Host good evening, everyone. Im so excited to see such a full house here. And i know our authors are as well. Before i start we are more than happy to have youve taking photos from your seats but just turn the flash off so you dont blind our speakers. And if you will put all of your cellphones on silent that would be wonderful. And if you want to post anything on social media, we would love for you to tag, politicsprose and gwuevents and possibly repost it. So, my name is brittany and i am the partnered Events Manager at politics and prose and i want to thank you for cooking out coming out on a friday night. Tonight is a joint event with George Washington university and we are all so pleased to bring you jim mattis in conversation with david brooks tonight. Before we get to tonights program, i just want to tell you of a few other Exciting Events we have coming in in partnership with gw. On september 11th we have an event with Malcolm Gladwell with his book, talking with straineer, part of a live recording of sam sanders podcast on npr. On september 12th we have Samantha Power as well as Josh Campbell with james comey on september 16th. And on september 24th, patty smith will be at listener for her memoir, the year to the monkey. Ticks for those event are on sale now so i hope to see you at them this month. Now on to the event you are here for. Secretary jim mattis is a Pacific Northwest native who served more than four decades as marine infantry officer. Following two years as the secretary of defense he returned to the northwest now and a distinguish el the low at the Hoover Institution at stanford university. Call sign choose is the account of his career from leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter million troops in the middle east. Along the way he recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, exacting the lessons he has orlando but the nature of learned but the nature of war fighting and the importance of allies and to strategic del him mas facing our nation. Makes is clear why america bust return to a strategic footing so not just continue to win battles busts fighting wars. Mattis divide is has book into three parts, direct leadership, executive leadership, and strategic leadership. In the first part he recalls his Early Experiences leading marines into battle. When he enough his troops was ale with his own brothers. In the second part he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can form their own mission. In the third part, mattis describes the challenges some techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile wars grim realities with political leaders human aspirations, where complex is reigns and the consequence of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic. Call sign choose is a moment hero of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning. Following along as he rises from Marine Recruit to four star general. A journey but learning to lead and a story how he, through con study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy that made him into the man he is today. General mattis be in conversation with david brooks. Political and cultural commentator who writes for the New York Times and also currently a commentator on pbs news hour, nprs all Things Considered and nbcs meet the press. He the author of bo bos in paradise, the new upper schloss how the got there and on paradise drive, hoe we live now and always have in future tense in march 2011 he came out with his third become, the social animal, the hidden sources of love, market and achievement, and his latest, the second mountain, will not stop flying off the shelves at politics and prose since it was published in april. Help me back to the stage, david brooks and secretary jim mattis. [applause] this is first time ive seen an author work the crowd before the event. So obviously the campaign has begun. No. [laughter] there are many surprises. I loved reading the book. Had a chance to write a column and many surprises. The first surprise was you were hiphike arent the west at age 13. Uhhuh. Now, you give us the basic facts about your family but what kind of house did you grow up . Military, prepare you for marine corps or no. I was not brought up in a military family at all. We liked being outdoors. My family would go camping on weekend. My mother and father traveled the world as young people mitchell father in the merchant ma preen for 15 years, my hour marine for 15 years and my mother in the army g2 crypto clerk and went to south africa and worked in the consulate. The world was a place to be explored. They didnt know i was hitchhike at first and then the figured it out. It was more trust time. You could hitchhike around america and be picked nip crosscountry truck driver in the afternoon, not knowing where you would stop that night, or by the night nurse coming off duty at early in the morning who would pick you up and drive you to the next town it and was a great education. Now, you were not the most devoted student, or in high school or in the either in high school or what passed for college but you are perhaps one of hardest working people i have ever me. When did that kick to . I never thought of what ive done as a lot of work. Just enjoyment of being around the people, but it was the sort of thing where i wanted to be outdoors, wanted to explore the world and i loved books, but i dont think i was much of a student because it seemed too structured to me and everyone has different way of learning but one this when you join the marines everybody has to read certain books when they join the marines. Theres a reading list, and then when you make corporal theirs another whole new reading list and when you make sergeant, they say heres another reading list. Matter of fact when generals make general, yep, they get handed a new reading lives go back to work. And they werent really interested in your midlife crisis when you said i didnt have time do the reading. They were very adamant about it. And little by little i think frankly i didnt like a lot of the jobs in the marines but i loved being around young infantrymen who would do the dirtiest jobs, most dangerous jobs, for example i leonard hate mine fields at age 21. But i loved being around Young Marines who would crawl into minefields, biting their lip, still in their teens, probing and looking for something they didnt want to find, knowing if they missed it, their buddy could get killed, and the only around stuck around that lowpaying outfit for 40 odd years was i just loved being around young sailors and marines who made up thereunto and infantry. This book is almost a love letter to the marine corps and