Have general john allen, United States marine corps retired, fourstar general, former commander of Nato International Security Assistance force in afghanistan. It is my great pleasure to introduce you general john allen, United States marine corps. [applause] got an ambush and already this morning. [laughter] cadet kim was going to introduce me. I think we have got all the introduction we need outoftheway. It is an honor to be with you and incredibly humbling to come in behind a couple tuskegee airmen. Be a bad asked. I am not sure how you do better than that. Badass. I am not sure how you can do better than that. I would like to do some q a. We will talk about major points. One. Your oath of office. This is a moment where our constitution is constantly in peoples minds. It is an issue being debated, what the intent of the framers was. There is no doubt about where it fits in the context of the oath of office of those of you who will lead our troops in combat. Speaking about the oath of office, how does that effect and how should it be interpreted with respect to the meaning of your commission . We will talk about that. Background on my family, since we have been talking history. My family has origins in the army, navy, marine corps. My grandfather, army combat engineer, badly gassed in world war i. My father enlisted in the navy, on a destroyer, it was torpedoed by a german uboat before world war ii started in 1941. He would fight throughout the entire war, across the north atlantic, mediterranean, pacific. Would end up at the end of the war anchored just away from the uss missouri and would be a witness to the surrender of the japanese. The marine corps side of my family, world war i, the battles of guam, iwo jima and okinawa. I came into the service when i was 17, into the naval academy, brand x for those of you from west point, graduated as an infantry man, spent 38 years as an infantry officer, would serve in bosnia, afghanistan and in iraq and later at the request of president obama, helped to organize and lead the Global Coalition against the Islamic State. It is an opportunity, during q a, i would be happy to answer your questions. Frame them about service in the military, combat, what our higher moral obligations are regardless of the uniform you wear, regardless of the formation you lead, it is extraordinarily important to have this conversation. 24 years ago, almost to the day, three levels up in this building , i was going through the Public Gallery with my family. I have been in command of a Marine Battalion landing team for some time, we had been working up through a special operations program. We were about to deploy to the mediterranean, almost certainly going to end up in bosnia and my business in particular beyond commanding 1200 marines of the Battalion Landing Team was to be the rescue force commander. The organization i was leading, going to go into the adriatic to rescue downed pilots flying over bosnia, was to alternate with the seal teams coming out of italy, and we were aboard the uss wasp. I brought my family up the last several days before deployment from this area originally. Three levels up, i went through the Public Gallery. If you have not been through it, you have to go through. On display was an original copy of the constitution. To that point, over 20 years of my life, from the moment my father swore me in to 1971, he had been an officer in the navy, from that moment until the time i put my eyeballs on the original copy of the constitution, i had never seen it. For years, i have sworn a sacred oath to support and defend the constitution. For years, i and my marines, and i would eventually come and join forces, i and all the services, who would arrive in combat in several different theaters, we had sworn an oath to support and defend the constitution. The u. S. Is not a place, although we can find ourselves on the map. It is not about a piece of fabric, although we do salute a flag. It is not about a person, although we acknowledge leaders, key leaders in our history and in presentday. The u. S. Is about a set of ideas, principles. Principles as enshrined in the constitution and the framers intended the sacred dimension of the constitution define us as a people and as a nation. For that reason, from almost the earliest moments of the republic, our military, unique in the world, and i have commanded a 50 Nation Coalition in afghanistan and a 65 Nation Coalition against isis i know what im talking about we are unique in the world and that we owe our ultimate loyalty, those of you in uniform, and i spent some time in the garb, our loyalty is to the principles of the constitution. Our humanity, commitment to human rights, freedom of speech, the bill of rights enshrined human rights your program, you swore an oath. When you graduate and receive your commission, you will swear an oath. As you are promoted each time, you will swear that oath over and over and over again and you will administer that oath over and over and over again. I want to take a minute and talk about it this morning. Right now, the constitution is being tested, pulled, twisted in a bunch of ways. In the public domain. The reality is, of course, it is what the when you swear that oath, you right and will be asked to raise your right hand, and you will you probably be asked, are you prepared to swear this before god . That is your choice. That is one of the great things about america. You can swear before god or affirm it based on your own personal predilections. It goes Something Like this. I do solemnly swear, solemnly swear, that i will support and defend the constitution of the United States of america, against all enemies, all enemies, foreign and domestic and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i take this obligation freely, an obligation no one is making you do this i take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god. Now. They are not kidding when they ask you to swear this oath. I see some commissioned officers who have been spending some time vote in uniform. Those of you who served in combat, those of you who have seen the ramp ceremonies, whether in iraq or afghanistan, by you know the awful reality of what we do, unique in the World Society