The good news is that former Secretary of Defense and retired four-star Marine general James Mattis has written a book on leadership, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. Co-authored with another retired officer Bing West, the book is a reflection on leadership from one who wore the uniform of a Marine and achieved its highest rank.
Given Mattis experience as a combat commander as well as a bibliophile with a personal library of some 7,000 books, Call Sign Chaos holds great promise. So “bad news"? Some observers want him to weigh in on his experience as President Donald Trump's defense secretary.
What’s missing?
Other than in passing, President Trump is absent. Trump supporters, of course, will not mind. Trump critics will not be satisfied. They want to know the answer to the question that Jeffrey Goldberg posed in his interview with Mattis for The Atlantic—“Is Donald Trump fit for command?”
Mattis did not bite on the question, explaining his thoughts with the French phrase, devoir de reserve—"the duty of silence." Mattis explains, “If you leave an administration, you owe some silence. When you leave an administration over clear policy differences, you need to give the people who are still there as much opportunity as possible to defend the country.”
When Goldberg, who has known Mattis for years, pressed him about “a duty to warn the country if it is endangered by its leader?” Mattis replied, “I didn’t cook up a convenient tradition here. You don’t endanger the country by attacking the elected commander in chief.”
Mattis added, “I may not like a commander in chief one fricking bit, but our system puts the commander in chief there, and to further weaken him when we’re up against real threats—I mean, we could be at war on the Korean peninsula, every time they start launching something.”
Keeping the military apart from politics
For perspective, I checked in with a colleague, Brian Layer, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general. “The American people see general and flag officers differently. When they are introduced as general or admiral, they may as well be wearing a uniform, their fellow citizens see them differently and many believe they have special insight so when they speak, their opinions carry extra weight.”
Layer, who is president of RL Leaders, a strategy consultancy, adds, “If former generals become viewed as a bunch of political hacks it won't be long before the active generals are perceived the same way and their advice is discounted because of it. Then the system just breaks down.”
Layer added that politicians need to do their part in keeping civilian and military practices distinct by casting them in partisan roles. “Our nation's military belongs to the people and keeping its professional ethic strong is in the interest of all of us.”
Leadership by comparison
Mattis ends his book with his resignation letter to Trump. Consider it a coda to his thoughts on leadership. And as Mattis said to Goldberg, “I had no choice but to leave. That’s why the letter is in the book. I want people to understand why I couldn’t stay. I’ve been informed by four decades of experience, and I just couldn’t connect the dots anymore.”
In a subsequent interview, Mattis told Goldberg, “There is a period in which I owe my silence. It’s not eternal. It’s not going to be forever.”
As Goldberg explained in his own interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the leadership tome that Mattis has penned is filled with the challenges leaders face and behaviors they should exhibit. Mattis extols praiseworthy leadership behaviors that stand in contrast to the transactional practices the President exhibits. As such, they serve as a kind of commentary by comparison.
Officers at every level are encouraged to speak out when they learn of conduct unbecoming of men and women in uniform. This includes speaking truth to power even to superior officers. Mattis knows this code well and likely will share further thoughts on Trump. The question is when.