when youre in with the troops and especially infantry, you feel that your happiness in the prose and when youre off in brussel and nato, little less. The marine corp takes takes young men and women who are hanging around the 7eleven one day at high school or college, and doing other stuff, young men andwomen women do and turns into the something different. How does that happen . I income theyre all volunteers and for whatever damage that is down our country, i came in at a time when i probably wouldnt have joined the marines. I cant say that for sure but i doubt i would have joined the marines had it not been for the draft. You had to go. Thats all there was too it. You could try to duck out of it but you had your even at a young age you dont want to look like youre not boy or man. Some went off to canada. Itself was 1969, the vietnam war was going on. But we thought wed never bev allowed to come home for our brothers wed organize parents anniversary. Didnt think they would be brought home as heros a few years later, which they were. So you signed up and went off to do your duty and while there, thats when i found that the marines really valued excellence. It remember once i ran in the Obstacle Course and against another platoon, running through, seeing if question get through fastest and i realized would beat this guy easily. Physical things came easy to me so i didnt gift it everything i needed to. Still beat him and you get to the end, climb the rope and touch the top and drown down and feeling so proud, and this Gunnery Sergeant lit intomer and said you werent giving it 100 . He said im fed up with you. He accused me of actually being a communist, sent in to destroy the marine corps, and he went all over me, said let me make it clear thank youor, young man help said when you give 100 , ill be 100 satisfied you give 99 , ill be 100 dissatisfied and when someone that big is noor face you get the idea. So you start giving start learning what the word commitment means and apply it from then on whether it be to your new hampshirely, community, whenever you go, that stay is with you, formative experience. One passage where you say the commitment to excellence is uncompromised and permanent sensitivity are irrelevant. Wees. When theres a mistake. When i read that sentence i thought, the last 60 years of American Culture just crump belled crumbled because in most workplaces and rules personal exception different is not making people field bad. Is the marine corps its own place. Its a good point. The fact is that on the battlefield, there is no trophy for second place, much less ninth place so you have got win, brought up behave grim set of skills from people who have doesnt it and theyre not interested in reasons why it knock happen. You simply have to carry through. Pretty soon what carries you along is you know everybody beside you is also going to be there. When thank trouble looms theyl, even at their risk of their ownrich, hit humbling and energizing. Youre part of something bigger than yourself and expand you. It does not shrink you to be part of an organization. It expands you to have that sense. Now, early in your career you were running recruitment in your home area, and in the Pacific Northwest. Sound likely in were working 80 hour weeks or some long amount and there was a officer didnt want to do that. Who challenged you and said maybe at a family or something, and you busted him and ended his career. What but Work Life Balance . Well, there is a worklife balance but it has to be is everybody is doing everything they can so you dont dump more of the work on someone else. And in this case, i just made it clear to the young man that you could be a marine or be a quitter but you couldnt be both. So im not going care more about about your career than you care. Tell me which you want to be. Want to be a marine ill coach you, ill be with you all the way through and he decided to test and it the thing to remember is, social e especially with the number of young seeing how many students here today. We have the count back here. David and i before we walked out. And you always want to help people, but i wont even waste my time as a coach, and thats really what i did about 95 of my team any marines. Was a coach. But i will not waste my time coaching somebody who is not humble. Its worthless. You might as well just give it up. And so if theyre not humble enough to recognize they need coaching, if youre not, if im not that humble, then really you cant help them, and in any organization, as you become a leader, you dont get to be a leader because you have a rank on your collar or you have a title on your business card. Your juniors make you a leader, determine if youre a leader. Theyll vote whether or not youre a leader. On the battle field theyed there follow an 19yearold pfc is the 28 year captain doesnt know what hes doing. Just remember, too, that at times even jesus of nazareth had one out of 12 go to carp on him. And you have to maintain a firing squad. You have to. [laughter] i missed that part of the gospel. Lets go to the coaching. Dwight eisenhower has fox conor, his mentor, who formed him. Did you have something that was my coach, the guy who made me who i am. Ive had to think but the coaching, who are my mentors because on this tour now you look back on things, the whole point was to pass on lessons that i had learned, what worked for me, for you to consider. Not follow blindly but just say does this make sense to you . And my when youre in the infantry, your fortunes rise or fall on your nc os, youre living with 40 sailors and marines in the mud, you have no Better Living conditions, youre the last officer in the chain of command so you must represent all the orders that come down to those who are in our line of work going into the intimate killing zone, the close quarters battle, and my first platoon sergeant was an immigrant from the british indies in the caribbean, his name was is corporal wayne johnson, senior enlist its guy and only 21 years spoiled was 21 years old at the same time. And of course with a name like wayne johnson, everybody called him john wayne, absolutely, and then he had been overseas nor a long time, taught me not just what i did but he told me what not to do, what after officer doesnt do. Leave that alone, let other people handle certain things and im starting to learn right then but delegating Decision Making and responsibility. My second platoon sergeant, also a colonel, was manual riff remarks this its 1973 time frame. You werent er most of you in the audience. And he was an immigrant from mexico. And he was the same way. Stern, and yet he was a guy who could get