Transcripts For CSPAN2 Adm. James Stavridis Ret. Sailing Tru

Our guest is admiral james brady graduated from the United States Naval Academy 1976. Thirtyseven year career and some extraordinary stations along the way. Including as a matter of Southern Command from 2006 2009. Nato alloy supreme commander. He earned his phd as well a master of arts. He subsequently went on to lead a team after his retirement from the navy. He was the author of two books. He is also an executive of the Carlyle Group which americans know as the preeminent venture capitalists of the United States printed is one of the most treasured guesstimate radio show. And leading a virtual campaign, to have him on the board of elise one and maybe three tech companies. So they Google Facebook and amazon have their perspective from their discussions on the National Security from the United States from somebody knowledgeable in all of these things bernie fo. [applause]. So for 37 years. [applause]. Id also like to point out that he spent 11 of those years, out of sight of land. It is quite a recommendation. Please join me and welcoming the admiral. [applause]. Thank you start. I will asken the admiral a few questions and wanted look at this a little bit broader. My first question is why did you call it the accidental admiral. The placement end up in the navy and fourstar is the pacific. Monarchy out there were all the great naval admirals work. I was talking to go to the pacific and then secretary of defense bob gates called me up and said we need you to go to europe. Look at nato and i said i dont really know much about nato or europe. Im a pacific guy. That is not when him over and so, i felt this was kind of action the night or an accident that i ended up in europe. But secondly, harlem all of our lives are accidents. Our big turns, you can never predict them. So i want to the title of the book that emphasized that you can have a brilliant plan for your life, but there will be intervening moments. So thats why the name the accident admiral. To be reconsidered and i know a guy, mac that made your career admiral. Drer. Thats very unconventional. Heio was there at the beginning of my career and at the far end when i was getting ready to become a fourstar officer he was a very strong advocate. The point to make is he was a mentor who followed up so often people talk rubbing mentors but they do not follow up they do not Truly Engaged again and again. Mike mullen was there forup me step. So the one i got to know un is the one im holding up here knows watch on cspan this is a book you could give to anyone anytime in any career it will be invaluable to them. Would you explain to people why you wrote this and what it does . So its really extraordinary. That title tells us that the readers of bookshelf itsy idea to identify 50 books that can make you a better leader. Because nobody has time to actually read 50 books, what is in here is a synopsis of each of these 50 books and the leadership lessons of fallout from them. Its not a bunch of boring leadership books. Its actually novels like to kill a mockingbird. A connecticut yankee in king arthurs court, its autobiography like the memoirs of general grant. There are biographies who will talk about later its a very eclectic group of books. And so i like it as a gift because you can handed somebody and they will do the People Magazine version of read through it or they can say wow that one really catches my interest in actually in a sit down and read in love and war by vice admiral and his wife. So whats remarkable about the distinguished leaders series, the first two with general madison is in your chair just a couple months ago has 63 books to his memoir. Your both earned you are adamant that young officers and old should read. So can expand on that so in the handbook of the rotc junior cadets and they asked me what can i do to prepare myself for military service . I said theres a lot of things important, physical fitness, knowledge of shit handling, tactics, all of that. The most important thing is to read. It till you graduate from university is the day that you own your education. At the end of your life you need to see what you invest in that in that intent education need to read, read,d, read, through answer that question is if only through reading up the book, dukes of fire by steven presley, you can put yourself in that moment. It is a simulator, its a chance to test your self against the highest standards. S. I think reading is powerful and important. It is a force multiplier in our life. So the next book is seapower i love this book because it taught me first of all all they need to know about Global Climate change because as you pointed out, its not there when he first started so to whether or not you go to places in the arctic youve never been before its name for a book thats gotta pedigree a friend of mine, commander cook and aviator vietnam said im idnot sure i want to read a book called seapower because he was in the Naval Academy class of 63 and he even 6 read it. Explain to those watching at home what seapower was intended to do as a legacy it carries. So the subtitle is seapower the history and geopolitics of the worlds ocean. Op so instead of writing the book