“McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes,I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn’t left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.I don’t recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group,”

Singlaub who was a good friend of McCain’s father,added:

“John’s father asked me for advice about what he ought to do now that his son had been shot down and captured.” “I said, ‘As long as you don’t give any impression that you care more about him than you care about any of the other prisoners, he won’t be treated any differently.’”

Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub’s council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla force in Central America.McCain said that he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group’s letterhead. McCain said in a newspaper interview in 1986:

“I didn’t know whether (the group’s activity) was legal or illegal, but I didn’t think I wanted to be associated with them.”

But Singlaub revealed that McCain never resigned:

“That’s a surprise to me.” “This is the first time I’ve ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office communicating with our office.”"I don’t ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn’t worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing,” “If he didn’t want to be on the board that’s OK. It wasn’t as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us.”