of the United States, as officers of our military services, the awful reality of what we do in the world, as the leading proponent of democracy and the community of nations, is that the outcome of our duties may be the of sacrifice of our lives and the sacrifice of those we lead. I as you think about this, i will really beg you to think about your oath of office. Take a moment and study the words. Take a moment and think about the origins. Why did the framers, why in their brilliance, did they place the United States militarys loyalty in the end to our constitution . It was to preserve the rights of what white our citizens. Importantly, that military is born civilian controlled. Whole civilian controlled. So that there will never be a coup in this country the way there is an almost every other country at some point in its history. We will always be loyal to the principles of the republic. You have sworn an oath to this constitution. Lets talk about the meaning of your commission. There was a book which i would there recommend, if you do not have it, you ought to get it. I know i know it was rewritten one recently, updated. The armed forces officer. It was written in 1950. Over get online and, in the you original version of it, and you can still get it online if you search, get an original you version. Write 1950. Well just a few years after they world war ii, the greatest mind conflagration the planet has ever seen, well more than 50 million dead. The North Koreans invade south korea. It appears both stalin and the chinese have lined up behind the north korean invasion. The concern of course was at the end of world war ii when we saw the iron curtain to send on europe descend on europe and we saw Mainland China go down in the Republican Forces free of flee across the shanghai straight, it really looked as though this was the ultimate standoff between the elements of freedom and the elements of communism. We were not sure how this would end up. In 1950, the North Koreans invaded, we did not do well. If you read the history, know about Task Force Smith and other organizations, it was not clear we would be able to keep the korean invaders from completely running our forces off the south korean peninsula. Desperate moment. U. S. Army and marines are fighting in desperate conditions to try to hold on. All meanwhile, around the world where we were faced off against communist or soviet forces, we thought this might be the opening shot of the big, final conflagration. All sides now were armed with thermonuclear weapons. This was a pretty bad moment. We were now a joint force. We were now goingwe were now a joint force. In 1947, we had become a joint force in many respects, even though we were still fighting as services. We needed to talk to the armed forces officer about why that individual should be leading our troops in combat, because if this goes south on us, every dimension of our military will be committed into this war. We were not doing well, frankly. It was not certain how this would unfold. So the army commissioned one of its greatest historians to put together a book called the armed forces officer. That historians name does not appear in the original book. I cannot find it in there. You know if you study why there was a manual, if you will, a pamphlet as the army called it on the officer, army pam 6001, you find out that a fellow by the name of sla marshall wrote the book. Also for historians, he is known as slam. What slam attempted to do is to put into context, our service. If you are an officer of the armed forces, you have sworn that oath. You are prepared to go forth and do battle on behalf of the u. S. To protect the constitution and pay the ultimate price in doing it. Slam, and i will read you some excerpts, because i think it is important, just remember when it was written, 1950. Slam says other than the officer corps, there is no group within our society which the obligation of the nation is more fully expressed. Even so, other americans regard this fact with pride rather than envy. They accept the principles that some unusual advantage should attend exceptional and unremitting response ability. They accept the principle that some unusual advantage should attend exceptional and unremitting responsibility. Whatever path an american officer may walk, that officer enjoys prestige. The little is known that individuals intrinsic merit, receiving the respective fellow citizens, unless that individual proves to be utterly undeserving. Americ there is a phrase in this that i think is important. This is why you have to read this book, from my perspective. Americans accept the principle that some unusual advantage should accrue to individuals who demonstrate exceptional and im unremitting responsibility. This is what sets you apart. You uniquely in american society, will lead men and women, characteristic of your service, you will lead them in combat. You may have to make decisions, again, for those of you who have served in combat, you will know how awful and difficult those decisions are. To give the orders, which may send one of your troops to her or his death that is exceptional. Exceptional, and the entire spectrum of our society. No one else has that responsibility. It is also unremitting. There is no let up. Youre not just on duty for eight hours per day doing exceptional things and then your offduty. You bear the burden because you have chosen to serve, because you swore an oath, because you have accepted a commission, you have chosen to bear the burden of that exceptional responsibility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I will tell you it is hard for you now in school, in combat it is a burden you will never fully understand until you have had to bear it. Why is this important to understand . As a republic committed to principles, a set of principles that defines our humanity as a people and as a great nation, what is important to understand is that if we are going to fight, if we are going to lead our troops in combat, you officers, we officers have to lead them from the front in all things. How we organize our lives, how we live, how we conduct our leadership. Lead from the front in all things because you, heres the point, you must