How to honor John McCain’s memory

Kerry was McCain’s close ally in these efforts. The two men, from different sides of the political aisle, could have been antagonists, given McCain’s long family history of military service and Kerry’s impassioned antiwar leadership during the 1970s. But they shared a bond that was born in combat and nurtured by love of country. They also shared a belief in our common humanity, including the humanity of former adversaries.

Ultimately McCain and Kerry drew strikingly similar conclusions from their markedly different experience of that very complicated war. They had learned about leadership, hubris, heroism, patriotism and, perhaps most important, the need to be honest with the American people. That was McCain’s message when he and Kerry participated in a screening of the film at the Kennedy Center in Washington before its broadcast: “We can learn lessons today because the world is in such turmoil. Tell the American people the truth!”