WASHINGTON • The death of US Senator John McCain has prompted an outpouring of tributes to the Vietnam War hero and independent-minded lawmaker who has been a dominant figure in American politics for decades.
Mr McCain had been battling glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, since July last year. He also had surgery for an intestinal infection in April.
His family announced on Friday that he was discontinuing further cancer treatment.
He died the next day in his home state of Arizona. He was 81.
"My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years," his wife Cindy wrote on Twitter. "He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best."
Mr McCain is also survived by his seven children, three of them from a previous marriage.
He will lie in state in both Phoenix, Arizona, and in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC, and will receive a full dress funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral before being buried in Annapolis, Maryland, his family said.
Condolences came swift from the highest reaches of American politics.
US President Donald Trump tweeted: "My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!"
The Arizona senator, however, had frequently sparred with Mr Trump and told his family that he did not want the President to attend his funeral, CNN reported, citing family friends.
Vice-President Mike Pence was expected to represent the current administration. The White House flag was lowered to half-staff in honour of the senator.
Paying tribute to his one-time election opponent, former president Barack Obama said he and Mr McCain, despite their "completely different backgrounds" and political differences, shared "a fidelity to something higher - the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched and sacrificed".
"We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world," Mr Obama said.
Former president George W. Bush, who edged Mr McCain out for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, said: "Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended. Some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled. John McCain was a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order."
World leaders also spoke about his contributions. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "John McCain was guided by the firm conviction that the value of all political work could be found in serving freedom, democracy and the rule of law. His death is a loss for all who share that conviction."
French President Emmanuel Macron called him "a true American hero (whose)... voice will be missed".
British Prime Minister Theresa May said he "embodied the idea of service over self".
In Vietnam, the US Embassy said yesterday that it planned to launch the "McCain/Kerry Fellowship" in honour of Mr McCain and former secretary of state John Kerry, another Vietnam War veteran who has promoted US-Vietnam issues during his political career. The programme will support a "young Vietnamese leader committed to public service" to travel to the United States on a study tour annually.
Meanwhile, the vacancy created by Mr McCain's death narrowed the number of Republican-held seats in the 100-member US Senate to 50 seats, with Democrats controlling 49 seats in the upper chamber.
Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was expected to appoint a member of his own party to succeed Mr McCain.
That could also give Republicans a slight edge in the battle to confirm Mr Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court in the weeks ahead because Mr McCain had been too ill to cast any votes this year.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
