But a few ex-POWs have castigated him and others for supporting U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam and for dismissing reports that some Americans were left behind alive when other POWs were brought home in 1973. The ad claims that McCain, as a member of a Senate investigation in the early 1990s, belittled and threatened witnesses who claimed that live prisoners were left behind. The ad, in The Union Leader of Manchester, was taken out by Col. Earl P. Hopper Sr. of Glendale, Ariz., according to George Stachokas, the newspaper's vice president for advertising. Hopper did not answer his home telephone this morning. The last line of the ad says it is sponsored by families of former POWs or servicemen missing in action and other concerned citizens.
Hopper is listed as a source of further information.