about people, i decided to write a book where the characters are the worlds ocean. Chapter on the atlantic, pacific, mediterranean, arctic, the south china sea, and i think there is power in that because in each of those chapters i talk about the history of that region of the world and tied to the importance of the seas parade that is the connection for the admiral youre thinkingth of common the greatest strategist the navy ever produced who created the idea of a global navy. The reason we have a powerful seagoing navy powerful marine corps is because of the vast oceans 70 of this planet is covered by m water 90 of the trade moves on the ocean, 70 of the oxygen your breathing tonight comes from photosynthesis in the sea. The oceans of matter. Thats the genesis of the book. The theory is we should have a strategy for dealing with those oceans and shirley as he articulated the strategy 120 years ago. Host my last request of the four yield the stage for your presentation is two of the chapters in this wonderful newli book, sailing true north, biographical sketches of ten admirals in the voyage of leadership. Chickweed to admirals because chester nimitz commanded Richard Nixon he was one as you say, one of the millions of sailors on thousands of ships under his command pretty was not on the ship most of the time it the logistics options on the South Pacific he was under nixons command. Theres nice symmetry there my first question with chester nimitz portrayed now in the neww movie midway and people read sailing true north make it in the navy t of today . [laughter] think the real question is when he even have made it out of the Naval Academy of today. [laughter] when he was a shipment, he was often known to go we would say over the wall, unauthorized liberties and go out of town to buy beer for his classmates and bring it back. There is a wonderful vignette about this even as a mid shipment i picture him as a stately tall executive hair, just the whole package. He is in the severe shop and he sees what he thanks is a civilian over there and he buys his beer and moves on. The next day, it turns out that civilian is one of the officers at the Naval Academy. Hes like oh my god my career is over. But he gets a Second Chance. I think theres power in that idea that to get those you have to give people a Second Chance from time to time. I certainly got many Second Chances in the course of my career. There is power in that lesson. I rating john wrote in great interest about that chapter. Her constantly researching the her constantly researching the present and the pentagon there was at that time very controversial scandal, can you expand on what that was . And whether or not buds amounts really knew that was going on . Dont wait to use the work cabal because i will dont want to use it theres intelligence gathering on civilian officials by the military. That sounds terrible and it is. It was probably more benign than that its probably in the t category of oil, this person in the white house thanks this way and this one thanks the soil. But the parents of gathering intelligence to move a military agenda was pretty damning the record is unclear whether he was waiting of that or not. Ii am going to give him the benefit of the doubt i met him i knew himha is an individual of High Integrity andgr ill talk about him and a moment or two. The lesson here for all of us is the careful of the optics be careful have something appears, it can drag you down if you are not very careful to maintain yourself at the highest levels of standard at all time. Followup question to that is he was deep selected nixon did a lot of deep selecting, he reached for people, he pulled kissinger from harvard and kissinger never met him. What is the advantage and does the navy need to do more deep selecting or less now . I would say more maybe you know that the audience doesnt we just selected the current chief of naval operations. Michael a couple of months ago was a three star kind of thinking about maybe if the stars align i might get a fourth star someday. The secretary of the navy, richard spencer, faced a crisis and that original candidate, admiral bill moran at an issue and had to step aside. So instead of going to the fourstar bench, secretary of the navy reached away down a relatively thinking to a threestar officer and elevated him over the entire fourstar community. It is happened before, admiral arley burke was elevated as a threestar. The advantage of doing it is you get a fresh set of eyes and no one who was elevated has any baggage to pay off. You get a clean break that can be very advantageous i would argue is the navy goes into this very turbulent 24th century, we would be well served to do a little more selecting. So that gives me a perfect transition to a clean break i can turn my stage over to the admiral to give your presentation ill be back at the end of it. So thank you sir very much. Well first and foremost i want to thank you to hugh and the nixon library. I also just spend a moment while the furniture is moved. Which it is. So thank you, above all hugh, its good to have you here as well, he was loving wife, navy mom, navy daughter. Got a lot of navy going on in the house and that, i see that. That was