--- title: John McCain at Munich Security Conference: 'Never Give Up' description: John McCain's wife Cindy accepted the Ewald Von Kleist Award on her husband's behalf as he battles brain cancer. canonical: https://time.com/5165665/john-mccain-munich-security-conference/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-19T19:55:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:20:47.243Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Allies 'Never Give Up' og:description: His call for unity comes as President Trump questions the U.S.'s postwar alliances og:url: https://time.com/5165665/john-mccain-munich-security-conference/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbddd81127045422f/6988f559cf40a82ee5c4a9fe/john-cindy-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Los Angeles Dodgers v Arizona Diamondbacks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Allies 'Never Give Up' twitter:description: His call for unity comes as President Trump questions the U.S.'s postwar alliances twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbddd81127045422f/6988f559cf40a82ee5c4a9fe/john-cindy-mccain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Western Allies 'I Am Counting on You... to Never Give Up' by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 19, 2018 7:55 PM UTC  President Trump called Cindy McCain (R) to send his best wishes while her husband, Sen. John McCain, remains hospitalized President Trump called Cindy McCain (R) to send his best wishes while her husband, Sen. John McCain, remains hospitalizedChristian Petersen—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 19, 2018 7:55 PM UTC Cindy McCain [accepted](https://www.securityconference.de/en/media-library/munich-security-conference-2018/video/ewald-von-kleist-award-ceremony/) an award on behalf of her husband John McCain, who is ill with brain cancer, on Saturday night at the Munich Security Conference. She read a [letter](https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=press-releases&id=24993E39-6935-497D-A205-6D0038888BE6) from her husband in which the Republican Senator and longtime foreign policy hawk urges America’s allies to stand by the values that won the Cold War. The Ewald Von Kleist Award is given for service to international peace and conflict resolution. It is named for a German who volunteered to wear a suicide vest in the attack on Adolf Hitler, and who founded the conference conference in Munich. McCain’s call for unity came as many at the Munich conference criticized President Donald Trump for questioning the value of America’s post-war alliances. McCain’s letter: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5165665/john-mccain-munich-security-conference/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5165665/john-mccain-munich-security-conference/"},"headline":"Sen. 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