The Stockdale Paradox. (The Goodness of America).(Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale/In Love and War)(Brief Article)

Retired Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, who celebrated his 78th birthday on December 23, 2001, served on active duty in the Navy for 37 years, most of them as a fighter pilot aboard aircraft carriers. As a combat pilot in Vietnam he led the first U.S. bombing attack on the North in 1964. On September 9, 1965, he was shot down during his second combat tour, then held captive in the notorious Hoa Lo Prison, the "Hanoi Hilton," until his release in early 1973. As our country's highest-ranking Naval POW during the war, he took the lead in resisting his Communist captors and preserving the morale of fellow POWs.

The North Vietnamese brutally tortured Stockdale on 15 occasions, placed him in leg irons for two years, and kept him in solitary confinement for four years. Despite such debilitating injuries as a broken back and shattered left leg, he steadfastly rejected his captors' demands that he sell out his country.

Stockdale was promoted to rear admiral upon his return home, and later to vice admiral. He received the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award, for outstanding bravery in the presence of an enemy, and he retired from the military in 1979 as the only three-star officer in Naval history to wear both aviator wings and the Medal of Honor. His other combat decorations included two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals, four Silver Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts.

Writing in USA Today last November 27th about ways to cope with the current economic recession, author Jim Collin recalled a lesson he learned years ago during a conversation with the admiral. "That lesson," Collins explained, "is the 'Stockdale Paradox,' a peculiar psychology shown by those who emerge from tough times not just ...