Customer Reviews

In Love and War

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This book should have been a best seller but I guess it wouldnt get publicity because it isnt politically correct. Written years ago by Jim and Sybil Stockdale and chronicles not just his hideous prison experiences with the North Vietnamese for seven and a half years, but his wifes and families experience on this end.

It is written as one chapter his and one hers in the same time frames and it is a real life thriller with all the love, sadness, misery and then some. As a Marine and Vietnam Vet I have to say my hat goes off to both of them. The book chronicles her journey from young housewife left alone with four boys to leading the other POW wives and founding an organization that made a difference,. She met with the North Vietnamese and Johnson and Nixon and what a story.

Every kid in America should have to read this book.

I cannot give this book a high enough rating as Amazon only allows "5" and my rating would be more like "99". I read this book in the early 80s after the Stockdales (Jim & Sybil) first published it. To give you a little background, on Sep. 9, 1965 Stockdale ejected from his A-4 Skyhawk while shot down over North Vietnam. He parachuted into a small village and was immediately severely beaten and taken into custody by the Vietnamese. Stockdale was taken to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi (affectionately dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton" by the POWs) where, for the next seven years he was locked in leg irons and routinely tortured. Because he was the SRO (Senior Ranking Officer), Stockdale endured some of the most severe torture. The Vietnamese felt if they could "break" Stockdale, then the rest of the POWS would stop resisting interogators' attempts to procure information. At one point, he endured severe torture in an effort to "prepare" him for a propaganda coup. Instead of allowing himself to be manipulated by the VC, Stockdale severely disfigured himself with a razor, then beat his face to a pulp with a wooden stool in an effort to avoid being paraded before the communist media. When Stockdale was finally released as a prisoner of war on February 12, 1973, his shoulders had been wrenched from their sockets, his leg shattered by a torturer, and his back broken. For his efforts, Stockdale was awarded our nation's highest award - the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In addition to reading about James' physical, mental and emotional torture by the Vietnamese, you are also treated to the events of his wife as she fought to adhere to the policy of the U.S government of not speaking out, while the years passed with no results. An exceptionally strong-willed woman, Sybil eventually organizes The League of American Families of POWs and MIAs and attends the Paris Peace Talks where she contradicts U.S. policy by exposing the torture the POWs were enduring on a daily basis. She is also instrumental in procuring better living conditions for the POWs in Hanoi, and the eventual discontinuation of torture.., with other wives of servicemen who were in similar circumstances. On March 4, 1976, President Gerald Ford presents the Medal of Honor to James Stockdale who, while imprisoned was part of a group of eleven prisoners known as the "Alcatraz Gang" (George Thomas Coker, George McKnight, Jeremiah Denton, Harry Jenkins, Sam Johnson, James Mulligan, Howard Rutledge, Robert Shumaker, Ronald Storz and Nels Tanner) who were the "hardliners" who, by refusing to relent in any way to the demands of the VC became an example all other POWs followed. This group of eleven men suffered the worst torture, most time spent in solitary confinement (years) and were prevented from having any form of interaction with each other, as well as the other prisoners. Each of these eleven men were locked in leg irons 24 hours-a-day locked in a cell measuring 3 feet by 9 feet, with a light bulb that was kept on around- the-clock. In the end Stockdale said "I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade".

I was fortunate to have been able to enjoy a number of phone conversation with Admiral Stockdale in later years, and it saddened me deeply when, on July 5, 2005 he slowly succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. May God Bless You Admiral Stockdale and cradle your broken body for all eternity.

I have to say that I am appalled by what I received. The book I see in the picture is NOT what I got. The book I ordered was said to be in "Excellent condition" and I paid $56.30, including shipping costs for a VERY OLD library book that the binding is broken in places and some of the pages have been glued in. One page is glued about 1/2 in up the page making it impossible to read the page. I feel that I have wasted $56.30. I wouldn't mind that the book is from 1989 if it was in good condition. If you wish I will take pictures and forward them to you so that you can see what I received. I still have the paperwork that came with the book. if any one wishes to see it.