FOR RELEASE WITH BC-VIETNAM-MCCAIN, 2000-01-05 (photo)

FOR RELEASE WITH FEATURE BC-VIETNAM-MCCAIN - Mai Van On, an 83-year-old revolutionary soldier, holds his grandson as he gestures out to Truc Bach lake in Hanoi January 5, pointing to where he swam out and saved U.S. navy pilot John McCain who parachuted into the water when his Skyhawk bomber was shot down during the Vietnam War in 1967. On says McCain, who hopes to be the Republican nominee for this year's U.S. presidential race, would have drowned if he'd reached the pilot 30 seconds later. McCain, who ended up spending more than five years in Hanoi as a prisoner of war, was a key force behind the normalisation of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the United States in 1995. DY/DL