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Jewish World Review July 22, 2005 / 15 Tammuz, 5765 A Greatest American Dies and No One Notices: A major missed diagnosis By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
A great man died on July 5th. None of the obituaries noted that his
greatest gift to America was the one we have, so far, refused. A missed
diagnosis of classic proportions!
Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale was arguably the most decorated officer in
Navy history: 26 personal citations, including the Congressional Medal of
Honor for nearly eight years of heroism as a Vietnam POW. But he was famous
mostly for his decision to become Ross Perot's 1992 vice presidential
running mate, and for that disastrous debate when he came across as, at
best, a kindly old buffoon who should have brought a back-up hearing aid
with him to the studio. A few pundits sneered. Most were embarrassed for
him and happy to let the whole thing drop.
This is what they didn't tell you.
In the early 1960s, Stockdale was a hot shot fighter pilot on the fast
track to stars. The Navy had slotted him for one of its most coveted
assignments, command of a fighter squadron at sea. First, however, another
plum: a master's degree in international relations at Stanford University.
Then, after carrier duty, three years at the Pentagon, to pay the
government back for his graduate education.
Stanford was wonderful, but Stockdale was bored. One day, he
encountered Philip Rhinelander, a former Navy officer, at that time chair
of the Philosophy Department. Rhinelander talked him in to auditing some
philosophy lectures. Stockdale fell in love. Soon he was staying up all
night, reading philosophy, especially the great Stoics, Marcus Aurelius and
Epictetus.
But his fascination also wearied him. It was: Hey, I'm Technological Man. I
fly jets. I play golf. I drink martinis. I know how to work the system.
What does this have to do with me?
He got his answer, he later wrote, the day in 1965 he was shot down, when
he left behind the world of technology and entered the world of Epictetus.
After a welcoming beating by a crowd of North Vietnamese and three days in
the back of a truck, he arrived at the Hanoi Hilton, with a broken back,
one broken leg, and a bullet in the other. He demanded medical attention
and was told, "You have a medical problem and you have a political
problem. In this country, we take care of political problems first."
Slowly, Stockdale came to realize that their traditional and presumed
sources of resistance — military law and codes, professionalism, American
patriotism, machismo, religious faith — although valuable, weren't enough.
In the torture room, the torturer wins. The Americans had to create
something strong enough to enable them to resist together, which meant
surrendering as little as possible. Stockdale found the way to do that in
the ancient texts he'd studied. He became, he later wrote, "the lawgiver of
an autonomous colony of Americans who happened to be located in a Hanoi
prison."
This colony created an entire civilization, based on two great Stoic
premises. The first is that, whatever else you surrender, never surrender
your spirit: in Stoic terminology, your will. The second was that, although
you are an autonomous being no matter what your circumstances, what you do
in the world still matters.
Over time, they learned to communicate by tapping in code on the walls, and
"tap code" became an evolving language. They crafted a legal system,
specifying how much torture to take before making concessions and requiring
members to be absolutely honest about their failures. (There was another
commandment: forgive). They developed their own culture, compiled and
memorized their own history, established their traditions. They lost many
battles. But never gave the communists what they wanted most: a mass of
isolated, desperate men, willing to obey their captors.
When Stockdale returned home, his son urged him to write about "where
you've really been." For over twenty years, he did so, in a memoir
co-authored with his wife, Sybil, "In Love and War," and in two volumes of
essays, "A Vietnam Experience" and "Thoughts
of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot." They never received a fraction of the
attention they deserved. Americans usually love a hero. Sadly we were not
prepared to heed a philosopher of courage and the uncomfortable lessons he
might teach.
Do read his books, America. Maybe that way, the government will get its
money's worth.
Editor's Note: Michael Arnold Glueck III, M.D., penned this week's
commentary. You may contact Dr. Glueck at drglueck@adelphia.com
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Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple award winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Both JWR contributors are Harvard trained diagnostic radiologists. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, |
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