Surviving In Captivity

"Tolerable" was the word John McCarthy carefully chose to describe living conditions during his most recent months as a hostage in Lebanon. He assured the families of three of the men who had been held with him -- Americans Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland and fellow Briton Terry Waite -- that when he last saw them, "they were in good health and good spirits."

McCarthy also said mildly that his first two years as a prisoner were "very difficult." In fact, the years after he was kidnapped in Beirut in 1986 were hellish. Brian Keenan, an Irish teacher released last year...