Vice Admiral Stockdale was on active duty in the navy for thirty-seven years. As a fighter pilot operating from an aircraft carrier, he was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. As the senior naval officer among the prisoners of war in Hanoi for seven and a half years, he was tortured fifteen times, put in leg irons for two years, and confined in solitary for four years. This experience was the crucible for his philosophical thought on issues of character, leadership, integrity, personal and public virtue, and ethics. Much of his philosophy is drawn from the stoic philosophers, especially Epictetus, whom he had read before his capture. The selections in this volume converge around the central theme of how man can rise with dignity to prevail in the face of adversitylessons just as valid for the challenges of present-day life as they were for the author's Vietnam experience.
American and United States Navy vice admiral. He is one of the most decorated Navy officers who had been awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War where he was a prisoner of war for over seven years.
Stockdale was the highest-ranking naval officer held as a prisoner in North Vietnam. He had led aerial attacks from the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) during the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident. On his next deployment, while Commander of Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34), he was shot down in North Vietnam on September 9, 1965.
During the late 1970s, he served as President of the Naval War College. Stockdale was candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1992 presidential election, on Ross Perot's independent ticket.
This is probably one of my favorite books ever read. As a young Marine Corps Lieutenant, I stumbled on to it and it was one of the few that really made a lasting impression.
Anyone under 30 probably has no idea who Stockdale is; Those over 40 may recall him as the odd-ball Vice Presidential nominee under Ross Perot's ticket in 1992. He came across as fairly senile, but this book opened my eyes to one of the most intelligent, toughest men ever built.
The book: As a young Naval Officer in the early 1960's, Stockdale was selected to complete a graduate program, courtesy of the U.S. Navy. He went back to school unsure of what to study. He stumbled on to philosophy and completed his Master's work and returned to the Navy. Serving in the skies over Vietnam, he was shot down and imprisoned in the 'Hanoi Hilton' early on during the war. Arriving as the senior officer among other POW's, he organized a chain of command, implemented rules among the prisoners, and provided an example of how POW's should behave. He endured years of torture, isolation, interrogation, etc. This is the only practical application of Greek philosophy I've ever seen.
He would pound his face against the walls so he would have black eyes and knew the Vietnamese could not make videos of him. When he was at the breaking point and ready to sign a 'confession', he broke a window and tried to kill himself in order to avoid the shame. He signaled 't-o-r-t-u-r-e' by blinking morse code with his eyelids during taped interviews.
Vice Admiral Stockdale was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions as a POW and the military's SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, & Escape [POW]) School is named after him.
Appropriate for military, philosophy, inspirational and history book shelves.
Stockdale was a genuine hero. The problem was that he knew it and then wrote/spoke about it in every chapter of this book. It was copiously redundant. Some of the philosophical foundations he shares are well worth considering and his stories are gripping. But not when every chapter shares the exact same ones.
Contains some good stuff, but a lot of redundant material; read "Stockdale on Stoicism" instead. I was interested to learn more about Stockdale's relationships with Rhinelander and Brennan. No index.
Brilliant stuff from one of the world's most credible Stoics. True, "rubber-hits-the-road" philosophy which re-invigorated my concept of what the United States could become if it came back to what the founders wanted it to be - a reincarnation of the Roman Republic.
This is a collection of articles, essays and speeches of James Stockdale, an american pilot (among other things) during the Vietnam war. He was shot down during a bombing run and ended up spending close to 8 years as a POW /political prisoner.
Through his recounting we discover a man who under 8 years of torture and isolation, not only survived, but rather thrived. Similar to Viktor Frankl the passing through this harrowing experience, instead of destroying him, forged him into a better human being. He attributes this transformation to the teachings of Epictetus, which he not only learned but took to heart during that difficult experience.
If you’re an adept of stoicism,read this to find out about yet another example of a man putting philosophical theory into action in almost contemporary times.
