Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale (1923-2005), USN was born on 23 December 1923 in Abingdon, Illinois. He attended Knox College and Monmouth College before entering the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1947. Due to World War II, he graduated in 1946 in the accelerated course and was commissioned an ensign.
Following graduation, he served on USS
In 1954, he underwent test pilot training at Patuxent River, Maryland and remained on staff as an instructor. He joined Fighter Squadron Two Hundred Eleven and in 1959 became executive officer of Fighter Squadron Twenty-Four. He was the first pilot to fly one thousand hours in an F-8 Crusader.
The years 1960 to 1962 found him at Stanford University, where he studied for a
master’s degree in International Relations. There he took a philosophy course with
Professor Rhinelander that would have a profound impact on his life. After receiving
his M.A., he joined Fighter Squadron Fifty-One in USS
In January 1974, he took command of Antisubmarine Warfare Wing, Pacific, followed by two years in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as director of strategy, plans, and policy. In 1977, as a vice admiral, he assumed the presidency of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. There he taught a course in Foundations of Moral Obligation, with Professor Joseph G. Brennan (1910-2004), formerly chairman of the Philosophy Department at Barnard College. This was one of the most popular elective courses at the college and remained part of the electives program.
In September 1979, Stockdale retired from the U.S. Navy and became president of The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina. After a stormy period when his proposed reforms did not win the support of the Board of Trustees, he resigned in 1981 and accepted an appointment as Senior Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He remained there until he moved to Coronado, California. In 1992, he accepted the vice presidential slot as an independent candidate with Ross Perot as president. Perot garnered 19% of the vote, but he did not carry any state.
VADM Stockdale died on 5 July 2005 at his home in Coronado, California. He left his wife, Sybil (1924-2015), and sons: James, Sidney, Stanford, and Taylor and eight grandchildren.
James and Sybil Stockdale co-authored
His twenty-six medals include two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals, two Purple Hearts, four Silver Stars, and the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award.
In 2008, the USS
In 2007, the main gate at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado was named after Stockdale, as was the headquarters building for the Pacific Fleet’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School at the air station. In 2008, a statue of Stockdale was placed in Luce Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy, where the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership is located. The Loews Annapolis Hotel has a suite named in his honor as it was where Perot announced his candidacy for president.
Access is open to all researchers, unless otherwise specified.
Material in this collection is in the public domain, unless otherwise noted.
Author, “Title,” Page or Date. James B. Stockdale papers, MSC 85, Box number, Folder number. Naval Historical Collection, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, R.I.
This collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, speeches, newspaper articles, lectures, audio and video tape recordings, articles, and photographs relating to James B. Stockdale’s academic and naval careers from 1965 through 2005. The bulk of this collection documents his correspondence and work at the Naval War College, specifically his administrative and educational roles.
Prominent correspondents include Professor Joseph G. Brennan (1910-2004), Admirals Carlisle Trost (1930-), Thomas Hayward (1924-), James Holloway III (1922-), Julien J. LeBourgeois (1923-2012), and Senators John Chafee (1922-1999), Sam Nunn (1938-), and John Tower (1925-1991). The majority of the correspondence relates to his professional work and responsibilities.
Along with Stockdale’s published and unpublished writings on moral leadership, his prisoner of war experiences, and the mind in captivity, there are several articles by other academics and writers contained in this collection. Significant speeches from 1965-1993, which includes his time as president of the Naval War College, are in the collection. His speeches on values, leadership, and his prisoner of war experiences were in high demand.
Of particular interest within this collection are two volumes of lectures for the popular course entitled Foundations of Moral Obligation team-taught by Stockdale and Brennan. A summary of his captivity in a North Vietnamese prison from 9 September 1965 to 12 February 1973 is also of high significance. Additionally, this collection contains Stockdale’s funeral and services of commemoration.
This collection was arranged into related subjects and the type of the content instead of chronological order.
This collection is arranged into the following subjects:
Deposited by the Naval War College President’s Office in November 1996. Posthumous materials were added by CDR Porter Halyburton, USN in 2005.
This collection was originally processed and described by Evelyn M. Cherpak in 2010. In 2018, Brittany Fox, NHC intern, converted its register into a DACS compliant finding aid and removed papers from 3-ring binders.
This finding aid supersedes the “Register of the papers of James B. Stockdale, Manuscript Register Series No. 40.”
Including: David Abshire, David Aaron, and MAJGEN James H.A. Ahmann
Including: Colonel Arthur Blair, VADM Robert Baldwin F.M. Ball, M.D., Bradford Becken, George Bentley, RADM John Bergen, William Bernrieder, Philip Bolger, Ronald Black, Kenneth Booth, RADM E.S. Briggs, Robert A. Brand, Governor Edmund G. Brown, CDR Thomas Buell, George Bush, and Richard Buress
Including: VADM James Calvert, Arthur Cannon, Dr. Andrew Cecil, RADM Malcolm Clark, W. Graham Claytor, N. Heyward Clarkson, Captain James Conway, ADM Ralph Cousins, and VADM William Crowe
Including: Professor Vincent Davis, RADM T.F. Dedman, and General James Doolittle
Including: RADM Henry E. Eccles, Brigadier General Joseph Foss, and Daniel Flood
Including: General von zur Gathen, General Samuel B. Griffith, and J. Palmer Gaillard
Including: Major General H.F. Harding, Anthony Harrigan, Admiral Thomas Hayward, Edward Hidalgo, ADM James Holloway, and Patrick Hughes
Including: Ambassador Peter Jay, Dr. Edward Jayne, and Maj Gen Herbert T. Johnson
Including: Captain Howard Kay, Albert J. Kelley, Admiral Isaac Kidd, VADM George E.R. Kinnear II, Henry Kissinger, and ADM Ronald Kurth
Including: Dr. Benjamin Labaree, RADM William P. Lawrence, and VADM Julien J. LeBourgeois
Including: LTGEN Robert Mathis, Robert McCabe, Robert McKenna Hayward McDonald, J. William Middendorf, and John Monsarrat
Including: RADM James Nance, Senator Sam Nunn, and Paul Owen
Including: Senator William Proxmire, RADM Frederick Palmer, and John Pelletier
Including: Fred Rainbow, Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Charles Ravenel, Mrs. Thomas Robbins, Dr. Robert H. Rutford
Including: Charles T. Schumacher, Jeffrey Sacks, Dr. Ethan Sims, John Slocum, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Helmut Sonnenfeldt
Including: Lt. Gen. K.L. Taliman, ADM Carlisle Trost
Including: Michael Vlahos, Cyrus Vance
Including: Paul Warnke, VADM James Watkins, George Weyerhauser, Captain E.C. Whelan, General Louis Wilson, Captain Walter Woodson
Including: Commodore R.D. Yanow, RADM Lando Zech
Also found are clippings regarding In Love and War
Includes portraits of Stockdale, his family, and him with Joseph G. Brennan
Includes clippings from: Newport, This Week, The Stanford Observer