His Life Is Linked to the Pilot He Saved

"There is a reason for everything," the 81-year-old On said, stroking his wispy Ho Chi Minh beard. "Consider: I save an unknown pilot. He becomes a famous man and leads the way for America and Vietnam to become friends. If I had let him die, would this have happened?"

On is such an enthusiastic proponent of reconciliation that when Douglas "Pete" Peterson arrived in Hanoi last year as the first U.S. ambassador to Communist Vietnam, On went to the airport and rushed past security agents to embrace him.

"Who the heck was that?" the ambassador asked an aide.

On's desire for reconciliation, like that of many Vietnamese, is rooted in two beliefs: first, that the United States can play an important role in helping Vietnam's economy; and second, that the war ended a long time ago and that dwelling on the past is an unhealthy preoccupation.

"Life is life," said On, a retired factory worker who, with his wife of 42 years and two unemployed adult sons and several grandchildren, lives on a monthly pension of $18. "What's done is done. I never hated Americans, only the American government, and I never regretted what I did that day, even though a lot of people wanted to kill your pilot, Mr. McCain."

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McCain was a Navy lieutenant commander that day, Oct. 26, 1967, headed for a power plant in downtown Hanoi, when a Russian-made missile struck the right wing of his Skyhawk bomber. He ejected from the crippled plane and parachuted into Truc Bach (White Bamboo) Lake, his right leg and both arms broken.

On, then a North Vietnamese militiaman, had been hiding in a lakeside bomb shelter during the attack by a squadron of planes. Although he still can't explain why he did it, he grabbed a bamboo pole as a float and paddled 100 yards into the lake to drag McCain to shore.

An angry crowd gathered around McCain. One smashed his shoulder with a rifle butt. Others kicked him.

"I told them, 'Please don't kill him,' " On recalled. And McCain was spared, to spend more than five years as a prisoner of war.