The reason I’m not rating this a 5 star is that due to how it was edited and put together in separate excerpt, along recounting the same story from various angles it features a lot of repetition. There is also a sizeable portion of political critique and some writings focused around the arena in Washington vis-a-vis the Vietnam war which I mostly skimmed over.
I feel like I should give a medal of honor recipient and former POW more than 3 stars but the book itself is a little repetitive. Not really the fault of Stockdale- it's a collection of his speeches and writings so by nature, that collection is going to be repetitive. The ideas that are in here are worthwhile.
One can't be faulted for developing the sense that Providence played a role in charting Stockdale's life experiences so that he would have the will or moral purpose to lead an American flyer prison population in Vietnam for 7.5 years. This collection of speeches, essays, and other documents represent his post-captivity purpose to contribute to society's understanding of human nature as revealed to him in the crucible of a torture prison. Several items that penetrated my mind:
- The Stoic. I had an understanding of stoicism before, but these readings helped solidify further the power of indifference to those things that share the potential of being fleeting, whether it is material objects, relationships, or one's physical form. What is not fleeting is one's will or moral purpose, which produces the idea that one can only be a victim of yourself, which creates a different kind of power over one's environment or oppressor.
- The US prisoner Code of Conduct was completely unsuitable for life in a political prison in which torture would eventually force a response. As Stockdale puts it, his order to his prison command was to not give their captors anything for free, that they must submit to torture first. And it seemed to be the kind of structure that prevented him and his fellows from developing the serious feelings of guilt that adherence to the Code of Conduct would unreasonably demand.
- "My Kind of Guys." I enjoyed this section of readings most, probably because it made real to me great Americans whose stories saddened yet still inspired, like CDR Thomas Hayes, a surgeon who underwent captivity under the Japanese in the Philippines, later perishing while being shipped to the Japanese homeland; or USAF Captain Lance Sijan, the posthumous Medal of Honor winner who showed amazing grit and defiance despite terrible and debilitating injury after being shot down over Laos. The remarkable naval career of Admiral Aubrey Fitch took on a more personal element in Stockdale's speech at the commissioning of USS AUBREY FITCH.
- The fraud that was the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Then CDR Stockdale, by his telling, was a frontline participant in this non-event, and it is remarkable to me that this critical moment in US history hasn't publicly received the examination it deserves. The war may have been a valid and necessary decision for the US, as Dr. Mark Moyar's excellent and revisionist "Triumph Forsaken" argues, but entry should have been on the basis of leadership making a compelling case for strategic aims, not on the basis of an imaginary attack on US destroyers.
Much of what Stockdale offers I found appealing, and I appreciate his sense of self as something other than an "organization man". He valued the idea that one should endeavor not to be "disdained by history", Stockdale's position in that regard is very secure.
This book was written by Jim Stockdale, the vice presidential candidate who was Ross Perot's running mate in 1992. Since he really did not say much in the debates, it was interesting to see that he had thoughts about things. However, the book did not live up to my expectations. This book was a series of speeches and not really a book. The chapters were repetitively discussed how Stockdale was a prisoner of war during Vietnam. Many phrases were repeated over and over. For example, there was something about an "artful dodge" that happened several times during the early chapters of this book. It stuck in my head because the artful Dodger is a character in Oliver Twist. There was also some disparaging quote about the French that was repeated over and over.
In the first chapters, the names of philosophers were thrown around without any discussion of their philosophy. It was not until the last section starting at about half way through the book that the book started to discuss why the philosopher Epictetus was so important to Stockdale while he was being held as a P.O.W. in Vietnam.
What can we learn from a prisoner of seven years in one of the most brutal (mentally and physically) war-time POW jails of the modern era? Stockdale survived, dare I say "thrived", in no small part due to his understanding of Stoic philosophy. The Stoics made a hard-line distinction between the uncontrollable outer-world and controllable inner-world. While not easy, striving to grasp one's deepest sense of moral and ethical codes of conduct are - as the book claims - the most valiant things we can do in pursuit of a purposeful life. This book is a compilation of talks and stories by and about Stockdale. Often repetitive (in a good way) many of the stories recounts the details of his POW experience, what it means to modern day soldiers and the philosophy upon which one can survive the ordeals of life.