down there and show a marine who was having trouble how to do something right. And i used to just admire the way he could in a few sharp words get someones attention and then just turn the person in the right direction, mostly spiritually, the physical, the mental followed. And then my third platoon sergeant, agot a Staff Sergeant with 15 years in the marine corporations, from quebec, immigrant, again, and learn budget in immigrant role in the u. S. Military and just how they were overrepresented it and was a broadening experience because somehow growing up in my home town, 99 people i was with were native born. Why die bring it up . Because the military by the very nature will expand you in a way that no other organization will. In sense of diversity. The mentors come in all shapes and sizes, and they come from all parts of the world. Now, when youre leading, one thing that comes through in the book is your affection for the marines. You had i assume times when youre leading any size unit, you have to be unpopular. Were you close friend with the people right around you or always some distance between you and those under your command . I used to encourage i was taught this and used to encourage that officers should come as close to the line that separates them from their troops as they can. And be themselves. But without giving up one ounce of their authority because there is going to come a time when the chips are down and youre going to have to point to someone and point toward the enemy and tell them to go. And at that point everything in that young mans body is going to tell him, dont get up, dont move against him. You know what can happen. And youre going to need that authority. But you use a very, very critical word because it took me 25 years to come to the word affection. You need trust and respect. Tryst u trust is a copy of the realm. Identify have that as lead are you arent going to accomplish much of anything. I knew that the troops respected their leaders. Marine corps screens out nerve from 40 to 60 of the already screened people who try to become officers. But why were some units so good . Why were some 40man platoons as good as 150 man infantry company, when they closed with the enemy . The 0 other word was affection. For example, in four months around me as a twostar i had 29 sailors and marines and in four months, 17 of the 29 were killed or injured around me and when casualties get around 50 , thats ha place called el Anbar Province and the sunni triangle. Very tough fighting, day in day out. But what held them together was an affection for each other that no matter what happened, they would keep fighting. They would keep fighting and fighting and fighting. And the affection is the opt in its own way of popularitiment popularity brings favoritism. One reason why you see the military so antianything that would bring other impulses inside combat assault units because when youre pointing at someone and sending them forward, you can read in some vary old textbooks about when favoritism rotted a unit right out from underneath, a king here, solomon, and others. So, the point is that affection is the sort of thing that does not rest on any sort of favoritism. Not about being popular. When youre going around making people get up and move, when they dont want to when you telling people that the first thing you have to do when they have clean uniform on is jump into a mud puddle because you dont want them to be reluctant to hit the deck in the mud. Youre not doing things that make you popular but you find if you lean been honest with your troops, if they trust you, theyll stick with you. For example, deep inside a city that we have lost boys taken halfway through it and we know we have the enemy on the run, and were halted and then told to pull out. And a Television Camera gets shoved in a young man light machine gunners face, blonde haired, filthy dirty marine who has his machine gun over his shoulder, and the reporter saying this is terrible. You mist feel terrible, its terrible you lost your buddies, its terrible. Now youre being told to pull back. Must feel terrible. And he is a slowtalking kid and looks over at the camera and said doesnt matter. Well hunt them down somewhere else and kill them. Now, it is shows the spirit of these young folks who sign up, young men and women who sign up, this blank check, patible the all of you in this room, to vote protect this experiment we call america and if we hadnt been honest with that young man all along, hadnt kennedy kept him firefighter. He could have said, its terrible and when morale goes down in a combat unit you know youre going to lose more people. Its affection i think that build is on the trust and respect but its not popularity. There was a thing called the grand study which tiedded men who granddaughter waited from college in 1940 and followed them through life. They got draftedded in world war ii, some rose to become colonels and marms, some stayed privates and they want to know what correlates with success in warfare it and wasnt iq or soor economic status, wasnt physical courage issue wait relation relationship with mother and the when had received love from their moms knew how to give it to their men and where a deep emotional reservoir. You reverend fallujah, and this was the first battle of fallujah. This was an unpleasant moment in a war filled with a lot of unpleasant moments. Given orders to take a town and you didnt like being told to take it or being told to stop. How do you march yourself permanently and your men and women through an operation that you think is a mistake . Well, you explain just a little background to all of you. We were in a place, alanbar, the people was rising up the people was rising, then sunni uprising against his, guy named zarqawi and we were downtowns snubbed couldnt bring additional troops even though they their waiting in Southern California to come in. So, shortly after we took over the district from the 82nd 82nd airborne division, four contractors, wandering around the battle field used to be very upset about this stuff. Wandered into a town called fallujah. They got killed, burned in their bodies hung up, people were very angry near this town, and it was a tribal town, so what we did was we knew we could get ahold of a tribal element who basically hated the people who had done and wed findy the body were, get the bodies back and then find the people who had done it, hunt them down and kill them but i wants to do it with rage into raids into their homes aft night and didnt want to major a city of 350,000 people. So after a couple of dives arguing about this i finally received the order, you