No one ever mentions that McCain was shot down while bombing a civilian target in a densely populated city. The secretary's tribute here to what has become an American military tradition is fitting.
https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1420648125111304197
The targets McCain and his fellow airmen bombed had no military value; they took place hundreds of miles from where American soldiers were fighting. The purpose of the bombings was to inflict suffering on civilians severe enough to put pressure on the North Vietnamese government.
If in 1967 North Vietnam had bombed a power plant in Oakland we'd consider it the greatest war crime since Pearl Harbor. (There was in fact a nice short story based on such a premise, but I can't remember the author's name).
For the curious, this is where McCain dropped his bombs before getting shot down. The target is the white structure just above the bridge on the right. 
I appreciate how North Vietnam beat us so thoroughly that they are cool with people coming to lay wreaths for war criminals or hunt for small pieces of US airmen in the jungle. The same people took baguettes and coffee away from the French and made them tastier. Pure boss move.
South Vietnam, meanwhile, represents the second great American military tradition of the post WWII era: abandoning the people who fought side by side with you for years to be imprisoned or killed.
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