THE ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST Sybil Stockdale

In 1965, Sybil Stockdale was a mild-mannered Navy wife in Southern California. But after her husband’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, she would become one of the most important and effective activists in American history. Her organization, The National League of Families, fought for nearly a decade to bring home nearly one thousand POWs who were being held by North Vietnam in conditions of extreme deprivation and torture. Throwing out their military handbooks’ useless advice on shrimp forks and hairstyles, these remarkable women used the powerful new medium of television to leverage their own position, became covert operatives who gathered more information on the POW camps than the entire U.S. military, and eventually defied the Government itself to bring their husbands home.

Our guest is historian and curator Heath Hardage Lee, author of the new book League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took On the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home.

Sybil and Jim Stockdale as a young couple
photo courtesy of the Stockdale family

Sybil Stockdale dancing at a party in 1964, one year before Jim would be shot down.
photo courtesy of the Stockdale family

White House Press Conference with members of the National League of Families members in 1969. (L-R) Carole Hanson, Louise Mulligan, Sybil Stockdale, President Nixon, Andrea Rander, Pat Mearns
photo courtesy of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library

Jim Stockdale is tackled by his family on the runway immediately after his return to the U.S.
photo courtesy of the Stockdale family

The guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale departs on its maiden deployment as Mrs. Sybil Stockdale, left, wife of the late Adm. James B. Stockdale, and Mrs. Heather Bennett, wife of Cmdr. Jeffrey Bennett, commanding officer aboard Stockdale, look on.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Elena Pence
public domain

Sybil Stockdale, widow of Adm. James B. Stockdale, cuts a cake during a ceremony to commemorate POW/MIA Day at Naval Base San Diego in front of the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale. 2011.
U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Joe Kane
public domain

Heath Hardage Lee comes from a museum education, preservation, and program background. She holds a B.A. in History with Honors from Davidson College, and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. Heath is an independent historian, biographer and curator. She is the author of Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause and The League of Wives:The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam. Heath was the 2017 Robert J. Dole Curatorial Fellow, and her exhibition entitled The League of Wives: Vietnam POW MIA Advocates & Allies about Vietnam POW MIA wives premiered at the Dole Institute of Politics in May of 2017. Reese Witherspoon and her production company have optioned The League of Wives for a feature film. Heath will be an executive producer and historical consultant for the project.