OPINION - Guest writer

DAVID ABELL: Getting through it

Be optimistic, but realistic

A few years ago, when I was on the civilian faculty at the Marine Corps War College, I accompanied a group of students on an orientation tour to Japan, China, and Vietnam. This sort of "Mil to Mil" visit is common, and most of the time is spent in formal briefings at ministry offices and military bases.

One afternoon in Vietnam, with nothing official on the schedule, we visited the Hoa Lo Prison, the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." Most of my professional life was spent working at U.S. embassies where one of my duties was visiting incarcerated Americans. I have been in some pretty grim lockups all across Africa, but I had never seen anything this bad, and I was seeing it after it had been cleaned up for the tourist trade. For me, it was a sobering experience. For my students, especially the Navy and Air Force pilots, it was like a pilgrimage to a holy shrine.

I was especially impressed by the silence and discipline of the students (officers from all the armed forces, at the lieutenant colonel level) while the tour guide emphasized how well the prisoners had been treated during the 1965-1973 period. That evening, over beers, they weren't so silent. I just sat and listened, as they talked about the lessons learned and passed on from Vietnam-era POWs.

We should all be heeding the lessons of one of those POWs, James Stockdale, right now. As of this writing, President Trump is advocating an early end to social distancing. He wants the country opened up by Easter.

After his return, Admiral Stockdale was asked what kind of person didn't survive captivity in North Vietnam, and his answer was, "Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end--which you can never afford to lose--with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." This concept of optimism for the indefinite future, but unblinking acceptance of present difficulties became known as "The Stockdale Paradox."

I think this is a valuable wisdom for all of us. Have faith in better days ahead, but face up to today's difficulties, and tomorrow's difficulties tomorrow, and those of the next day. Our response to the coronavirus pandemic can be the defining moment of our lives, a time we look back on with pride, but only if we deal with it maturely and realize we are in for a long, hard slog.

If we keep our optimism grounded in reality, we will all come out stronger on the other side.

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Arkansan David Abell is a retired senior Foreign Service officer who served in numerous foreign and domestic postings during his 32-year career, including a two-year assignment as State Department Chair at the Marine Corps War College, where he taught diplomacy and statecraft.

Editorial on 03/28/2020

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