The Stockdale Paradox
September 9th, 1965.
While flying on a mission over North Vietnam during the Vietnam war. Admiral James Stockdale ejected from his plane after being shot by enemy fire. He parachuted into a small village, where he was beaten and taken prisoner.
American prisoners of war (POWs) were routinely shackled to beds by their legs with tight ironclads, causing infections and sores. Prisoners often lay in their own faeces and urine for days on end.
Stockdale was tortured over twenty times. One method, known as the rope trick, involved cuffing prisoners’ hands behind their backs and using ropes to rotate their arms until their elbows and shoulders dislocated.
Guards would hang prisoners in this position for hours or even days, causing their arms to turn purple from lack of blood. Leaving limbs swollen to twice their normal size.
The Vietnamese, outmatched by America's military strength, fought a propaganda war instead. They captured thousands of US soldiers. Brutalised many into “confessing” to bombings of civilian targets. These confessions were filmed, showing US prisoners denouncing their government.
During this time Stockdale took inspiration from philosophy. He remembered quotes from Epictetus:
“Men are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of things... It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it.”
Despite his imprisonment, he maintained the capacity for free will. Choosing how to react to his circumstances.
No one can survive endless torture, either physical or mental. So he devised a step-by-step system of rules that would help the POWs.
He advised prisoners to endure x number of minutes, then give away a small amount of information. Giving the prisoners a system to work from.
He taught the POWs a simple blinking Morse code when they were videotaped for propaganda to try and get a message out.
He invented a communication system so that isolated prisoners could feel connected.
When asked which prisoners didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:
“The optimists. 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. 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.”
This is known as the Stockdale Paradox.
He confronted head-on the desperation and brutality of his situation and devised methods to deal with the worst of them.
Stockdale was released as a prisoner of war on February 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming.
“You have to have faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
On March 4, 1976, Stockdale received the Medal of Honour from President Gerald Ford, and lived to the age of 81.
