Senator John McCain. (Photo: Reuters)

During the Vietnam war, Mr. McCain served as a navy pilot and was captured when his plane was shot down in a bombing mission targeting Hanoi in 1967.

Returning from Vietnam, he joined politics and was one of the first US politicians campaigning for normalization of US-Vietnam relations through promoting humanitarian issues such as removing unexploded ordnance left by the war, searching for missing-in-action personnel, supporting people with war-related disabilities, and detoxifying areas contaminated by dioxin.

In 1994, the US Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Senator McCain and Senator John Kerry which called for the lifting of the economic embago against Vietnam, paving the way for the normalization of relations between the two countries one year later.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US, Ha Kim Ngoc. (Photo: VNA)

“Senator John McCain is a historic figure, a symbol of Vietnam-US reconciliation. Together with John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, Jim Webb and several other US senators, Mr. McCain pioneered the normalization and development of relations between the two countries despite opposition from a number of US politicians at that time. He contributed greatly to and played a special role in Vietnam-US ties,” Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc told VOV.

Senator John McCain was a close friend of Vietnamese people and won their hearts, according to Ambassador Ngoc.

“Despite his illness, Senator McCain paid particular attention to Vietnam-US cooperation, the East Sea issue, and the negative impact of the US’s catfish inspection program on Vietnamese farmers in the Mekong Delta. I greatly respect Senator John McCain and would like to extend my deep sympathy to his family,” Mr. Ngoc said.