will move that against fallujah and stay in fight. I new my boss and the boss above him agreed with me, theyd fought the good fight with washington, and thats why its called orders, ladies and gentlemen, its not called likes. Dont have to like it. You have to do it. I said, okay, lets do it. And then what you have to do is says im going to do this as well as if i thought thin plan. You have to. He brace it because if you have to embrace it because if grew in halfway people will suffer. So i only had two assault battalions, goss as many innocent people evacuatessed, over 310,000 and then we went in swinging, and . I would just tell you the one qualification i put on it i said im going but dont stop me. And deep inside the city, the enemy is in very effective information warfare, for example, photos, footage of artillery round crashing into fallujah, and in fact we never afford one artillery round into fallujah. Would have with the need evidence it but the helicopter gunships and tanks were giving us what we needed and didnt fire are tylerry but is was artillery buts was played as if we were doing that on bmc and other Network Necessary town, footage that was i think they call them trailers or something, guys who bring stuff into them. And so we get stopped deep inside the city with my lads literal live with hand grenade range apart and we were losing people in this thing and hen we got ordered to pull back and thats when the young machine gunner was asked. You have to do the best you can because sometimes life doesnt go the way you want it to go and you give it 100 . How do you command a battle like that . I have spoken people in the battle and they were busting through walls. Youre a general. How do you command . First of all you have to make it clear live what you want and so the commanders intent is what its called, and i said my aim is to destroy the terrorist stronghold inside fallujah at the least cost to the innocent as possible, and i want to move quick live whiff the two assault bat tanons and will bring in more as soon as possible but you must move fast enough they cant respry baas we new that werent ready for the battled, then you talk to the assault units , right down you walk the line with them, pull them together some small groups and complaint and then they have to asks and you back and forth and if you could draw out of them what was really concerning them inside, then you would have a unit ready to go and you just do this. Thats the leaders job. Once you made that clear, if you trained your people and they were very, very welltrained, the assault units, then you take your often the Steering Wheel and give the initiative, if you trust your youngin cos, young officers keep the social energy going into the units . Calling for the sounder them outcome ncos doing their job theys blow hold in the sides of building so they dont have to go in through the front get a where its bob by trapped. If bob by trapped. If you want to control like in the marines we dont call it command and control. How many of your heard of that word before . Command some control. A lot of you. Businessessite. Marines believe in command and feedback. We told you what we need done. Now are youll see me on the front lines listening to them, talking to wound marines, how did it happen you get feedback from 100 Different Directions and take your hands off the wheel, after you have clearly stated what needs to be done. Now in the in the greeks the men were covered by shields and so terrified you could they could hear each others teeth chattering. Have you felt that kind of fear in the course of your career either in the battle field or somewhere else. I mean, absolutely. You feel it. Youre trained to overcome it. Theres things you can do to overcome it. Your body will help you. Your mind will help you get through that. Itself will slow some things down, but the most important theres nothing strange about fear. Its going to be there its part of every fight. First time i got shot at i couldnt taste for three day, scared the hell out of me. But i think that youre well enough trained but what drives you forward, because youre probably going to be very, very tired. I cannot even explain to you how tired you get in combat. Some of you in here have been there you know what im referring to. So, the fear is going to be there, coupled with the fatigue that goes beyond words. Theres going to be also just a sense almost at times of doom and exhilaration going back and forth moment by moment. The love for one another that i dont care what happens, im not going to leave him. Their backup on your knees firing for your buddies as when he goes forward in the muscle memory kicks in. The rings are real good at socializing people to that commitment when they come in. You going to fight we put a lot of confidence. You were ordered back into the states. Two years. And wrote a book. What was it like. This is the revolutionary document. What was it like writing a book back home while marines were fighting in iraq. Was that just part of the rotation and what was the process behind that. It really did revolutionize things. Took advantage of the lessons learned. That this is the normal behavior of the learning Organization Area if the organization is learning, you bring some of your people back, dave and i were old friends and we served together as generals. And now as to stars. Then next three stars. When he was at Fort Leavenworth and i was at quantico, so we just had to write something. We said okay, lets map out the chapters intercepted it. We said okay, armies going to take these chapters brings these chapters and we would meet just like the senate and house of representatives. [laughter] that works so well. [laughter] we could give them a lesson. We turned out the book very quickly. Jim the most important thing in it to me we put something called design. Go back to einstein when confronting a problem and how to save the earth. Nobody composes thinking. And allegedly said that if when he would give them an one hour to save the world, that when he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem as of the world in five minutes. So the marines, we get them to define the problem chapter. The companion design chapter. Overall of you as you go into these kinds of issues both of it be corporations, school districts, your local community. Wherever you know at, just take your time to define the problem to what i call, the loophole of satisfaction. Dont go charging into a war and then you pull a statue down in the capital and say well, now would we do. That is not a good idea. We put the book out, we think we learned a lot while we were there, david