McCain’s POW Cross Story Raises Eyebrows

John McCain won major points on Saturday for his story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt, but the tale has bloggers crying foul. Apparently the details of the story have changed over the years, and lately they bear more than a passing resemblance to the memories of the late Russian novelist and gulag survivor Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Political Insider:

Last week, a speech by Sen. John McCain had phrases that were likely lifted directly from Wikipedia.

Now it seems McCain may have lifted another story last night at megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s Faith Forum. According to a very persuasive Daily Kos diary, the anecdote McCain told about a North Vietnamese prison guard making a cross in the dirt as a sign of solidarity — or as he said, “just two Christians worshiping together” — is very similar to a story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his times in the Soviet Gulags.

“As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt, his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.”

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