That is one of the predominant themes of McCain's writings on his own Vietnam experience (a lot of which I've read): Geneva Conventions, Geneva Conventions, Geneva Conventions! When antiwar "peaceniks" (including, McCain notes with some irritation, Tom Hayden) visited POW camps in Vietnam, he refused to meet with them because, he writes, that was not how the Geneva Conventions said POW meetings should be held. But he could give the peacenik delegation letters for his family back home, his captors said. Nope, McCain said, those are not the channels prescribed by the Geneva Conventions - not gonna do it. Doesn't matter if neither side has officially declared war, everyone ought to follow the Geneva Conventions when there are combatants and POWS. (Or "detainees.")
But now I suppose that earlier stance doesn't matter since he needs to appeal to a fanatical right wing base to get elected.
My guess is this is why he got so bothered on his plane by the question about Kerry asking McCain to be his running mate in '04 -- it would remind right-wingers that the guy was considered by ... a DEMOCRAT ... as an ally. Nevermind that Kerry and McCain in the early 90s also jointly headed a task force to see if there were still unaccounted-for POWs in Vietnam -- and when they jointly decided "no," there weren't, both Kerry and McCain -- Vietnam vets -- got a backlash from the POW/MIA black flag "You Are Not Forgotten" crowd that they were traitors, because of course there were. How cold Chuck Norris be wrong. A big subgenre of 80s action movies was the "We have unfinished business in Vietnam, so we're goin' back in." Must have been disappointing when McCain said, actually, we have no unfinished business there. Damn!
McCain's "maverick" credentials are exaggerated greatly, but this is a new low, esecially given the passion with whih he writes about his own 5 1/2 years as a POW who was tortured, etc.
-B.