a wonderful introduction. Normally when people hear that introduction, supreme illini commander and all of that they see me they typically have two reactions. One is wow i thought you would be taller. [laughter] and the other reaction as well, if youre really that cool, wiry or not a Navy Fighter Pilot like a maverick because i was on a destroyer and live ships not to be honest with you, really honest i desperately wanted to be a Navy Fighter Pilot when i was young boy but i had a really traumatic experience at an airport that made aviation really difficult for me. [laughter] heres what were going to do. Going to do this at about 25 minutes so we are going to sail fast. Want to talk about the oceans. But what i really want to talk abut his character. I need everyone to understand the difference between leadership, jim mattis was here a while back sherry talked about leadership. Not here to talk about leadership im here to talk about character. Leadership is what we do to influence others. Its a big door and it swings out there influencing millions of people as it did for me that big door of leadership swings on a small hinge that hinge on character. You cannot swing that door of leadership unless your character allows it to swing. We are in a wash and books of character i wanted to write and book about in her voyage and how we needed ourselves for thats character. Write about what you know about. I decided to write using aframe rock work of ten admirals. Organ is that back in history, 2500 years we are going to pull it right up to the present and talk about ten very dynamic admirals. There has to be a Greek American, not american but greek in this thing. At least 2500 years ago there is an x essential threat athens is threatened by the persian empire. The persians of course the iranians of today. They are about to conquer athens, the city state, but the power of persuasion convinces his captains to go and fight a battle in which they arere outnumbered five perhaps ten to one in these triremes at the rowing captains of that day launched. Here is the advantage they had. All of the rowers were free men, no slaves. That persian fleet, five times the size, was rode by slaves. So he said to his captains, tomorrow you must grow for your family. Tomorrow you must roll for your city, tomorrow, you must row for freedom. And they destroyed the persian fleet. It is an extraordinary story of accomplishment and charisma. But, within three years after that victorious battle, his arrogance overtakes him. End he ends up alienating his countrymen, hes vanished from greece. And he ends his life in the courts of the persian emperor. Its a greek tragedy. It is a story of how you can be given incredible gifts, but if you allow your ego and your arrogance to overtake them, you will metaphorically and up in the court of the persian kings lets go to a different part of the world go to china theories we are now in the year 1400, 14 oh five. Chinese emperor invests in this admiral, this admiral is interested with an enormous treasure fleet, constructed of wood, which explores the south china sea, the indian ocean, to give a point of comparison about europeans and chinese, look at those ships in the upper right. See that massiveth wooden one . That is the scale of the flagship which is 500 feet long and has a crew of 600. See that little toy vote next to . That is the flagship of christopher columbus, the santa maria which 100 years later, in 1492 clump christer columbus sailed thehe ocean blue. Thats with the europeans were sailing to explore the world. The chinese were sailing massive ships. By thehe way, that treasure fleets that economic juggernaut of the e 1400s looks a lot like chinas strategy today one filth, one road there is a lot to learn from him about his ability to organize, his ability to fulfill what his boss wants him to. Lets jump a little further forward to the time of the spanish armada, surfing Francis Drake he saves england leads the british fleet against the spanish armada. The caribbean hes known is of pirates, a rapist, a murderer. He enslaves, he burns the cities,ki he kills indiscriminately. He is perhaps the darkest character of these admirals he is a patriot, he is also a pirates. How many of you have been in disney world on the ride, pirates of the caribbean, like everybody, based on sir drake. Here is my favorite british admiral, vice admiral lord nelson he fights another x essential battle he defeats the polands fleet is off the coast of spain. I liked admiral nelson a lot, he was about 5foot 5 inches tall. [laughter] a man of normal height. [laughter] but he was fearless in combat. He lost an arm, his right arm in one battle he lost an eye in another battle. And he was beloved by his sailors, he took care of his sailors, and his captains who worked for him, adored him. He was a team builder. As an x essential battle, beloved by his sailors and captains, was he perfect . Not so much. This is emma hamilton, beautiful, young, actors would think of her today he has an adulterous affair with her, over a number of your he fathers a child out of wedlock, the sky would never get through Senate Confirmation today. [laughter] see that picture of him you looked at signal flags to know