This speech by Jim Collins for The Drucker Institute talks about The Stockdale Paradox, which is rooted in the story of Admiral James Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. How? How does someone deal with the facts of their situation when there’s seemingly no reason to hope for a happy ending?

Dieter Dengler: Heroic Immigrant Pilot Who Escaped POW Camp
Dieter Dengler was an American pilot in the Vietnam War. He was shot down, captured, and then spent several months in a small POW camp in Laos before his daring escape. He is the focus of a documentary, book, and movie about his capture and escape. Click here to learn


