Why Courage Matters

Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life is a 2004 book by United States Senator John McCain with his frequent collaborator and aide Mark Salter. Published by Random House, it is a little bit autobiography, but mostly mini-biographies and mini-commentaries on others.

The book followed McCain's two memoirs, Faith of My Fathers (1999) and Worth the Fighting For (2002). McCain starts by saying that in contemporary usage people talk too loosely in characterizing acts as being courageous - it should be not only "the capacity for action despite our fears" but also involve a physical self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. He says that during his time as a POW in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he relied on his fellow POWs for moral support but "I was not always a match for my enemies." In press interviews for the book, McCain said that courage materializes when "our fear is overcome by our conscience and our beliefs and forces us to act."

Most of the book consists of his portraits of people, both leaders and ordinary people, he thinks have shown courage. The book starts with the story of U.S. Special Forces soldier Roy Benavidez, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War. Others whose stories are in the book include American civil rights leader John Lewis, American Indian chiefs Manuelito and Barboncito, explorer John Wesley Powell, Jewish resistance fighter Hannah Szenes, Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, Baltimore anti-drugs-crime mass murder victim Angela Dawson, and U.S. Korean War soldier and Medal of Honor recipient Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr.. McCain then relates how courage is needed in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.