On October 26, 1967, during the Vietnam War, U.S. Navy aviator John McCain was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile on a mission against a Hanoi power plant and parachuted wounded into Trúc Bạch Lake, nearly drowning. He was dragged out of the water and beaten by city residents angry at having seen the area laid to waste by previous U.S. attacks. He was later taken away as a prisoner of war. A monument commemorating the downing and capture of "Tchn Sney Ma Can" was erected at the western shore on Thanh Niên Road. The translated inscription reads, "On 26 October 1967 near Truc Bach Lake in the capital, Hanoi, the citizens and military caught Pilot John Sidney McCain. The US Navy Air Force Aviator was flying aircraft A4, which crashed near Yen Phu power station. This was one of ten aircraft shot down that same day."

The monument was originally erected in celebration of the downing of the American enemy aircraft and capture of the enemy pilot, but since the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam and due to Senator McCain's significant contribution to that process, the monument has come to be viewed as an honor to the man himself. Since his death, Hanoi residents regularly place flowers at the monument in appreciation of his post-war efforts to help Vietnam.