me a cup of tea, then threw me into the truck and took me to the prison which we know of as the hanoi hilton, an old french prison -- built by the french, a prison in downtown hanoi. kelly: can you tell me about living conditions at the hanoi hilton and how they changed after you refused early release? senator mccain: conditions were very poor in the first few years. guards were very tough. the food was poor. a lot of dissentary. -- dysentery. i lived most of the time in solitary confinement, although i was always in contact by tapping with other prisoners. i was never beaten very badly up until the time i refused the early release, but after that it was very severe for about eight or nine months as they attempted to get a war crimes confession out of me. but after a while that eased off some. then after about middle to late 1970 after ho chi minh had died, our treatment changed for everybody and it improved rather dramatically. kelly: what kind of food did they give you? senator mccain: soup twice a day, piece of bread usually, and soup. four months a year, it was pumpkin soup, four months