James Stockdale Interview (page: 9 / 9) Medal of Honor	Print Interview

Looking back on that today, Admiral, what mistakes do you think the U.S. Government made in taking on the Vietnam challenge?

James Stockdale: I've just never studied it enough to know.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. First of all, I think McNamara and (President) Johnson and that administration was stupid about warfare. They didn't know what they were talking about and that's about as far as I could take it.

What do you tell young people today who ask you about the Vietnam War? Aside from your own personal sacrifice, how do you look back on it?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. James Stockdale: We could have won the war if we had sent the B-52's in. We waited 'til the last moment. Everything was caution. When we came back from that mission, the target was 95 percent destroyed. Those were eight big tanks. That started the Vietnam War. Look at your calendar. August 5th, 1964, and I was the guy that did it.

I wouldn't have missed it, but I don't argue about the Vietnam War legitimacy or anything like that.

Is it more the matter of how it was fought that you argue with?

James Stockdale: Yes. We were doing a lot of tactical bombing raids that were doing good. We could tell that Hanoi's water mains were out, the electric generators were out, and we didn't take advantage of that. We just did the right thing and then acted like it never happened and walked away from it.

Tell us something about what happened when you were finally released.

James Stockdale: When I was released...

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I called Sybil, of course, and we had a very, very loving conversation. She said, "How is your -- how are your wounds?" And I said, "Well I can't bend one leg, and I can't raise one arm, but I think the walk kind of gives me a sense of style." And she laughed on that. She thought that was wonderful that I was making fun of that leg business. Being kind of -- well, it does have kind of a flair if somebody thinks you've got a monocle or something.

Was that the first time you had spoken in all those years?

James Stockdale: Yeah. It went over just fine and we got a tape of it. One of our kids knew just enough to put a tape in, and we used that in the movie. That was the real tape. Then we flew right here to the airport at the Navy base. Sybil tells interesting stories about the mindset of a lot of people. She said, "You'd think that when we were finally going to see this thing that we had been waiting eight years for there would have been gales of laughter. But that was the quietest waiting room I'd ever been in, because all these thoughts were going through people's minds. I don't think many of them were malicious thoughts, but it wasn't the time to giggle about it. It was something really serious. We were finally putting a family back together."

Thank you for your time and for everything you've done.

Okay.

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