Pricey 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 might 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 are actually the chief of probably the most highly effective navy on the planet.
Relatively 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’re among the many least certified main Cupboard nominees in fashionable American historical past, you don’t have any background in main a big group, and also you come into workplace with critical questions on your character and health, even from some in your individual celebration. I have to inform you that I imagine it’s best to have advised Donald Trump final fall that you might 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 dwell in harmful occasions and you can’t fail in your new duties. I’ve little interest in lecturing you about your private life, or your reported use of alcohol. I’ve been by means of such struggles myself, and I imagine that even—maybe particularly—in difficult moments, you’ll select to method your new tasks with each bodily and mental sobriety.
I labored in nationwide safety and protection affairs for practically 40 years, together with a quarter-century wherein my accountability was to coach American officers. I have no idea how one can be a Secretary of Protection, however based mostly on my expertise, I’ve three suggestions for you that I hope will contribute to a profitable tenure main America’s navy.
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 energy, 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 navy days, you in all probability bear 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 won’t put their plans on pause should you get distracted by a superficial home tradition battle.
You should have the ability of choice on nearly something that crosses your path, however you aren’t omniscient. You’re surrounded by a wealth of expertise and experience. Sure, among the folks beneath you’ll not be completely happy concerning the election or your affirmation, however they respect the horrible burden you’re carrying, and they’re there that can assist 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 need to deal with the fact that you’re getting into workplace with nearly no credibility together 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 laborious and harmful individuals who can have no respect for a former O-5 and talk-show host. I notice it’s an uncomfortable fact, however defensiveness about this may solely distract you from the work forward.
It’s essential to cowl numerous distance with these opponents. Your earlier abilities as a public commentator will probably be of no assist and actually will show counterproductive in such conditions. You can’t bully and speechify your method to respect with such folks; they’re robust in a method that can’t be countered with macho posturing or rants about DEI. The facile attraction that labored for you in public life will probably be a vulnerability in coping with our enemies, who will search to take advantage of each inconsiderate phrase. The combative punditry that works so effectively on cable tv in America might need helped you burn time throughout your affirmation listening to, however none of that can serve you effectively in negotiations or discussions with our devoted foes. (It gained’t do you a lot good speaking to our allies, both.)
As an alternative, you will see that that you need 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 have the ability to help you in methods you won’t 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 depart behind the sort of rhetoric that introduced you to prominence. I do know that you simply gained this publish by being a loyal soldier for President Trump. The reality is that the majority People—together with the People who serve within the U.S. navy—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’re 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 basic advised considered one of my mates whose boy, such as you, went by means of ROTC. “We’ll take excellent care of him.”)
The remainder of us are trusting you with all our lives. You possibly can effectively be the final particular person to talk to the president earlier than he decides to go to battle—or considers utilizing nuclear weapons. Partisan attachments will probably be meaningless at such moments.
Once I was barely 30 years previous, I suggested a Republican senator who was attempting to resolve whether or not to help President George H.W. Bush’s 1990 choice to go to battle in opposition to Iraq in Kuwait. “Am I doing the best 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 People 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 a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals within the navy group, and others will dwell 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 thousands and thousands—or maybe billions—now rely upon stuff you say that nobody however the president may hear.
You’re a man of religion, Mr. Secretary. We now have 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.