As much as I loath Juan’s joke performance as senator. He could have gotten out of the Hilton, early as the son of an admiral but refused.
Give him credit for that.
I believe there are some things that could be said to counter that mindset, but I wasn’t there and I’ll leave it to those who were.
For me it has always been very hard to think about what he was like before and after his Hanoi Hilton stint, and still come away thinking the years there were completely honorable.
This guy selected the wrong path at almost every turn in life we can document, IMO.