Expensive Mr. Secretary,
Custom dictates that I start by congratulating you in your affirmation. You appear to be a person who appreciates frankness, and so I’ll spare you empty decorum: It could be disingenuous of me to disclaim that I’ve been against your nomination to guide the Division of Protection from the second it was introduced. However the Senate has voted, and also you at the moment are the chief of essentially the most highly effective army on the planet.
Reasonably than give you empty congratulations, I hope you’ll settle for—within the spirit of the love of nation that I do know we each share—some unsolicited recommendation. You face distinctive challenges: You might be among the many least certified main Cupboard nominees in fashionable American historical past, you haven’t any background in main a big group, and also you come into workplace with severe questions on your character and health, even from some in your individual get together. I have to let you know that I consider it is best to have instructed Donald Trump final fall that you would not, in good conscience, settle for his supply.
However you probably did settle for it, and so I write to you as we speak not as a critic, however as a fellow American. I do know—as you do—that your success is important to the safety and security of our nation, and so all of us with one thing to supply owe you our greatest efforts, together with our direct and trustworthy views.
I ship these ideas to you with out partisanship or ill-will: The time for that’s over. We reside in harmful instances and you can not fail in your new duties. I’ve no real interest in lecturing you about your private life, or your reported use of alcohol. I’ve been via such struggles myself, and I consider that even—maybe particularly—in difficult moments, you’ll select to method your new duties with each bodily and mental sobriety.
I labored in nationwide safety and protection affairs for practically 40 years, together with a quarter-century during which my duty was to coach American officers. I have no idea find out how to be a Secretary of Protection, however primarily based on my expertise, I’ve three suggestions for you that I hope will contribute to a profitable tenure main America’s army.
First, and most vital, I implore you to hearken to the women and men working for you who’ve served our nation. Listening is an indication of power, Mr. Secretary, not weak spot. Each dangerous senior chief I ever encountered in my profession, together with generals, admirals, and elected officers, all had the identical flaw: Insecurity. They talked and opined and issued orders as a substitute of listening. (From your individual army days, you most likely keep in mind this expression: They solely had Transmit Mode, no Obtain Mode.) I do know you’ve been charged with shaking up the Pentagon, however the harmful world round us is not going to put their plans on pause should you get distracted by a superficial home tradition struggle.
You’ll have the ability of resolution on nearly something that crosses your path, however you aren’t omniscient. You might be surrounded by a wealth of expertise and experience. Sure, a number of the folks below you’ll not be blissful in regards to the election or your affirmation, however they respect the horrible burden you’re carrying, and they’re there that will help you. They share your love of nation, and your sense of obligation. Their success is your success. They don’t seem to be the enemy. Hear them out.
Talking of enemies, you have to take care of the truth that you’re coming into workplace with nearly no credibility along with your counterparts in Moscow and Beijing (and elsewhere). I say this not as an insult, however to explain in plain phrases the situations you face overseas. I’ve lengthy expertise with the Russians, specifically, and whereas they are going to deal with you with formal courtesy, make no mistake: These are arduous and harmful individuals who can have no respect for a former O-5 and talk-show host. I understand it’s an uncomfortable fact, however defensiveness about this may solely distract you from the work forward.
You could cowl numerous distance with these opponents. Your earlier abilities as a public commentator shall be of no assist and actually will show counterproductive in such conditions. You can not bully and speechify your strategy to respect with such folks; they’re powerful in a manner that can’t be countered with macho posturing or rants about DEI. The facile allure that labored for you in public life shall be a vulnerability in coping with our enemies, who will search to use each inconsiderate phrase. The combative punditry that works so properly on cable tv in America might need helped you burn time throughout your affirmation listening to, however none of that may serve you properly in negotiations or discussions with our devoted foes. (It gained’t do you a lot good speaking to our allies, both.)
As a substitute, you will discover that you have to depend on individuals who have been within the rooms you’ve by no means seen till now. You aren’t required to take their recommendation, Mr. Secretary, however when your counterparts name you, your workers will be capable of help you in methods you may not have thought of. They will warn you about your opponent’s methods—and weaknesses—earlier than you even choose up the cellphone. Your earlier profession has rewarded bombast and bluster; now you’ll have to grasp judiciousness, restraint, and the strategic use of silence.
Lastly, I hope that you’ll go away behind the form of rhetoric that introduced you to prominence. I do know that you simply gained this put up by being a loyal soldier for President Trump. The reality is that almost all Individuals—together with the Individuals who serve within the U.S. army—don’t actually care practically as a lot as you’d take into consideration the cultural points that introduced you into the Trump administration. You might be now not a pundit or a provocateur: From as we speak, your fellow residents are trusting you with the lives of their kids. (“Thanks for giving us your son,” a normal instructed considered one of my associates whose boy, such as you, went via ROTC. “We’ll take excellent care of him.”)
The remainder of us are trusting you with all our lives. You may properly be the final individual to talk to the president earlier than he decides to go to struggle—or considers utilizing nuclear weapons. Partisan attachments shall be meaningless at such moments.
Once I was barely 30 years previous, I suggested a Republican senator who was making an attempt to determine whether or not to help President George H.W. Bush’s 1990 resolution to go to struggle in opposition to Iraq in Kuwait. “Am I doing the appropriate factor?” he requested me. At that second, I felt as if the world had fallen on my shoulders. Nothing else mattered. “Sure, I feel so,” I stammered. After which we spent hours within the gloom of a winter afternoon discussing his eventual vote to ship younger Individuals into battle.
You’ll face selections galactically better than my one small second with my boss 35 years in the past. Some selections you make will really feel small to you, however they are going to have an effect on tons of of hundreds of individuals within the army group, and others will reside with them lengthy after you’ve left authorities service. Extra importantly, a few of your solutions might have existential penalties for humanity itself. The election and the speeches are over. The lives of hundreds of thousands—or maybe billions—now rely upon belongings you say that nobody however the president may hear.
You’re a man of religion, Mr. Secretary. We’ve got that in widespread. And so I’ll shut with my honest want that the Lord hold you and information you within the days to come back.