The man who ran the notorious Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam and kept John McCain prisoner for 5 1/2 years is speaking out. Tran Trong Duyet is now 75 years old, but 4 decades ago he was a young Vietnamese soldier who oversaw the incarceration of numerous American POW’s.

In an interview with the BBC, Duyet said of McCain, “He is a very frank man – very conservative, and very loyal to his country and the American ideal.”

Duyet went on to say that he’s followed McCain’s career closely since the war, adding “If I was American, I would vote for him.”