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Not Ob/Gyn. Great American Dies - No one noticesFrom: RModugno@aol.comFri Jul 22 10:49:24 2005
A Greatest American Dies and No One Notices: A major missed diagnosis By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak (http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0705/medicine.men072205.php3?printer_friendly) (http://www.jewishworldreview.com/templates/email2.php?article_title=A+Greatest+American+Dies+and+No+One+Notices:+A+major+missed+diagnosis&article_auth or=Drs.+Michael+A.+Glueck+&+Robert+J.+Cihak++&article_date=July+22,+2005&artic le_url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0705/medicine.men072205.php3&sentúls e&ccMe=no) | A great man died on July 5th. None of the obituaries noted that his greatest gift to America was the one we have, so far, refused. A missed diagnosis of classic proportions! Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale was arguably the most decorated officer in Navy history: 26 personal citations, including the Congressional Medal of Honor for nearly eight years of heroism as a Vietnam POW. But he was famous mostly for his decision to become Ross Perot's 1992 vice presidential running mate, and for that disastrous debate when he came across as, at best, a kindly old buffoon who should have brought a back-up hearing aid with him to the studio. A few pundits sneered. Most were embarrassed for him and happy to let the whole thing drop. This is what they didn't tell you. In the early 1960s, Stockdale was a hot shot fighter pilot on the fast track to stars. The Navy had slotted him for one of its most coveted assignments, command of a fighter squadron at sea. First, however, another plum: a master's degree in international relations at Stanford University. Then, after carrier duty, three years at the Pentagon, to pay the government back for his graduate education. Stanford was wonderful, but Stockdale was bored. One day, he encountered Philip Rhinelander, a former Navy officer, at that time chair of the Philosophy Department. Rhinelander talked him in to auditing some philosophy lectures. Stockdale fell in love. Soon he was staying up all night, reading philosophy, especially the great Stoics, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. But his fascination also wearied him. It was: Hey, I'm Technological Man. I fly jets. I play golf. I drink martinis. I know how to work the system. What does this have to do with me? He got his answer, he later wrote, the day in 1965 he was shot down, when he left behind the world of technology and entered the world of Epictetus. After a welcoming beating by a crowd of North Vietnamese and three days in the back of a truck, he arrived at the Hanoi Hilton, with a broken back, one broken leg, and a bullet in the other. He demanded medical attention and was told, "You have a medical problem and you have a political problem. In this country, we take care of political problems first." (https://www.kerenyehoshuavyisroel.com/keren/jwr/donate.cfm) Stockdale quickly realized that he and his comrades were not POWs in the normal sense. They were political prisoners, to be exploited for their propaganda value and as bargaining chips; the communists called the Americans "our pearls." To break organized resistance and get "confessions" and the rest, the North Vietnamese used a variety of techniques, including isolation, forbidding the prisoners to communicate, and tortures carefully designed to risk neither death nor permanent disfigurement. Slowly, Stockdale came to realize that their traditional and presumed sources of resistance — military law and codes, professionalism, American patriotism, machismo, religious faith — although valuable, weren't enough. In the torture room, the torturer wins. The Americans had to create something strong enough to enable them to resist together, which meant surrendering as little as possible. Stockdale found the way to do that in the ancient texts he'd studied. He became, he later wrote, "the lawgiver of an autonomous colony of Americans who happened to be located in a Hanoi prison." This colony created an entire civilization, based on two great Stoic premises. The first is that, whatever else you surrender, never surrender your spirit: in Stoic terminology, your will. The second was that, although you are an autonomous being no matter what your circumstances, what you do in the world still matters. Over time, they learned to communicate by tapping in code on the walls, and "tap code" became an evolving language. They crafted a legal system, specifying how much torture to take before making concessions and requiring members to be absolutely honest about their failures. (There was another commandment: forgive). They developed their own culture, compiled and memorized their own history, established their traditions. They lost many battles. But never gave the communists what they wanted most: a mass of isolated, desperate men, willing to obey their captors. When Stockdale returned home, his son urged him to write about "where you've really been." For over twenty years, he did so, in a memoir co-authored with his wife, Sybil, "In Love and War," and in two volumes of essays, "A Vietnam Experience" and "Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot." They never received a fraction of the attention they deserved. Americans usually love a hero. Sadly we were not prepared to heed a philosopher of courage and the uncomfortable lessons he might teach. Admiral Stockdale loved to point out that he never did that Pentagon tour, and that his service record contained a notation that the government had derived no benefit from his graduate education. Do read his books, America. Maybe that way, the government will get its money's worth. Editor's Note: Michael Arnold Glueck III, M.D., penned this week's commentary. You may contact Dr. Glueck at _drglueck@adelphia.com_ (mailto:drglueck@adelphia.com) ****************************************************************************** ***=20 Robert Modugno MD MBA FACOG Marietta, GA
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