Former U.S. Senator and Vietnam War prisoner of war Jeremiah Denton spoke about the reinforcement of his spiritual faith during his imprisonment in Vietnam and decried the current prevalence of liberal political sentiment in the United States during a speech Tuesday in ICC.

As a commander in the Navy during the Vietnam War, Denton was the first military prisoner in North Vietnam to spend more than four years in solitary confinement. He was also the most senior officer among the group of prisoners who were finally released in 1973.

For eight years, the North Vietnamese tortured Denton in order to obtain information that they could use as propaganda to support the Communist regime, Denton said. He refused, however, to give the Vietnamese the information they wanted.

When the North Vietnamese set up a televised interview with Denton intending to elicit comments that would attack America’s decision to go to war, Denton did the unexpected. Instead of criticizing the actions of the U.S. government, Denton stated his full support for whatever decision the government made and said that he would stand by his country for as long as he lived.

In addition, Denton repeatedly blinked the word “torture” in Morse code. The interview, which was broadcast on American television on May 17, 1966, was the first clear message U.S. intelligence received of the torture of American prisoners by the North Vietnamese.

Denton said he later paid for this action of defiance, as his captors attempted to break him with excruciating torture.

For five days and five nights, he was placed on a pallet with his hands tightly cuffed behind his back with “hell cuffs” which cut into his wrists. Shackles were placed on his ankles so that he was forced to remain in an upright sitting position at all times.

An iron bar was tied to the rig in such a way that when a rope was drawn over a pulley, the bar would cut into the backs of his legs, causing them to bleed. The rope was tightened every day.

When Denton still refused to give in, he was subjected to another five days and five nights in the rig. He described how he had a profound spiritual experience on the fifth day of his torture.

“I offered myself to God with an admission that I could take no more on my own,” Denton said. “The instant I made that act of will all pain ceased. I felt like someone put a big, warm blanket over me. It was the most supremely happy moment of my life.”

When one of the guards came in, Denton looked him straight in the face. According to Denton, the guard suddenly broke down and was not able to pull the rope. The guard then released him from the rig, dressed his wounds and carried him up to a room.

When Denton finally returned to the United States in 1973, he was extremely disillusioned. He went into cultural shock upon seeing the changes in popular attitudes toward the war since his departure in 1965. Denton’s conservative political views developed from this experience, he said.

“[Liberals] have been leading us in an unfortunate direction – a direction which must be reversed,” he said.

Denton praised and offered words of motivation for students who did not succumb to what he views as a biased media and educational system. He cited these types of students as the future leaders of America who would change the outlook of the country.

“The whole red portion [of the country] had a clear, unprecedented message,” Denton said. “That cultural value is now a main issue in America for many of the winning side and the liberals are going to have to put up or get out because we just proved our nation does care.”

Denton gave a favorable forecast for the future prospects of the Republican Party.

“I predict that we’ll have a lot of Democratic congressmen shifting to [the] Republican [Party],” Denton said. “I believe the average American who actually listens to some of this debate will see the truth – that un-American things won’t stand.”

Denton also made a lengthy attack on the prevalence of what he said were casual attitudes toward sex in the United States. During his years in the Senate, Denton pushed for abstinence-based sex education as part of several broad proposals that he said would reform and save moral values in America.

In addition to domestic reform, Denton advocated an international aid program that provides commercial transportation for U.S. charities to deliver their donated goods to other regions of the world.

Denton said that the best solution for widespread poverty around the world is for wealthy nations to donate their surplus goods to less developed countries.