Admiral James Stockdale Stoic POW

Admiral James Stockdale was shot down in Vietnam during the war and spent 7.5 years as a prisoner of war, including 4 years in solitary confinement. During his captivity, he drew strength from the writings of Epictetus, a Stoic and former slave who shrugged off even his own state of slavery as a natural inconvenience that should not concern him. Stockdale used this Stoic outlook to endure isolation, torture, and uncertainty without letting his captors break his will.

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