I read this book because many excerpts from it were featured in Donald Robertsons "The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy". I had hoped for more insightful wisdom covering the Stoicism topic but frankly Robertson already put all the nuggets in his book. The leftovers are mainly cold-war military, business and politic talks that I found very tenacious to get through. One should also mention that this books contains speeches that Stockdale gave in his career. Be prepared for a lot of repetition.
TL;DR: Don't read this book only because you are interested in the Stoic subject matter. Read Robertsons book instead.
A collection of Stockdale's post-war writings and speeches. Honestly, most of them blend together a lot, and I found myself saying 'yes, yes, yes, okay, I know.' Because a lot of them were the same thing in different wrappings.
That said, the final speech/essay/whatever ACTUALLY got into stoicism pretty hardcore. And that one piece saved the whole book for me.
This is a thought-provoking and sometimes difficult book to read. A collection of articles and speeches by Admiral Stockdale, where he explains how he came to adopt stoicism as a way of life, and how that helped him not only to endure torture, but to remain a leader in the prison camps in Hanoi.
This book is not for the weak of heart. Jim Stockdale has had a life that makes most men's lives pale in comparison. He breaks down his values and explains how he dealt with hash circumstances and how those ordeals made him. He leans heavily on stoicism and the writings of Epeticus.
Stockade could not believe America’s leaders would lie to get us in a war with Vietnam. Stockdale lived long enough to witness the invasion of Iraq because of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. I wonder if he said, “ for 30 years I’ve told the Americans about lying leaders, it’s like they did not hear a word I said”.
Interesting he could follow the war by listening to Hanoi Hannah’s broadcasts while in prison and said there were three stages: ’65-'68 commitment to win, ’69-’71 support warning, ’71-'73, commitment lost, on our way out.
Stockdale held our “best and brightest” making Vietnam War policy in low esteem. He believed they had absolutely no idea what they were doing.
Never says anything about John McCain being in prison with him.
Owes his prison survival to Epictetus, Roman philosopher. “The shame is greater than the pain”. "Your only a victim of things you cannot control if you submit to being a victim”.
Stockdale embraces Stoicism. For a Brit that would be: “Keep a stiff upper lip”.
After release, Stockdale spent the rest of his life revisiting his experience. Perhaps by request, but if by design was he held captive, failing to "let it go” as he said Stoics do?
No mention of what mindset the other 200+ POW’s used to survive.
Stockdale was born too late, should have been in the WWII, where you knew who the enemy was, where he was and had a clear objective to eliminate him. Stockdale would be right up there with General Patton.
Did Stockdale believe as John McCain, torture does not work? Perhaps the North Vietnamese kept him alive because he was the biggest bargaining chip they had.
His legacy lives on in the military, while you cannot control the actions and events surrounding you you can keep your moral compass and do the right thing.
"Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot" ist eine Sammlung von James "Jim" Stockdales Reden, Schriften und Interviews. Der 2005 verstorbene Stockdale war als Kampfpilot in Vietnam und wurde dort nach einem Absturz mehrere Jahre lang in einem politischen Gefängnis gehalten.
Stockdales Gedanken sind beeindruckend, weil er auch in seiner mehrjährigen Gefangenschaft nie aufgegeben hat, indem er von den Lehren des antiken Philosophen Epiktet Gebrauch machte. Auch gibt er in dem Buch tiefgehende Einblicke darüber, was jemanden zu einer Führungspersönlichkeit macht und wie sich ein Charakter unter Druck formen kann.
Das Buch hat keinen roten Faden, sondern ist mehr eine lose Sammlung von Stockdales Gedanken und Beiträgen. Ein Großteil der Beträge bezieht sich auf Stockdales Erfahrungen in Vietnam, wobei kritische Fragen zur Berechtigung der Einsätze weitestgehend offen gelassen werden. Insgesamt ist das Werk ein interessanter Einblick für Leser, die ein echtes Beispiel für den Einsatz von stoischer Philosophie suchen, aber es lässt auch einige Fragen unbeantwortet.
