From the Syracuse Post-Standard:
[David Ifshin] led the anti-war students who shut down Syracuse University 30 years ago this month. Within the year he went to North Vietnam and broadcast an appeal for U.S. soldiers to resist the war. Radio Hanoi repeatedly broadcast his speech into the cells of American prisoners of war, including the one occupied by Lt. Cmdr. John McCain of the U.S. Navy.
And guess what? The two men eventually became friends. The story after the jump.
According to the Post-Standard profile, Ifshin became a lawyer and apologized to McCain and others for what he had done. He eventually became general counsel for Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign.
McCain accepted Ifshin's apology and even became a friend, saying these words at Ifshin's funeral in 1996 (according to the Post-Standard):
"I learned about courage from David, learned to look for virtue, " McCain said. "And I learned the futility of looking back in anger."
Except, of course, when looking back in anger allows him to turn the light interaction with Bill Ayers into a semi-racist talking point.
There are many similarities between Ifshin and Ayers.
Both had been student radicals.
Both engaged in terrorism against America; Ayers used bombs, while Ifshin used words to demoralize POWs.
Both turned their lives around. Ifshin, in the law; Ayers, in community work.
McCain offered his friendship to Ifshin and they worked together on issues of peace in Vietnam. Imagine that.
Instead, McCain's argument that any involvement with a reformed anti-war protester is bad, bad, bad.
McCain was told he'd be sorry he raised these issues.