and i and then, we put it out and change the training in the doctrine and weapons, uniforms, mostly the cultural aspects of the Services Going in. Once we got enough people on the ground there, we were able to turn it around. My favorite section of your book is your soldiers going to help lead the invasion of iraq and immediately pursue you do end of the about the invasion of iraq. My favorite passage in the book is where you say that if you havent read hundreds of books you know functionally illiterate. Which is good good for politics and prose. [laughter] you really did, you found time to read every day of your career. Jim again, the marine corps expected it. They dont mind that you make a lot of mistakes, i mean, a lot. I got chewed out and they dont look out for your ego when they go after you. But they also promoted me every time i mayday mistake. They promoted me every time i think marine corps made it clear that they werent looking for and they expected me to study but they didnt expect me not to make mistakes. And for all of you because you know all going to be leaders of something if you want to be. That is your choice. That is the opportunity you will have. Their leaders at all ranks in society and onthejob and in families, make sure you know the difference between a mistake and a lack of discipline. In the naval service, and in the marines, we used to say, if you run the ship on the rocks, you know going to get hammered. This is the varsity, you are going down. If you are a senior, you are probably going to go out. If you are young you get a second change, maybe. As long as its not a moral purpose chewed. But mistake, human beings make mistakes great i have made a lot of mistakes. Let me tell you, in the middle of the open desert, i commanded 1250 sailors marines and arabs in my battalion and an assault battalion. They were going through minefields in the middle of the open desert i get my battalion surrounded. That is almost impossible. [laughter]. I was at the top of my game but it was the strong game. [laughter] know in your motor size, and you have for shooting this way and for shooting that way, you know not brilliant. And later on, ive seen the marines, they got me out of that mess is it too. I have walked down and said hey you know just checking us, to see if we still had it. Right. And i said no, i messed up. And i got called over to the headquarters. In a breakthrough to kuwait city tonight, they are starting to murder is that people. Iraqi army is retreating in front of us. Youve got to get there and get stop them. Were getting late and on the smoke process, is going to be difficult. Colonel called us together who would lay the attack into kuwait city, and we got done, and we are all moving back to our vehicles back to the units, here are the orders lets go. When he called me over and said when he jim, did you learn something today. I said yes sir. When he said okay. When he said nothing more. When he didnt rub it in. When he wanted to make sure that when he knew they want to make sure that i knew that when he saw it but when he did not make a big deal of it but when he want to make sure that i know is the big deal. When he knows enough and i was going into a another attack and i dont need a song and a dance about this. I learned a lesson. I think to if you can help people get through mistakes and how to use them as learning opportunities, it doesnt in any way except a lack of discipline. And moral purpose route or Something Like that but for crying out loud, lets not have a no mistakes world. I went to jail twice. Twice before when he went into the marines. And i just tell you that the marines forgave that is it too. [laughter] we do make a mistake and there are losses, do you torture yourself about it or do you say i learned a lesson i move on. Jim you do not forget when your lads lose their lives and what you did. You just have to live we put it. Two final questions that are political. First was about president obama. Be relieved you of the command. There were clear places before when he really did not think they were fighting the right civilian ship. Please describe that relationship and your overview faults of that. Jim i found it curious. I would be in meetings we put him. Heres the thing, you heard when we were introduced, that at times military leaders after bring wars they refer to the grim realities into the discussion that politicians were trying to go for peace and prosperity in healthcare, education all the things you care about. Again we defend the country so that i can have those things and so somehow we have to bring that thinking in to the decisions made in war. This is completely alien to what we are trying to do in this beautiful democracy. Bring the harmony of our teams together in this country at least i hope we are. So we put the president obama, i thought that if we pulled all of the troops out that the cia shame down to brief me weaver i went up to the discussions in the white house each time. They would brief us and say here is what the enemy will do in all of this, and one time, i am sitting there and allnight admirals admirals and generals are sitting in the back of the room and the cia refers are there breaking me and some wouldnt say anything for a long minute or something or two minutes. After a brief period im sitting there and my guys are all smiling knowing someone is going to break the. [silence] here pretty soon. The young lady who is leading the brave from cia, she said, levees put it this way, you pull all of our trips out at the end of the year and by the summer of 2014, now this was in 2011, by the summer of 2014, and Al Qaeda Group stronger than ever more well resourced than ever, and more vicious than ever will come out. Im not sure which one but i think anyone who it is. Im not going to tell you what i think i know. Im telling you they will. One of these trips will come. And you will have to put troops back in. Our Intelligence Community in regards of anything you read in the newspaper, in terms of other people his assessments, one of the best in the world if not the best, maybe not in region, not the top but overall is stop. So to carry that message and and on the issues rn, the president said i would go. Ladies and gentlemen, the words are you serve at the commission of the president. When he had the right to do and those words have to meet something we need gives you there, or we do leave. I left there in 2013, in 14 months later, we had to go back and we put troops we put millions of people turned in refugees by the very people isis that the 7 billion or the cia briefer had briefed on 50000 dead and wounded in the first months. What