13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Former Gov. Kernan returning to Vietnam prison

Former Gov. Kernan returning to Vietnam prison

South Bend - Former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan plans next year to make his first trip to Vietnam since he spent 11 months as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

Kernan and his wife, Maggie, will be hosts for a February tour that will include stops at the site where his Navy reconnaissance plane was shot down in 1972 and the prison referred to by Americans who were held there, including Sen. John McCain, as the Hanoi Hilton.

Kernan said he isn't sure how he'll feel upon returning to the preserved portion of the prison that has been turned into a museum. He said he has no hatred toward the North Vietnamese, even though he was beaten after his unconscious parachute landing near Hanoi.

"If somebody from somewhere else parachuted down in this country after 33 planes were dropping bombs on their neighborhood, what kind of reception would they get?" Kernan told the South Bend Tribune.

Sure, he added, "I didn't like some of them I met along the way."

Kernan, a Democrat, spent nine years as South Bend's mayor before being elected lieutenant governor in 1996. He became governor after Gov. Frank O'Bannon died in 2003, then lost to Republican Mitch Daniels in the 2004 election.

Kernan, now president of the South Bend Silver Hawks minor league baseball team, had planned a trade delegation trip to Vietnam while he was lieutenant governor that was canceled because of state Legislature business. He said that he hadn't found the right time to go until now.

Information from: South Bend Tribune

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