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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. James Stockdale, who led a prisoner-of-war underground in North Vietnam and later ran for vice president on H. Ross Perot's third-party ticket, has died at age 81.
Stockdale, who had been battling Alzheimer's disease, died on Tuesday at his home in Coronado, California, the Navy said.
A Navy pilot who commanded an aircraft carrier air group during the Vietnam War, Stockdale was shot down in September 1965 while leading an airstrike on North Vietnam.
During 7 1/2 years in captivity at a facility known to POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, Stockdale was tortured, kept in leg irons for two years and spent four years in solitary confinement.
But he managed to convince his captors his willingness to suffer pain, and even death, rather than capitulate, by injuring himself and slitting his own wrists.
"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," according to the citation from his 1976 Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. award for bravery.
Stockdale, who became the top-ranking naval officer held in captivity during the Vietnam war, also organized a secret culture of resistance among fellow prisoners, devising rules of conduct and a system of clandestine communications that involved tapping on walls in code.
Stockdale was freed in 1973, and he retired from the Navy three years later, having accumulated 26 combat awards.
He later faulted former President Lyndon Johnson for not using greater military power to press America's advantage during the war. He also disputed the Johnson administration's official assertion that the first U.S. strikes on North Vietnam were in retaliation for attacks on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I literally led the initial strike of a war I knew was under false pretenses," the newspaper quoted him as having said.
Nearly two decades after the end of his ordeal in North Vietnam, Stockdale entered public life as Perot's unlikely running mate in 1992.
In one of the most memorable moments from that campaign, Stockdale introduced himself during a televised debate against vice presidential candidates Al Gore and Dan Quayle by posing the rhetorical question, "Who am I? Why am I here?"
His opening remark stunned viewers and became the butt of jokes. He later confided in a Los Angeles Times interview that he was out of his depth as a politician, recalling he felt like "I was a college football player that somebody decided ought to go into boxing, and a week later, I was in the ring with Joe Louis."
Stockdale, who had been battling Alzheimer's disease, died on Tuesday at his home in Coronado, California, the Navy said.
A Navy pilot who commanded an aircraft carrier air group during the Vietnam War, Stockdale was shot down in September 1965 while leading an airstrike on North Vietnam.
During 7 1/2 years in captivity at a facility known to POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, Stockdale was tortured, kept in leg irons for two years and spent four years in solitary confinement.
But he managed to convince his captors his willingness to suffer pain, and even death, rather than capitulate, by injuring himself and slitting his own wrists.
"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," according to the citation from his 1976 Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. award for bravery.
Stockdale, who became the top-ranking naval officer held in captivity during the Vietnam war, also organized a secret culture of resistance among fellow prisoners, devising rules of conduct and a system of clandestine communications that involved tapping on walls in code.
Stockdale was freed in 1973, and he retired from the Navy three years later, having accumulated 26 combat awards.
He later faulted former President Lyndon Johnson for not using greater military power to press America's advantage during the war. He also disputed the Johnson administration's official assertion that the first U.S. strikes on North Vietnam were in retaliation for attacks on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I literally led the initial strike of a war I knew was under false pretenses," the newspaper quoted him as having said.
Nearly two decades after the end of his ordeal in North Vietnam, Stockdale entered public life as Perot's unlikely running mate in 1992.
In one of the most memorable moments from that campaign, Stockdale introduced himself during a televised debate against vice presidential candidates Al Gore and Dan Quayle by posing the rhetorical question, "Who am I? Why am I here?"
His opening remark stunned viewers and became the butt of jokes. He later confided in a Los Angeles Times interview that he was out of his depth as a politician, recalling he felt like "I was a college football player that somebody decided ought to go into boxing, and a week later, I was in the ring with Joe Louis."