By William C. Spears
It has been twenty years because the passing of Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, a celebrated American chief and moralist whose heroic instance continues to encourage new generations.
Stockdale’s story is often regarded at a floor stage, diminished to that instructed in his quotation for the Congressional Medal of Honor. The simplified account goes one thing like this: Because the senior officer amongst American POWs in Vietnam, he exhibited unyielding braveness and resilience within the face of brutal captivity and torture. Studying he would quickly be compelled to disclose info that will compromise a resistance community and endanger his comrades, Stockdale tried suicide to forestall this consequence. His act not solely demonstrated ethical resolve but additionally led to the cessation of torture by the North Vietnamese. Many former POWs now credit score their survival to his actions.
Though Stockdale is now upheld inside the U.S. army as a prototypical mannequin of ethical management, the actual story is extra advanced than extensively understood, or what will be captured in any award quotation. To totally admire it requires a enterprise into the North Vietnamese jail system in addition to the deeper philosophical underpinnings of Stockdale’s management follow.
The etymological connection between “morality” and “morale” affords some extent of departure. Each phrases share a root within the Latin moralis, derived from mos (plural mores), which means “customized” or “lifestyle.” Moralis initially referred to correct conduct aligned with societal norms, whereas “morale” later entered English by way of French, describing the collective emotional or psychological state of a gaggle sure by shared values. Each ideas hinge on the traditional idea of a telos — the aim, or mission that defines what people and teams are supposed to be or obtain.
Morality, then, isn’t merely issues like honesty and decency, although these are actually a part of it. It encompasses the whole lot {that a} mature particular person is meant to be: sensible, simply, courageous, and self-controlled. Equally, morale refers to what a gaggle is meant to be: not simply cheerful but additionally disciplined, internally cooperative, and profitable within the achievement of shared goal. Thus, no dropping crew ever possesses excessive morale, even when they could look comfortable, and morale can’t be possessed by a person. Moreover, whether or not the group in query is a small crew or a complete nation, a disaster in morale is definitionally a disaster in morality on a collective scale.
To transform particular person qualities into collective qualities is exactly what a frontrunner does. That is one thing I’ve witnessed firsthand as a tactical evaluator of nuclear submarines, the place I noticed quite a few crews working beneath intense strain. A crew inevitably absorbs the character traits of its captain, with these traits manifesting in each seen behaviors and intangible attitudes. A disorganized or perpetually victimized captain will doubtless lead a equally disorganized or victimized crew, whereas one preoccupied with fame and appearances might foster an surroundings the place flaws are hid somewhat than addressed. Conversely, a crew marked by unwavering skilled self-discipline or an indomitable warrior spirit will virtually all the time mirror a equally dispositioned chief. These shared traits are usually detectable inside minutes of stepping aboard a ship.
The literature of administration and organizational psychology tacitly acknowledges this phenomenon inside educational ideas like ‘chief imprinting’ and ‘organizational tradition.’ But, it has been intuitively understood by those that lead people since ships have been powered by oars. It represents the enduring accountability of ethical management: defining by way of instance what a person — and, by extension, the group — is meant to be.
Stockdale’s crew was the POW colony. Command of this group was not a place he sought, nor was it a privilege. There was no added pay or status, solely the immense strain that got here with being the senior officer current, accountable to carry everybody collectively regardless of his personal pure impulses to crumble. His technique of communication was encoded wall faucets, relayed from cell to cell.
The disaster Stockdale confronted was a re-education program of diabolical genius. By way of a calculated mixture of torture and guarantees of particular favor, prisoners could be compelled to disclose dangerous info. Then, positioned earlier than cameras, they’d “confess” to “conflict crimes” and denounce their nation’s coverage as immoral and unlawful. This testimony could be broadcast to receptive audiences worldwide, attacking the nationwide will to struggle within the residing rooms of Americans. This exploited a strategic flaw within the American conflict effort, in that it was based upon false — and due to this fact immoral — pretenses. Stockdale would later level to the catastrophe in Vietnam, and the attendant collapse in morale at each societal stage, because the bitter consequence of untruthful management:
“To take a nation to conflict on the idea of any provocation that bears the scent of fraud is to danger dropping nationwide management’s dedication when the going will get robust… Ethical corners have been reduce in Washington in our prime leaders’ interpretation of the occasions of August 4th at sea in an effort to get the Tonkin Gulf Decision by way of Congress in a rush.” –James Stockdale, 1995.
Whereas the exploitation program was conceived for strategic impact, from the angle of the person prisoner, the impact was decidedly tactical: It left them psychologically remoted. After being exploited, a damaged prisoner could be returned to their cell, now clothed within the indignity of guilt and regret. “You don’t wish to discuss to me,” they’d reply to a tapped inquiry. “I’m a traitor.”
“Snap out of it, man,” would come the reply. “There are not any virgins right here.”
The telos — or what philosophers would name the overriding mission or goal — of the POW group was the survival of its members. Because the commander of this group, Stockdale understood that mere bodily survival was insufficient and fleeting. To really endure, one needed to protect their id — as an American and as a human being. A everlasting lack of this id amounted to sort of ethical demise, which was often quickly adopted by bodily demise. This offered a dilemma: beneath torture, any motion, irrespective of how degrading, might be compelled. All people broke. The commander’s function, then, was to search out some option to protect a way of company and dignity, even in these compelled to betray their very own countrymen, in phrase if not deed.
Stockdale’s reply was to throw out the rulebook and create a brand new one. As an alternative of a inflexible listing of prohibited actions — unrealistic beneath the circumstances — Stockdale directed that one should settle for torture to acquiesce to sure calls for from the enemy, reminiscent of revealing info or taking part within the propaganda machine. The important precept was this: you needed to make them torture you. Thus, to outlive torture grew to become an act of resistance and can.
Stockdale survived it himself on fifteen events, and but the enemy by no means obtained him on digicam . He bashed his personal face in after they tried.
The brand new code created a psychological permission construction for POWs: breaking couldn’t be a supply of disgrace as a result of everybody would ultimately break. What mattered was how one endured and resisted till that time. There could be no sympathy for one’s enemy — one’s torturer — no offers. One doesn’t ‘act fairly’ towards a torturer or ‘meet them midway.’ A prisoner might return from a session with head unbowed, assured they’d completed the whole lot inside their energy. Their company and dignity would ripple by way of the jail colony, fortifying the collective spirit of resistance. To their captors, this conduct was weird and incomprehensible.
From Stockdale, the American POWs absorbed ethical readability, fortitude, and the unshakable confidence that they’d survive their ordeal and return with honor. Such qualities can’t be faked or imposed by fiat; they’ll solely be transmitted by way of unmistakable private instance.
Stockdale, then, is way over a conflict hero. He serves as the final word benchmark for what we should always anticipate from leaders and what we should always worth when deciding on them, clarifying that the best chief is, all the time and in all places, a super human. Stockdale’s legacy endures, not by way of statues or memorials, however by way of the lasting energy of instance.
This text initially appeared on the William C. Spears weblog on the twentieth anniversary of VADM Stockdale’s passing and is republished with permission. Learn it in its authentic kind right here.
Commander William C. Spears is a submarine warfare officer within the U.S. Navy and the writer of Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy: Insights on the Morality of Navy Service, forthcoming in November by Casemate Publishers.
Featured Picture: March 4, 1976: President Gerald R. Ford presents the Medal of Honor to Rear Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN, throughout an awards ceremony within the East Room of the White Home. (U.S. Navy picture)
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