Stockdale is an incredible man who overcame unfathomable adversity. His writing is clear and straightforward. The book is a collection of speeches or pieces of writing, and many cover the same events or topics. My initial assumption was that this would become repetitive and tiresome, but I had the opposite experience. Much like attending sermons, exposure to the same idea, phrased slightly differently each time and in changing contexts, reinforced the core principles Stockdale is communicating throughout this book. I found it to be a valuable and instructive exercise. It is deeply humbling to realise that the people described in this book, who are made of the same base matter as I am, could overcome such experiences with their integrity and values intact.
This book is a collection of essays and speeches given between 1980 and 1995 plus or minus. There's a lot of repetition, yes. Modern sensibilities may be offended, yes. But oh, what a story James Stockdale has to tell. I only knew of him as the bumbling side kick of the independent candidate/election spoiler Ross Perot but I missed out on the public presence of a truly interesting guy.
These lectures are a mix of commentary on social and political life and the impact stoic philosophy had on his time as a POW in Vietnam. Both are fascinating reading. Highly recommended.
Started off a little slow as I was expecting more of a history of Stockdale's experience as a POW. But finished very strongly leaving the desire to read through again. Don't be misled in later chapters into thinking that they are repeats, although the talks may be similar, the content of the spaces vary enough to make each worthy. Read this through Google Play, but I think I might have to pick it up in paperback to study better. Definitely understand stoicism better and will have to give Epictetus' Enchiridion and Discourses its due time.
Interesting and by turns deeply disturbing as well as inspiring. If there was ever a case study for the efficacy of the Stoic worldview, this is it. I could have done without the section at the end that includes a bunch of excerpts from speeches and media appearances - they were a little repetitive and actually acted to mute the impact of the main text. If you pick this one up, I'd actually recommend just skipping that part.
The downside of this book, for me, was the repetition of some of the anecdotes and the unevenness of the narrative (a mix of speech transcripts and fairly polished writing). But this collection of talks, given by Stockdale between 1981 and 1994, was worth reading for me for two reasons: the application of Stoicism in the crucible of extreme hardship, and the citation of a wealth of further reading (including a reading list from Stockdale’s course on Moral Philosophy).
The gateway to Stoicism. Like Epictetus, Admiral Stockdale is consistent in his teachings and thoughts in this collection of lectures, interviews, and essays. There is much to learn and emulate from someone who endured, and dare say thrived in, lengthy and horrific conditions. The description of those events alone provides perspective on our seemingly difficult everyday struggles. I highly recommend his Stanford Enchiridion lecture, the second-to-last chapter.
Wow. Stockdale discusses morality through his lens as a fighter pilot who was shot in town and imprisoned for over eight years during Vietnam. Incredible perspectives on what character is and the difference between good and evil from a person that experienced the ultimate pressure cooker upon one's character. He talks about his philosophy and how it leads people out of that top cooker with their honor & character preserved. Highly recommended
While Stockdale does repeat himself, as the nature of the book is a collection of lectures and speeches, this does serve the purpose of driving home its central messages of practicing Stoicism, strength through unity, the conscience and morality, and what really kills a man.
The war in SEA remainders questionable war this brave pilot was able to find inner strength through. An ancient but effective philosophy Inspiring account of a brave POW
I read this as part of my Stoicism curriculum this year. Excellent. Highly recommend. With all books composed of speeches/essays, they can be a little repetitive so I recommend spreading it out over time (3-4 months).
This book has great content but wasn't meant to be read altogether. It's a compilation of Jim Stockdales speeches he gave over the years, while they are truly great, they get repetitive when read back to back like the book has them formatted.
Wish Stockdale was alive when Drumpf made the comment about heroes not getting captured. A truly brilliant and inspiring man, even if I disagree with some of his assertions about education.