possess the moral authority to send your troops forward in combat either to take life or potentially to sacrifice their own. That is exceptional responsibility and it is never off your shoulders. When your hand comes down out of the air and you have said so help me god, having sworn to give everything about you to the defense of our constitution and through that defense, our people, this is an awesome responsibility you are about to shoulder. For those of you who are commissioned, those of you who have served in combat, you know what i am talking about. This is the meaning of your commission. This is why it is essential you understand the very dna of what we do as a military in this great nation, how we serve and are responsibility and service. I will add one other thing from the book. I recommend you get it. This is what is so interesting i think. Slam would go on the trust imposed in the highest military commander in the land is not more than that in charge to the newest ensign or Second Lieutenant, nor is it less. It is the fact of the commission which gives special distinction to that man or woman and in turn requires the measure of devotion to the service of the country be distinctive, as compared with the charge laid upon an average citizen. A little bit hard to work your way through but in essence, sla marshalls point is, it doesnt make any difference how senior you become the fact that our nation has bestowed upon you the humbling responsibility of leading our troops in combat and defending our constitution, it is no different a responsibility except in scope and magnitude for a Second Lieutenant than it is for a general. To prove the point, i have my Second Lieutenant commission at home, but one i was commissioned on june, 1976 and on the wall at my home i have my fourstar general commission. While one was printed off a printer, i think my First Sergeant misspelled my name when he wrote it in the other looked like a work of art. Here is the difference. Heres the point. There is no difference in the words. Special trust and confidence in the fidelity and integrity of the recipient. It is the same expectation of a Second Lieutenant in this case, ensigns and lieutenants elsewhere, the same expectation by the nation of the young officer as it is for the fourstar general commanding a theater of war. This is why we are so unique as a people. This is why our country has been so unique in the entire history of humankind. Rather than swear an oath to a king or to a symbol or to a flag or to some piece of terrain, we, you, have sworn an oath to a set of principles enshrined in the constitution of the United States and you need to understand that. Again, three levels up, i am standing there reading the constitution. I can hardly stand it. In all the time i have led marines around the world, i am about to go out again and would in fact be on the ground leading the first marines to go into sarajevo at the end of the bosnian war, i had never laid eyes on that document. So i strongly recommend you take some time and think about your oath of office. It is not just a ceremony. It is the commitment of your very life in the end, to what we are all about. When you put the remains of your troops onto those aircraft to send them home, i hope to god you have lived up to the manner to have given the orders that resulted in that moment. I have 561 troops killed under my command in afghanistan. Which, was letters to all the families and children. 5400 wounded. Many of them amputees. Then the unseen wounds of those who would go home and never be the same. I dont pass a day without thinking about some of those troops, whether in iraq or afghanistan and i hope you will not pass a day now without thinking about that responsibility as you face it for the future. This is my final point, which makes us unique as a people in the world. There are lots of folks who join the military because they have a desire to kill or they have business interests, and i am not talking about the United States, im talking about elsewhere. You will serve alongside them. You will probably fight them. What makes us unique isnt that we have joined to kill, because we have joined and are prepared to die for something bigger than ourselves. For something that is unseen. A set of principles. Enshrined in our constitution. I am glad to be with you this morning. And i am, i am humbled still that having had the opportunity to serve in our joint forces in the marine corps and i hope as you prepare yourself in the final days of your commissioning programs, you will give very serious thought about what it is that is that exceptional and unremitting responsibility. Let me stop there. We have 15 minutes for questions and we will go from there. Yes, sir. [indiscernible] what program are you in . Ok. [indiscernible] i am wondering, in your experience you rely on to help you . Sure, sure. Everyone here the question . Several things. I had officer mentors and an listed mentors. First, my father was one of the greatest officers i ever knew. He truly lived by example for me every day. Having served in combat across all of world war ii in the navy, some of the hardest fighting, in korea as well, he truly understood what it was like to lead from the front. He was that example for me. There were marine officers as well. I will make a couple points. There were noncommissioned officers, incredible examples for me. I never miss the opportunity to talk about the First Sergeant of the organization, first rightful company i commanded. I was fortunate. I have the opportunity deployed as a raid company, rifle company, very fortunate. First Sergeant Ritchie was my First Sergeant. First Sergeant Ritchie walked out of the hills of West Virginia to use a phone for the first time to call a recruiter to enlist in the marine corps. He would fight in vietnam. Some of you who fought in vietnam know it to be Bravo Company First Battalion ninth marines. Bravo 19, also known as the walking dead. The finest infantry we ever fought against, the north vietnamese regular. His company was surrounded. One of four ncos to survive another night. Ritchie taught me how to be an officer in ways no one else could. Taught me what the expectations were of the marines of the