View From a Height

Adm. Stockdale, RIP

Admiral James Stockdale has died. For those looking for heroes, Stockdale was the genuine article. Kept in the Hanoi Hilton for 8 years, Stockdale became the leader of the POWs there, helping them survive an actual torture camp.

Jim Collins recounts interviewing Stockdale for his book, Good to Great:

"I never lost faith in the end of the story," he said, when I asked him. "I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end, and that I would turn the experience into the defining moment of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade."

I didn't say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about 100 meters of silence, I asked, "Who didn't make it out?"

"Oh, that's easy," he said, "the optimists."

"The optimists? I don't understand," I said, now completely confused, given what he'd said a hundred meters earlier.

"The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

Another long paus, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: "We're not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!"

Those who like to prate on about the evils of Gitmo would do well to read his memoirs of those years. But then, that would take the guts to confront the most brutal facts of their reality.