MCCAIN, JOHN S.

born Aug. 29, 1936, Panama Canal Zone, U.S. [now Panama] in full John Sidney McCain III U.S. congressman and senator, a conservative Republican who had particular interest in foreign-policy issues, military preparedness, and campaign finance reform and who sought his party's nomination for the presidency in the 2000 election. McCain came from a distinguished military family, his paternal grandfather serving as the commander of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific in World War II and his father as commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1958 and became a pilot. On October 26, 1967, during a raid on Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, his plane was downed and McCain was badly injured. For more than five years, until his release on March 17, 1973, he was held as a prisoner of war. Partly because of his father's position, he was subjected to extraordinarily harsh treatment, and he spent more than half of the time in solitary confinement. He rejected an offer of an early release as a propaganda ploy and was decorated for his bravery with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, and Distinguished Flying Cross. Upon release, he studied at the National War College in Washington, D.C., and resumed flying. As a navy legislative liaison, he became acquainted with influential members of the U.S. Congress. After his retirement from the navy in 1981, McCain moved to Arizona, and the following year he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was reelected in 1984, and in 1986 he won election to the U.S. Senate, taking the seat of the prominent conservative Barry Goldwater, who was retiring. As a member of Congress, McCain generally espoused conservative positions, but he did not always follow the Republican Party's line. He was, for example, sometimes critical of the foreign policy of President Ronald Reagan. McCain was active in efforts to pressure the Vietnamese government for information on U.S. military personnel listed as missing in action, and he consistently championed a strong armed forces. In the 1990s he became an advocate for changes in the laws governing the financing of political campaigns. As part of a bipartisan movement to reform campaign financing, he supported a ban on so-called soft moneycontributions given to parties rather than candidatesand the regulation of issue advertising. On September 27, 1999, McCain announced that he would seek the nomination of the Republican Party for president in the 2000 election. His book Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir was published in 1999.