officers. It wasnt anything different than anything i just said to you. He said its a me like a drill instructor, like a seasoned combat veteran. I remember being with him in a fighting hole one morning, the sky was reddening up, he was really quiet. He said to me, sir, you dont know what the dawn means to me. Night after night in vietnam, if we saw it, we knew we would live to see another day. You cannot pay for that kind of experience. It does not come from the academy. Listen to your ncos, whether petty officers or ncos, they will be of enormous importance to you. Get a mentor. Be a reader of history. You are way too young to rely solely on your own instincts to be successful in combat. You have got to read history. The entire sweep of the experience of commanders in battle is late at your feet. You dont even have to go to a library anymore. It is all online for god sake, it is wonderful. You have to read what other officers in the areas in which you will serve, you have to read what they went through. You will be walking in their footsteps. You dont want to discover this new for the first time. Read history. I always have said to my students, there is a thing you can do about having a 22yearold body. If you are dedicated to the profession of arms, there is no excuse for not having a 5000yearold mind. Think about that for a second. Finally, read biographies. Read biographies. Why did some of our great leaders become great . It was the formative moments of their contact with mentors early in their lives. Read the biographies. The navy, we have got wonderful biographies, one of my greatest and favorite sailors, bruins. The quiet warrior, as he was called. One of the commander greatest commanders the United States produced in any uniform. Yet he was completely unassuming, he was one of the most humble leaders we ever had and he believed himself to be a servant of the sailors that he led. A humble servant. If anyone ever accuses you of being a humble summit doesnt officer you should put her hand up and say guilty as charged. Get yourself a couple of good mentors. Read the history of warfare and read biographies. It is the only way that you can get ready. Otherwise, if youre experiencing this the first time in combat it is way too late. Does that answer your question . I am from the naval academy. You mentioned early on the application of the bill of rights and that it applies to protecting the rights of people across the world. Forgive me for bringing up the elephant in the room but given the recent events in syria and withdrawal of troops, how do you quantify that . I dont know if you have been watching the news, but i was on the news expressing my views on this. I think it is a collapse of american policy. Since many of the kurdish fighters were fighting because of the work we did early on, i hate to see that you will have to witness this. And the end, the decisions that have been made have been made at the expense of the kurds. The United States pursued a series of decisions years ago that i think were correct and the Obama Administration and in this one which is lets do all we can to empower the indigenous fighting forces to be the defeat mechanisms of the enemy. Lets not do it ourselves, we can if we want to and we are quite good at it. But lets have the indigenous force be the defeat mechanism. When i took over the coalition and we were trying desperately to stop the onslaught of the Islamic State heading toward baghdad, president obama sent me to ingres in turkey to take the war to the Islamic State in syria. We had no option, the entire border was in the hands of the Islamic State. We had no options. Then the Islamic State intended to wipe out the entire population of a small town south of the border. That town was occupied by syrian kurds. Half the fighting force were women. They were awesome. The Islamic State was afraid of getting close to them because if you get killed in action in that environment, youre not going to paradise. When we saw that they were able to hold their own but they would be overwhelmed eventually, president obama decided to poor on american firepower. Between the aircraft and carriers, we stopped them. We learned that with special forces thrown in to support, we learned we now had an ally. The kurds can fight and they were ready to fight. We needed them. We organized through our special operators and 2200 american troops, we organized the capacity for the kurds to fight. The kurds defeated the main force units of the Islamic State. 11,000 kurds were killed writing this people. I think we had five of our troops were killed. One is tragic, five is awful. In the context of who is doing the fighting it was the people we empowered then after one phone call, we walk away from that. The turks come pouring across the border and start blasting our allies and their families and 200,000 kurds are taken a foot. You cannot do anything about that, i cannot do anything about that. The only thing we can do is follow our orders as long as they are legal. There will be voices that will attempt to shape policy in a way so we dont make a decision that looks like we are being routed from the battlefield just what that looks like. We had Russian Troops occupy the American Battle position within 24 hours of our special forces leaving them. If i sound like i am mad as hell about this, i am mad. Our great soldiers follow their orders and they moved to the east and they are headed into the Kurdish Regional government in iraq. There will come the day when you or an admiral or a general, there will come the day when you will as i was asked to do as a fourstar, give advice. You must give what is known as best military advice. You must have the moral courage by virtue of your swearing under oath and your commitment to your commission that if the president of the United States asked you for your best advice on an issue, you give your best military advice. So long as the ultimate decision is not an illegal order, you have to follow the orders. That is your lot in life until you take off the uniform. It is difficult for us as a nation. Difficult for me because as we pulled out of syria, were deploying 1800 more troops into saudi arabia the day that Vladimir Putin lands to