 In May 1969 , U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird began publicly questioning North Vietnamese treatment of U.S. prisoners . On June 5 , 1969 , a United Press International report described a Radio Hanoi broadcast that denied any such mistreatment . The broadcast used excerpts from McCain 's forced " confession " of a year before , including a statement where he said he had bombed " cities , towns and villages " and had received " very good medical treatment " as a prisoner . In late 1969 , treatment of McCain and the other POWs suddenly improved . North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh had died the previous month , possibly causing a change in policy towards POWs . Also , a badly beaten and weakened POW who had been released that summer disclosed to the world press the conditions to which they were being subjected , and the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia , which included McCain 's brother Joe , heightened awareness of the POWs ' plight . In December 1969 , McCain was transferred back to the Hoa Lo " Hanoi Hilton " ; his solitary confinement ended in March 1970 . When the prisoners talked about what they wanted to do once they got out , McCain said he wanted to become President . McCain consented to a January 1970 interview outside Hoa Lo with Spanish @-@ born , Cuban psychologist Fernando Barral , that was published in the official Cuban newspaper Granma . McCain talked about his life and expressed no remorse for his bombing North Vietnam , and Barral proclaimed him " an insensitive individual without human depth . " The POWs issued an edict forbidding any further such interviews , and despite pressure from his captors , McCain subsequently refused to see any anti @-@ war groups or journalists sympathetic to the North Vietnamese regime . 
