1923-, U.S. naval officer, b. Abingdon, Ill.; grad. U.S. Naval Academy, 1946. A fighter pilot and highly decorated career naval officer (1946-79), he was the highest ranking U.S. prisoner of war (1965-73) in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He rose to the rank of vice admiral before retiring from the navy and was president of the Naval War College (1976-79) and of The Citadel (1979-80). Since 1981 he has been a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. He is the author of A Vietnam Experience (1985). Stockdale was H. Ross Perot 's vice presidential running mate in 1992.