was going on in city spelling, girls as young as eight years old and seven years old, being raped and taken into being made slaves. That is the catastrophic results of a strategic decision. I gave what i thought was the strongest admonition of why we must not do this but if you believe in the constitution you are going to uphold it, then you keep safe we put it. You carry out the orders of the civilians, unless you think they are immoral. While i thought it was strategically unsound, on me we did pull those troops out, because that was his right as the elected commanderinchief. You do not suddenly think that you start telling the civilians when we are going to war or when we are not going to work. You just have to deal we put it. Final question before we get to your questions. On his book tour, roughly 500 journalists msu to talk about president trump. [laughter] and so far at the batting is 04500. [laughter] yeah going to try. [laughter] i heard the argument of why you dont want to discuss the current president. We do say military people should not discuss it because of civilian and military relationships. But you have no military relationships. So im not aware the political appointees at the cabinet secretary, that theres been much hesitancy about not talking about [laughter] a sitting president. Isnt that the right president to serve. Jim we are all formed by our formative experiences. Where i come from personally right for the brand, i am from out west. Your right to the brand in the brand we put the u. S. Constitution and the u. S. Constitution says, if a man is elected, a woman is elected, commanderinchief, they are the commanderinchief. Secondly if your hard republican or democrat president s as i want you to do something, you dont set up on the wall of the castle wringing your hands and you dont pull staying no did i do it or not, just go to work. If you think you are ready to do the job, roll up your sleeves and going and give it your best shot. We do leave and administration, over a policy difference, and you write that policy difference in a public letter and you lay it out, then you have said why you left. Its all there was to it. It was over alliances and whose are adversaries and i was upfront about it. I had a straightforward talk about it we put the president when he and i alone in the oval office. We had a straightforward talk. And walking out of the office mayday straightforward talk. Those people that think i was doing things behind his back, i was very open we put the president we put what i would do. We would have lunch most weeks just the two of us, and the commander of secretary of state was there. We were always struck addressed each other right up front. We do leave office, we have a million troops right now and many of them are to floyd at sea, there are fighting in syria tonight in afghanistan, they dont need a former cabinet official coming out in distracting from what the secretary of state and secretary of defense and the president is to do right now. I dont believe that is helpful. The french call it by the way the dove law of the reserve. A duty of part of why its. For a while. Now im not against coming out and talking about strategy or policy disagreements. Ive done it we put the last several president s. I make clear what i think about how we did in iraq. On president bush. But i dont believe that to mill people we put military background check around and make political assessments. Of the civilian leaders. Let me be very clear. George washington at newburgh, said you will not do what you know trained to do here. These were his officers who work we put legitimate rights. When he went out and look the right in the eye and said you will not do it. There bradley after world war ii, army general said when a general retires his uniform, when he retires his tongue when it comes to political matters. When i was introduced here tonight, when i walked out there and talk to some of you in the line, many people call me general. I may tell you i am no longer a general but in many people his minds, i am still general. When the time comes that our military people start going out into the, if they want to run from office i am all for it. Go ahead. Thats okay. But you dont go out and take part in partisan politics and start seeing how many generals you can line up on this person versus that person. Our military his most admired institution in terms of the confidence of the American People year in and year out on the foals, were apolitical. When we start getting into the politics of it, i think the bipartisan nature of this variety, i had 87 percent of the republican and democrats both, representatives and kind of grace men and senators for a recordbreaking budget last summer before i left. 87 percent. You think that wouldve happened if we were politicizing the department of defense. Senator vandenberg, michigan, late 1940s, rightwing republican senator. When he is challenged in his home district in his home state, why are you working that terrible democrat crewman, president truman. Physically when he says, the defense of our country is nonpartisan. The quote your fellow often is politics and his we put or stops at the water his edge. I would say we put that tradition. Here the other ways but secretary carter, s carter, a good friend, my predecessor. On president obama refused to engage in political discussions. And when he the military officers sitting next to him on capitol hill, not to answer a question. In the congressman asked him a political question, when he would say dont answer them. None of us have any fear of the military moving into the political room in an authoritative way. But believe me most countries in the world, are like that. Ive gone on is it too long. [laughter] [applause] now we will move from the questions i wrote a note pad. These are your questions. The military awards medals for physical courage, is there ever a way to give awards for moral courage. Jim i think that would be promotion. By the time you get up and ranks in the armed forces, you really do get promoted for your moral courage. Its not just because you know how to do the science of war or the art of war, matteroffact ive said many Selection Boards as you do, you get up higher in rank, by the same yard for example lieutenant cornel, you are on the Selection Boards for whos going to be promoted for captain. Your a fourstar general, you know selecting who is going to be the one into start generals. The shortest way to get passed over, the absolute easiest way to be told we are not going to promote that guy or cow, as if they have shown a lack of integrity or moral courage. Its really a