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Show Freedom: Our Most Precious National Treasure AN ESSAY by Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale big iron gates slammed behind me as Before the the Hanoi found it hard to I I prison, think of freedom as something other than an abstraction that's used in songs. Supreme Court debates and political speeches. In this respect I was like many Americans today who take freedom for granted. By the time I was released to come home nearly eight years later, freedom had long since ceased to be an abstraction to me. To those of us who have served time in Communist jails, freedom has a delicious, tangible meaning It has become something we can figuratively reach out and touch. Such feelings are likely understandable in men who have spent years shackled and manacled in isolation. But my love of freedom is not just a reaction to cruelty; my appreciation of its preciousness stems from a first-han- d understanding of its rarThe of void in freedom other parts of the world ity. and particularly the passivity with which this lack is accepted is staggering to a man who is born and raised free. In my Hanoi cell, I found myself daily picking up shocking signals in that milieu of deadened sensitivities. Like these: The routine feedlot attitude of the simple peasant guards who delivered daily food rations down the line to cooped-u- p humans, fowl and livestock, with expressionless unconcern for the continual darkness, suffocating closeness, and isolation in which the chickens, pigs and men were confined. The continuous barking of loudspeakers on the street telling the people of Hanoi what to think. The pathetic ignorance behind the outburst of a prominent political cadre who shouted to me in a moment of exasperation: "We may not have freedom, but after 400 years we have order, and we will settle for that." These and countless other impressions drive home to me the fact that human freedom is not the way of the world To be free to come and go, to choose your life's work, to go for the big bucks or selfless service, or to hit the road as a drifter these are not open choices to most of the 4 5 billion souls on this planet. Human freedom as we Americans know it is available only to a steadily shrinking minority of people You don't know what freedom is until, for a starter, you live for several years in a box cell 10 feet long and 4 feet wide. I was crouched in the corner of that cell when my guards caught me writing a note to one of my fellow POWs They were very mad about that note, so they took me from that box cell to an even smaller, outbuilding, a place we called laid on the floor in squeeze irons and me "Calcutta," Fetters and jail take away your external freedom; you can t get up and go. But what about the freedom of your will and spirit? Our captors wanted to get at I that more than anything Not by brainwashing don't believe there is any such thing it's a journal- - As July 4th approaches, PARADE is proud to present an essay on freedom by a man who understands its meaning as well as anyone who ever lived Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale spent nearly eight years as a POW in Vietnam most of the time in solitary confinement. He steadfastly refused to break under pressure and torture, helped to sustain the spirits of his fellow captives by his ieadership and example, and lived to return to the plaudits of the nation and the embraces of his family. Today's cover features a portrait by Pulitzer Eddie Adams and, in the background. Prize-winn- ist's word. The real answer is simpler: it's pain. They tied your arms behind your back with ropes, shutting off circulation, and then violently and methodically tightened those ropes further, forcing your head down between your legs to produce claustrophobia. Death was not an option; there was only one way to stop it, and that was to say, "I submit." In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle points out the difference between acts done voluntarily and those under compulsion. But he adds that a measure of free choice may remain even in the severest extortion situations. YVe had many ways of clinging to that tiny residue of freedom in Hanoi One way was the tap code. Although we were in solitary confinement we could surreptitiously communicate with one another, set up a chain of command, encourage the doubtful, console the depressed, comfort the hurt. We figured out ways to prevent our captors from manipulating us into making photo and television propaganda for them One way was to assume a character like an actor a personality of unpredictability Our captors did not hold with unpredictability When they put an American pilot before the cameras they wanted to be sure of his total submission For that they had to be sure that his behavior was predictable. To sabotage that, when put under stress you could stage random scenes of emotional instability You could throw chairs around and yell, "To hell with the torture." You had to be a good actor If they thought you had not lost control of yourself but were putting them on, within minutes you could be back in the ropes sobbing like a baby. When you pulled off the act convincingly, they didn't like it For then you were not useful as propaganda They'd say. "This guy is not what we want to take downtown " People have said to me, "I couldn't take a prison experience like you guys. You all must have had a tremendously high threshold of pain " But it was not a question of a high or low threshold of pain; it was a question of endurance. It didnt matter so much if you submitted under pain one day so long as you made them start all over again the next day They an Associated Press photo of Stock-dal- e being welcomed in 1973 by his wife Sybil and three of his sons. Admiral Stockdale is now president of The Gtadel, The Military College of South Carolina At 56, he still walks with a limp as a result of the beatings he underwent in prison; he also wears proudly the Medal of Honor he was awarded on his return adding to his many other decorations. But perhaps the most important legacy he gained from his experiences was the knowledge of what true liberty is a legacy he shares with our readers today. didn't like to do that. So the thing was to cling to that tiny vestige of freedom it was in your power to hold. That word freedom is crucial. Freedom does not exist because our Constitution says it should Over the course of our country's history, people have constantly labored to keep freedom and have paid dearly for it. Our Declaration of Independence of 204 years ago this week remains one of the most stirring documents in history, signaling a commitment to bear the responsibilities of protecting a way of life. After our bitter struggle for independence, brave and earnest men stepped forward to write our Constitution and formally frame the reasons for which we had fought that unpopular war against the British. No one had to remind our Founding Fathers of the cost Fifty-siof them knowingly laid their lives, liberty and honor on the line when they signed that Declaration of Independence. And they paid their dues. In the ensuing war, nine were killed in action, five died as prisoners of war, 12 had their homes burned, several lost sons, one man's wife died in prison, and 17 (including Thomas Jefferson) went broke. The legacy of these men was summed up very simply by Tom Pain: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men. undergo the fatigue of supporting it." This nation has come a long way since the drafting of the Constitution, and the milestones are littered with human sacrifice VVe've fought wars around the globe in freedom's name and have paid a terrible price for our most fundamental national belief. Today, there are men and women who may lay down their lives for this country and the freedom for which x it stands. bear the painful costs of freedom. As we formally celebrate the commitment to break from E ngland and to protect our natural rights, let's hug to our breasts our freedom our most precious national treasure knowing that it, like a child, is imperfect and demanding but undeniably good Let's keep our centuries-olhabit of protecting that child of Amerithat fretdom She's getting more rare and preca, cious every day Ve all |