have talks with mohammad bin salman. Is a grand strategic issue for me. I will not give up on this. We will speak out loudly on it and write about it and do everything we can to support our allies. I hope that answers your question. Thank you. There are other cadets in this room. Good morning. U. S. Naval academy. We have already touched upon the kurdish syrian conflict and the falling apart the constitutional foundations. What conflicts among the list of the ones that the u. S. Is facing currently do you foresee posing the greatest challenges to us young Junior Officers . It is a multifaceted answer. We will continue to see instability in a number of states around the world where the demography is trending. Negative way. Where weak governance is unable to respond to the aspirations of its people. Where the population is getting larger and younger all the time. If you want to preserve the sanctity of some of these countries, we will have to be involved in counterterrorism operations. We also now have a very dangerous russia that we have to deal with. They are pressuring the entire Eastern Frontier of nato in a number of ways. That is a whole other day of conversation. Then for the first time, we have the emergence of the state of china. I dont wake up every morning thinking we will have to go to war with china. I think Graham Allison and his great book, he talks about the trap and how status quo power like us will ultimately be confronted by a rising power like china. I think it is possible that we can find a way forward with the chinese but they are putting hundreds of billions of dollars into advanced technology. You are going to have to be able to fight at the lowest level to preserve the stability of some of the states we cant afford to go over the edge. We will have to deal with renegade sovereign states like iran and north korea. Well have to deal with the russians and their multifaceted hybrid warfare that has reached straight into the United States and have a potential outcome in the 2020 election. We may have to do with china. In many ways at a High Technology level. We will find ourselves fighting and space and we are right now in battle in the cyber domain. Finally, in the world of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies, get ready ready for a form of warfare where called hyper war. Where with Autonomous Systems coming on line for intelligence collection and analysis and command and control and although we fire walled now, legal Autonomous Systems. We could be fighting at speeds we cant begin to imagine. Where when i wanted to move a division on the ground, it took me several days to position the armor and the artillery, it took me days to get the physical forces going. In a hyper war environment, forces are maneuvered at the speed of light. If you cant make the decisions and you are second in the competition for privacy, you lose the war. Finally for me, those are all challenges which i think we can handle. Because of all of you. Because we have the finest humic an capital on the planet. The challenge for me that we will have to face is the reality of Climate Change. What is he talking about other than that our ships will have to relocate . The issue for Climate Change is that as large segments of the population in the world are driven off their lands because of the rapid pace for their incapacity to grow crops, and large segments of the world as water dries up, as large segments of land become penetrated and full of salt, we have a serious problem. As hundreds of millions of people begin to migrate. 2 Million People into europe completely change the political environment of that continent. Imagine what 20 million will look like. What that means is this going to be a lot of fighting. If you think has the global strategic mobile capacity to intervene . We have to think deep with the deep horizon and think about what this means in the context of the future of the u. S. Military. We also have to think at the near horizon which is to keep al qaeda and isis at arms length. Shore up the states that are about to collapse and it ready to deal with russia and china. You have a complex world to live in. I just had to live with thermonuclear soviet union. I had it easy. Naval academy. You mentioned a lot of conflicts in the future. Based on your experiences in the marine corps and leading joint forces command, what do you see as the role of the u. S. Naval service and defending the United States and executing Foreign Policy . In many respects, it will be what it has always been. We have to control the global commons. Those of you who have a great on your head remember the days of reform to were going to see more and more emphasis on the u. S. Get into europe quickly to support nato in the event of russian activity. The navy is going to have a blue Water Mission for c control as they get to europe. Again dominating the global commons. Depending on future administrations, as we see them make major decisions about Standing Forces might come home from some places. There has been some rattling about pulling me army out of korea. There have been questions about how many of us need to remain in europe. Where the navy has always been valuable which is the capacity to project american power. The navy in the marine corps, i think that will continue to be an Important Mission as time goes on and depending on our overseas posture, they could be even more important. Then of course, all the services but the navy uniquely has to dominate the sites domain and the space domains from a maritime environment. Just as everything else, is going to be complex. Thank you for the question. Thank you all and i wish you all the very best. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] during this holiday week American History tv is on cspan3 every day at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Tuesday, history through cartoons with the work of winning artist. Wednesday, christmas day, the apollo 11 moon landing 15th anniversary with astronaut michael collins. Thursday, environmental history with the look of the 1969 river fire. Friday, the first africans in virginia for hundredth anniversary. Watch americanis
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