selection, its a behavior rewards now if the institution gets rotten, then you can have a problem we put this and it is happened. And its why you have to be very alert to this to keep your personal and managerial integrity. The royal the award we would give would be probably promoti promotion. I see some struggle we put technology and the cost we put dod as a result. How do we fix this. Jim i think are the things you have to do is make sure your organization is fit for its time. A few years ago, weve set up us Cyber Commands, which is the combatant command for example ive commanded us forces command in a commanded Us Central Command. That was the one fighting the wars in the middle east. We now have a command and we had it for some time. Let Cyber Command and it works on that very issue. So what you have now are people being promoted ncos and officers, both of it is skill in that very area. So what you have to do, if you see technology coming forward like this, you have to organize the institution so you start promoting people based on their capability there. Weve been doing that for some time. The Us Central Command for example, if you walked into certain operations rooms, when he would see the intelligent people sitting there and using the guy whos court naming the strikes coming off of the aircraft carriers. The when he is coordinating the strikes from the air force. The army missiles, and you would see sitting right next to them, some of the cyber folks sitting right next to them just another one of the supporting arms. We integrated at all. Some of them were civilians sitting there, the higher headquarters because we have not grown all of that inside the military. But it is coming fast, young people coming in now. Some of the girls had more tattoos and any sailor in the fleet. [laughter] some of the guys had more earrings than any girl i dated. [laughter] but they were darn good at their job and we loved having them there. They were great. What is the greatest National Security threat to the united states. Jim i would break that into two questions. In terms of this world where we focus a lot of terrorism, terrorism going to be we put us and its in an ambient threat its not going away real soon. It reflects those things were going to have to fight it. There were going to have to try to set the conditions of education of Economic Opportunities thats going to reduce the need for people to think theyve got to go to the violent way. Its going have to fight the rest of them. In this world today, the bigger threats are what i would call great power competition. The russian and china want to give Veto Authority to themselves, overspreading nations economic decisions, security decisions and diplomatic decisions, china that would their president would stand in a rose garden we put president obama and say they would not militarize the Spratly Islands and then they went in and put weapons into the stradley islands. Russia that would invade and take over, were going to have to recognize that russia is what russia is on putin, not the russia we wanted to be. So thats where i would see it now. Terrorism goes on, we got china and russia russia the declining power, i think in some way it actually makes them more dangerous in the short term. But in the long term, as i told my chinese counterparts, we are going to have to find a way between you and i and between our nations, the manage our differences. We had two Nuclear Armed powers and we dont want to be as stupid as the europeans twice in the 20th century. That engulfed the world in the dark on work. Whenever i hear about this crap ladies and gentlemen about a rising power and a power this big, its just got to go to war, the one it hasnt always been to work. When he was a smart guy, and the nuclear age she wouldve brittany different book. Trust me on this. Im old enough, talk to him. [laughter] i think theres a big threat to me. Go back and read Avraham Lincoln his talk the young mans list, in 1858, we need talks about there is no army coming from europe or africa that is going to come over here and across the blue ridge and across the ohio river, even if they have of bonaparte. You know napoleon a little short guy. [laughter] when he said they cant do it. For going to destroy this country, were going to do it to ourselves. In the bigger concern i have right now is twofold. One people we put my color of hair are not maintaining the fiscal discipline of the country and we expect that weekend just turn this over to you young folks, is debt this increasing debt. Were not going to text ourselves, going to take these benefits on board, and youve got to deal we put it. Well just transfer it to you and we do get old youll find this big debt. And by the way, how big is the debt, as these at recordbreaking budget was for the pentagon, this last year, recordbreaking. Probably by next year, we will spend more than that every year servicing the debt. Spending that money in moscow or beijing or riyadh or tokyo or wherever its going, to the people about our funds will loan us the money. Were going to be sending that money back overseas. No nation in history has retained all of this that couldnt keep his fiscal house in order. But even more worrisome is what lincoln warned us about. We are separating into these little warring tribes. We will talk we put each other and we are contentious of others. We dont think that the person we disagree we put might actually be right once in a while. As we go into this, more contentious role, we become almost perpetually election us. I understand election, im smart your dumb and im right you are strong. Not always nice and utterly simple. I accept that. Welcome to democracy. But especially for your young folks here, that isnt the right model to stay in governing where you try to divide and get yourself elected. Once the election is over, you have to go into governance. Governance is about unity. Its not dividing. Weve got to come together and spend those 55 minutes roll up our sleeves and to find the problems. Lets take time to do that. Then we solve it. And that worries me more than anything right now and this is the problem we put all of her westernized. Look at whats going on in london right now. This is becoming dangerous. We have to understand the experiment of democracy can fail if we dont think its valuable and precious and defendant. What what advice would you give your number self. M jim dont mess we put the police. [laughter] probably, for you young folks in the audience, dont wait until youve got my color of hair. To do something. You know pretty impatient now and thats a good thing, do your homework. Make a difference now. Dont