ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vice Adm. James Stockdale, a former prisoner of war and Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 presidential election, has died, the Navy announced yesterday. He was 81.
The Navy did not provide a cause of death but said he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He died at his home in Coronado, Calif.
In the 1992 presidential election, Adm. Stockdale became Mr. Perot’s vice-presidential running mate, initially as a stand-in on the independent ticket but later as the candidate.
Adm. Stockdale gave a stumbling performance in the nationally televised vice-presidential debate against Dan Quayle and Al Gore.
The veteran officer later said he didn’t feel comfortable in the public eye, and found the experience “terribly frustrating.” He agreed in an interview with Jim Lehrer of PBS that criticism of his lack of familiarity with many issues was “a fair criticism.”
But he won some good will by beginning his introductory remarks with the self-deprecating line: “Who am I? Why am I here?” Later in the debate, he drew more laughs by commenting on a heated exchange between Mr. Quayle and Mr. Gore:
“I think America is seeing right now the reason this nation is in gridlock. The trickle-downs and the tax-and-spends, or whatever you want to call them, are at sword’s point.”
When Mr. Perot ran again in 1996 as the candidate of his Reform Party, Adm. Stockdale had rejoined the Republican Party.
In the 1999 interview with Mr. Lehrer, although he refused to criticize Mr. Perot, the admiral said he agreed to take the No. 2 slot only as a temporary measure to allow the Texas billionaire to qualify for ballot access. He would be replaced later by “a real politician.”
But “we got stuck in the mud somewhere” in that process, Adm. Stockdale said.
“I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven’t,” he said.
Adm. Stockdale was born in Abingdon, Ill., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1947.
During the Vietnam War, he was a Navy fighter pilot based on the USS Oriskany and flew 201 missions before he was shot down on Sept. 9, 1965. He became the highest-ranking naval officer captured during the war, the Navy said.
He endured more than 7 years as a prisoner, spending four of them in solitary confinement, before his release in 1973. He was tortured repeatedly, the Navy said.
Adm. Stockdale received 26 combat decorations, including the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest medal for valor, in 1976.
A portion of his award citation reads: “Stockdale … deliberately inflicted a near mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate. He was subsequently discovered and revived by the North Vietnamese who, convinced of his indomitable spirit, abated their employment of excessive harassment and torture of all prisoners of war.”
He retired from the military in 1979.
Survivors include his wife, Sybil, and four sons.
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