Stockdale Says Clinton’s War Protest Prolonged POW Ordeal

DALLAS — Ross Perot’s running mate, James B. Stockdale, accused Bill Clinton and other anti-war protesters of hurting the U.S. war effort in Vietnam, costing American lives and prolonging the captivity of prisoners like him.

“Those comrades of mine that died--the extra 10, 15, 20 thousand--that blood is on your hands, you war protesters,” Stockdale said in an interview published Tuesday by the Idaho Statesman in Boise. “You strung it out. You didn’t stop it a minute.”

Stockdale said, “Every time in prison, we would hear that they had one of these big galas of the sort that Clinton was arranging here and there in the world. ‘Huh,’ we’d say. ‘Another year in this place. We’re not going to get out of here until we bomb Hanoi.’ And they couldn’t do that until they beat that opposition down.”

Bombing raids on Hanoi began in December, 1972. The first release of POWs came in February, 1973, when Stockdale and 115 others were freed. The last U.S. forces left South Vietnam in 1975, and South Vietnam surrendered to the Communists.

Clinton has said that he strongly opposed the war and took part in several protests against it, including organizing a “teach-in” while at Oxford University in England.