounds of war'

Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh writes in a condolence book near a portrait of U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) about his death at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam August 27, 2018. [file, Reuters]

U.S. Senator John McCain was a “symbol of his generation” who helped “heal the wounds of war” by pushing for diplomatic normalization of ties with Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country’s foreign minister said on Monday.

McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam who ran for president in 2008 as a self-styled maverick Republican and became a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, died on Saturday. He was 81.