Robbinsville resident Peter Fretwell authored a book about infamous Vietnam War prisoners of war camp, Hanoi Hilton.
Robbinsville author, Peter Fretwell, published a book about a prisoners of war camp in Vietnam.
Fretwell co-wrote Lessons From the Hanoi Hilton: Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams with former Naval officer Taylor Baldwin Kiland. The book was published by the Naval Institute Press, and was launched at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., in May.
Fretwell and Kiland interviewed POWs of the Hanoi Hilton Camp, which held more than 500 individuals. Of the POWs, 18 went on to be top-ranked military officers, seven U.S. Congress members, one federal trade commissioner, one vice presidential candidate and one presidential candidate.
Along with talking to the POWs, the authors interviewed psychologists, Navy SEALs and a Vietnam-era military intelligence analyst, to answer the question: why are so many of those that were imprisoned, abused and tortured in the North Vietnamese prison camp so resilient and successful in subsequent years?
Fretwell and Kiland concluded that evidence pointed to Admiral James Stockdale, a Navy pilot who was shot down and imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton in 1965 and would later rise to the rank of Vice Admiral as one of the most highly decorated officers in Naval history. Later he would chosen as a vice presidential candidate by Ross Perot in 1992.
As the ranking officer at the Hanoi Hilton, Stockdale assumed a leadership role among the prisoners. He promoted a culture, rooted in the teachings of ancient Greek Stoic philosophers, where every POW took personal responsibility for their own behavior and choices and that even in failure, there was a path back if one is willing to learn from the experience and make it useful to the group as a whole.
Unlike past wars, where prisoners would turn on each other and develop an “every man for himself,” Hanoi Hilton POWs remained united and returned home with dignity and honor.
Fretwell said that scholars, military experts and sports psychologists they interviewed confirmed that this was where the diverse cultures of elite athletes, ancient philosophers and the world of Hanoi Hilton POWs converged with a common mantra: control what you can and refuse to expend energy on what you cannot control.
As the title suggests, Fretwell and Kiland identified six distinctive characteristics within the culture of Hanoi Hilton that strengthened POWs as a group and enabled them to survive. Fretwell says these strategies can be used by any organization desiring to maximize performance, especially in the face of adversity.
Fretwell said he conceived the idea for the book when he was doing his graduate school work and read Good to Great, a 2001 business management book by James Collins that references the experiences of Stockdale during his imprisonment at the Hanoi Hilton.
Then in 2005, Fretwell saw a Veteran’s Day panel discussion on C-SPAN that included several POWs and Kiland.He contacted her via e-mail, and correspondence soon became collaboration.
Fretwell is the manager of WWFM The Classical Network on Mercer County Community College’s West Windsor campus.
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