Sybil Stockdale
Sybil Stockdale | |
---|---|
Born | Sybil Elizabeth Bailey November 25, 1924 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
Died | October 10, 2015 Coronado, California, U.S. | (aged 90)
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Author |
Known for | National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia |
Title | 1st National Coordinator of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Awards | Navy Distinguished Public Service Award |
Sybil Elizabeth Stockdale (née Bailey; November 25, 1924 – October 10, 2015) was an American campaigner for families of Americans missing in South East Asia.
Sybil was the founder and first national coordinator of the
Stockdale is credited with helping to publicize the mistreatment of U.S. prisoners by North Vietnam and for helping to improve American policies concerning the treatment and handling of POW families.[1][2] Stockdale is the recipient of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest award given by the Department of the Navy to a citizen not employed by the Department.[3] She is the only wife of an active-duty officer ever to have been so honored.[3]
Stockdale and her husband wrote the book In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War (1984).[1]
Her husband, James Stockdale, was a recipient of the
Early life and education
Sybil Elizabeth Bailey was born in New Haven, Connecticut.[4] She held an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, and a master's degree in education from Stanford University. Jim and Sybil Stockdale had four sons: Jim, Sid, Stanford and Taylor.
The League
When Stockdale's husband James was shot down in 1965 over North Vietnam, the U.S. government had a "keep-quiet" policy, asking relatives of POWs to not raise a fuss about mistreatment of prisoners.[1][2] The official reason was not that the prisoners were not being tortured, but that bad publicity might result in worse treatment.[1][2] After a year of abiding by the government "keep-quiet" policy, Sybil found herself more and more disenchanted with the pretense that prisoners like her husband were treated fairly; James had been tortured, had inflicted serious wounds on himself to convince his captors they could not break or use him, and had spent years in solitary confinement.[2]
In summer 1966, Sybil along with other members of a San Diego POW and MIA support group decided to go national, and formed the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.[2] Sybil was the first national coordinator.[2] Other support groups from east coast military communities later became part of the National League. Within a year she was sitting in the office of the Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird discussing policy.[2] The Nixon Administration had ended the "keep quiet" policy and allegations of torture of U.S. prisoners became fully public, with Sybil a forceful spokeswoman.[2] In 1970, Stockdale, along with her husband's 1992 running mate, H. Ross Perot, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs.[5]
Later life
On May 10, 2008, Sybil Stockdale attended a christening ceremony at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine for USS Stockdale, the 30th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and the 56th ship of the class. Four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war attended the ceremony that marked a milestone in construction of the 9,200-ton ship named for her late husband. She died at SHARP Hospital in Coronado, California on October 10, 2015, from Parkinson's disease, at the age of 90.[6][7]
Works
Sybil Stockdale co-wrote a memoir with her husband James (who also wrote a number of books on his own). In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War
Notes
- ^ ISBN 0-87021-308-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-918339-71-3.
- ^ a b "An Indomitable Spirit", James Stockdale Biography, Museum of Living History, Academy of Achievement, Washington D.C., "James Stockdale Biography -- Academy of Achievement". Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
- ISBN 9781851099610. Retrieved October 15, 2015 – via google.ca.
- ^ Stockdate, Sybil; Fascell, Dante; Perot, H. Ross (April 29 – May 6, 1970). "Hearings before the Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session" (PDF). Congressional Record. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office: 58—65. 46-301 0. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
Mr Fascell: ... Mrs. Stockdale, I think that you have rendered a very valuable service by letting them know that the target is North Vietnam, and that is where the trouble lies. This is where all of our efforts are really directed, and eventually get North Vietnamese to change their mind and attitude and bring about that which is necessary and desirable. You are advocating the very essence of international politics. I admire you for having not only perceived it, but putting it into action.
- ^ "Sybil Stockdale, who fought to end torture of POWs, dies". wmcactionnews5.com. October 13, 2015. Retrieved October 15, 2015.[dead link]
- ^ Sybil Stockdale: Military wife who became a campaigner against the torture of U.S. prisoners of war
External links
- National League of Families website Nonprofit organization co-founded by Sybil Stockdale
- Museum of Living History, article about James Stockdales experiences as a POW, also discusses Sybil Stockdale's efforts on his behalf
- Sybil Bailey Stockdale papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8tq668j/