The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

omy, interest rates, and the stock market, organized

around quotations from Greenspan’s speeches,

testimony, and writings.

Howard Bromberg

See also Amazon.com; America Online; Apple
Computer; Bezos, Jeff; Buffett, Warren; Business
and the economy in the United States; Cable televi-
sion; Dot-coms; Greenspan, Alan; Internet; Micro-
soft; Recession of 1990-1991; World Wide Web;
Yahoo!.

Stockdale, James

Identification Independent vice presidential
candidate, 1992
Born December 23, 1923; Abingdon, Illinois
Died July 5, 2005; Coronado, California

In sharing the 1992 independent ticket with H. Ross Perot,
Stockdale took part in one of the best-known third-party
runs in U.S. histor y.

James Stockdale was born in Abingdon, Illinois, let-
tered in football, and then entered the Naval Acad-
emy during World War II. He graduated in 1946 and
attended flight and pilot schools. Although Stock-
dale made a name for himself through sports in
Abingdon, his most famous residence was not in
Illinois but in North Vietnam’s Hoa
Lo Prison, known as the “Hanoi
Hilton,” where he spent more than
seven years in captivity as a prisoner
of war. His plane was shot down dur-
ing a bombing raid over North Viet-
nam on September 9, 1965, break-
ing his back and dislocating one of
his knees upon impact. He landed
in a small village and was seized by
villagers. Thereafter, he spent four
of his years at the prison in complete
isolation, but Stockdale never gave
the North Vietnamese the informa-
tion they sought. He was released in
1973 and returned home from Viet-
nam a hero. He received the Medal
of Honor in 1976 and achieved the
rank of rear admiral.
Stockdale served for a time as
president of the Naval War College

and as president of The Citadel, and he spent fifteen

years as a fellow of Stanford University’s Hoover In-

stitution. He then took on a wholly new role in 1992,

running on the independent ticket as H. Ross

Perot’s vice presidential candidate. Stockdale did

not perform well on the political stage, particularly

in the vice presidential debate with fellow candi-

dates Al Gore (Democrat) and Dan Quayle (Repub-

lican). He actually seemed lost and disoriented, and

his warriorlike reputation was replaced by a view of

Stockdale as a crazy old man in the minds of many.

Impact Stockdale’s 1992 vice presidential run

demonstrated the chasm between history and im-

age. When he entered the political stage, it was as if

he had popped out of vacuum, as if he had no glori-

ous past on which to stand. He appeared to be a se-

nile old man who had walked into a room where he

did not belong. Nevertheless, the Perot-Stockdale

independent ticket won approximately 19 percent

of the popular vote that year.

Further Reading

Stockdale, James Bond.Courage Under Fire: Testing

Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laborator y of Human Behav-

ior. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1993.

_______.A Vietnam Experience: Ten Years of Reflection.

Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1984.

AWR Hawkins III

The Nineties in America Stockdale, James
813

James Stockdale speaks during the vice presidential debate in Atlanta on October 13,

1992.(AP/Wide World Photos)