wait until later. And i bring this up because we need fresh ideas and we need bigger. You dont need to be running for national office. Run for the school board for what could be better in your local area and to make sure the young people are growing up are going to have good educations. Run for city manager or become the mayor. Do things where you are rolling up your sleeves and you are putting your thumbprint on it. Because we need that right now. I am part of the luckiest generation. I was raised by the greatest generation. Im not so sure what we are turning over to you is as good. Thats what we got from the greatest generation. You need to step up quickly and start challenging people we put questions and be impatient and say we want some governance going on here. Were no longer accepting that you can just sit on your hands we put our problems. Take the time to listen to others and make certain that you define the problems well enough that then you can go to work and solve them. Do you believe the telephone deal. Jim i dont know the back channel, i know weve got some great negotiators here. One thing about it for all of us, were going to have to decide what we stand for. And what we wont stand for. When weve got there, to afghanistan we went in right after 911, and i remembered kites suddenly being flown over the taliban and health, i remember how proud the children were and especially the girls. As they walked down the street on the first day of school. They walked by the heavily armed us soldiers and marines and sailors and seals. Foreign troops because when we were attacked, other allies shame to our aid. Here in america. New york city and washington dc was attacked. We carried our values forward. And now for the first time, in these young girls lives, they can go to school. It worries me that if we dont think those kind of rights are valuable for everybody in the world, and im not staying would not go around being the world his policeman. Thats what alliances are part but we do need to keep our moral voice and her leadership for most. Could you discuss the interplay of Climate Change and National Security and also what you think of the Solutions Like the Carbon Dividend planned that your uber colleagues officials have said. Jim i think the carbon makes sense. Let me talk a moment to those who are skeptical. About Climate Change. I used to tell people that im not going to get into who caused it. I was military, we are going to have to deal we put it. There is now a new open body of water from a military. Of view we have to deal we put because of the sea ice is no longer where it used to be. To me this is just science. Im not going to get into the politics of it. But now that im in a position where i am no longer just in the military side of it, i would say to those who are skeptical, even if it might not be the case, if there is a chance that it is Climate Change and it can be as potentially catastrophic as some think it could be, would it be be good to have an insurance policy. Wouldnt you just, i am an exit in my car ever but i still have insurance on my car. Wouldnt be a good idea to do that. Im trying to find some Common Ground so we can move forward here. Why on earth would we take those chance we put something that big we do can see the ci his reseeding in ways is never receded before. I would work on it in defining the problem in a way that is irrefutable. And it leased to about 80 percent. I think we live in such a skeptical age today that thats probably a magnificent number if you can reach it. Then we have to do something about it. In terms of National Security, theres a lot of reasons to look at what happened in syria. As part of the civil war goes, relating to a drought its hard to tell a god, i spent a lot of time in the middle east. A drought that drove many Small Farmers off of the land to the city, rinse went up not enough seats in the classroom people were angry, fruit seller sets himself on fire in tunis, and the anger comes through the arab world and you can draw at least some conclusions that this has indirectly fed into a much of the distant content and refugee flows. So again, my question to the skeptics would be wouldnt you lease it take an insurance policy on this. Happiness is to will one thing whole heartedly. Your life is more coherent than almost any of their life have encountered. Marine corps has been your community and your Sacred Mission and your belief system in your world community. You are out of active service in the marine corps. Your out of the secretary of defense unless Bernie Sanders asking to come back in three. [laughter] what is your calling out. Jim the reason i wrote the book is to pass so long what i learned so long the way. But really, it was the absolute pure joy of serving alongside marine coming there. It was more than just the marines. I wasnt in the marine corps, was in the us marine corps, i was answerable to all of you in this room. For how we dinner operations or the spending of your money, the combat we went through and i really had 11 for fair we put the u. S. Constitution. I even enjoyed reading the doggone thing. Just reading it, you find great things in it. You think you read it ten times or a hundred times you find Something Else in there that is great. It is really the idea that this is so precious that it probably cant even be taught to you. How prescient is you almost has to sense it is you read and think of these young and old guys sitting there starting we put the declaration and when they signed that they know they are signing their lives on the line. It can sort, catches them, they are dead. That is all there is to it. Thats the way kings did it. For us to have it today, this experiment seem so precious to me that i will commit what ever i can to helping young people become the leaders they want to be. I dont care if its in business or their dioceses or small towns or where ever it is, and i dont have all the answers but i can tell them, heres what works for me. I dont know both of to think us secretary or general or jim jim jim mattis will do fine. [applause] [applause] thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversation] background sounds. [background sounds] [applause] but tv continues now on cspan television for serious readers. Authors Sharon Robinson here we put a cover her book, new memoir of 1963, ms. Robinson, was your life like in 1963 . We were living in stamford connecticut and we had a house on 6 acres and a lake and surrounded by woods. So we have the privacy that my parents were seeking. It was a a prompt nominal when he White Community in northern stanford, integrated our neighborhood in our schools