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Torturous Times: The Stockdale ParadoxFebruary 13, 2013
Tim Moore
Tim Moore, Managing Partner Audience Development Group

Managing Partner

Audience Development Group

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Greetings!

Justifiably John McCain is the person most remembered for his ordeal as an abused guest of the Hanoi Hilton. Admiral Jim Stockdale however was the highest ranking officer in captivity, tortured 20 times over his eight-year imprisonment. Stockdale lived through his daily hell afforded no Geneva Convention rights, nor an assurance he'd ever be released. Under the dual role of prisoner and ranking American officer at the prison Stockdale did everything possible to create a survivable environment for his fellow prisoners, all the while fighting an internal war with his captors. How tough is tough?

 

At one point Stockdale beat himself with a stool and cut his face with a razor so as to avoid being put on television as an example of a "well treated prisoner." He created a three-step system by which prisoners could withstand torture, which after X minutes allowed for a prisoner to offer a little, then after extended abuse, to tell a little more, and so forth. He designed an elaborate internal communication system to stave off isolation among prisoners, using a five-by-five matrix with "tap codes" for alpha characters. Upon his release Stockdale became the first three-star Navy Officer to wear both aviator wings and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins tells of becoming depressed reading Stockdale's memoirs about prisoners' life (and death) in Hanoi. "You can imagine my anticipation at the prospect of spending an afternoon with Stockdale. It seemed so bleak-the uncertainty of his fate, the brutality of his captors, and yet I knew the end of the story. He gets out, is reunited with his family, becomes a national hero, and spends his later years studying philosophy on the beautiful Stanford campus," said Collins.

 

Under Stockdale's nightmarish captivity with no guarantee of a term-certain survivable ending, however did he deal with it all? "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted that I would get out, nor that I would prevail in the end and turn that experience into the defining event of my life which in retrospect, I would not trade," said the Admiral.

 

Walking with a slight limp from repeated torture, Stockdale answered questions: "Who didn't make it out?" In casual response he replied, "Oh that's easy; the optimists." Confused, Collins rejoined, "The optimists? I don't understand."

 

Stockdale replied that the optimists were the ones who said, "We'll be out by Christmas. Christmas would come and go, then, 'we'll be out by Easter' only to repeat the cycle each year. Ultimately they died of a broken heart."

  

Stockdale turned to the author and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never lose faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose. But you must keep the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

 

Considering Stockdale's improbable reclamation, it might be good to carry the mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: "We're not getting out by Christmas; accept it."

Sincerely,

Tim Moore

Tim Moore

Managing Partner 

Audience Development Group

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