where to sail your ship looks good right he was a difficult subordinate he put the telescope to his blind because he doesnt like the order from the admiral assessments flag captain i dont see any signal there, go to come to starboard. [laughter] this is where the expression you turned a blind eye to someone comes from so a great hero of his country, his moral compass does not always sailed true north, felt like all of us we talked about our friend, arthur, arguably the most brilliant officer of the navy had produced in the 1880s and 1890s he produces a global not just for the navy but why America Needs the oceans. He said that intellectual is a man with spectacles on his nose and winter in his heart. He is not a loving giving person he think, fight, pursue the truth wherever it takes him. Arguably the most important of all of our work colleges and military education institutions. Ut so not the warm chummy figure, he is a miserable commander at sea, he commands a ship badly, but boy is he smart. Again, that mixture of his character. Who else . Heres one not many people will know. It is a british admiral his name is Jackie Fisher. He is a british admiral at this turn of the last century. What i like about Jackie Fisher is he comes into the british navy, when there are sailing ships and muzzle loading cannons by the time he commands the british navy, as the sea lord, it is gone from wooden ships sales and muzzleloading cannons, two steell hull gone with cold moved on to oil, long range fire control platforms, huge cannons, submarines are coming and he is an extraordinary innovator. He is a contemporary of winston churchill, and he is also hugely egotistical. He is o the only one in the room, is that core essential person has to show you how smart he or she is the minutes the door opens. So this massive ego but tied to this brilliant tasteful organization. Lets come back to america. Lets go to i would argue the best admiral in american history, certainly. Fleet admiral chester nimitz. Comes out of fredericksburg test texas landlocked once you go to west point and zip going to annapolis, he becomes a steady growing force within the Navy Commands the bureau of personnel, what happens the Pacific Fleet is destroyed. They turned to chester and he was told pack a bag, go to pearl harbor make it command of the Pacific Fleet. The problem is the United States<\/a> Naval Academy<\/a> 1976. Thirtyseven year career and some extraordinary stations along the way. Including as a matter of Southern Command<\/a> from 2006 2009. Nato alloy supreme commander. He earned his phd as well a master of arts. He subsequently went on to lead a team after his retirement from the navy. He was the author of two books. He is also an executive of the Carlyle Group<\/a> which americans know as the preeminent venture capitalists of the United States<\/a> printed is one of the most treasured guesstimate radio show. And leading a virtual campaign, to have him on the board of elise one and maybe three tech companies. So they Google Facebook<\/a> and amazon have their perspective from their discussions on the National Security<\/a> from the United States<\/a> from somebody knowledgeable in all of these things bernie fo. [applause]. So for 37 years. [applause]. Id also like to point out that he spent 11 of those years, out of sight of land. It is quite a recommendation. Please join me and welcoming the admiral. [applause]. Thank you start. I will asken the admiral a few questions and wanted look at this a little bit broader. My first question is why did you call it the accidental admiral. The placement end up in the navy and fourstar is the pacific. Monarchy out there were all the great naval admirals work. I was talking to go to the pacific and then secretary of defense bob gates called me up and said we need you to go to europe. Look at nato and i said i dont really know much about nato or europe. Im a pacific guy. That is not when him over and so, i felt this was kind of action the night or an accident that i ended up in europe. But secondly, harlem all of our lives are accidents. Our big turns, you can never predict them. So i want to the title of the book that emphasized that you can have a brilliant plan for your life, but there will be intervening moments. So thats why the name the accident admiral. To be reconsidered and i know a guy, mac that made your career admiral. Drer. Thats very unconventional. Heio was there at the beginning of my career and at the far end when i was getting ready to become a fourstar officer he was a very strong advocate. The point to make is he was a mentor who followed up so often people talk rubbing mentors but they do not follow up they do not Truly Engaged<\/a> again and again. Mike mullen was there forup me step. So the one i got to know un is the one im holding up here knows watch on cspan this is a book you could give to anyone anytime in any career it will be invaluable to them. Would you explain to people why you wrote this and what it does . So its really extraordinary. That title tells us that the readers of bookshelf itsy idea to identify 50 books that can make you a better leader. Because nobody has time to actually read 50 books, what is in here is a synopsis of each of these 50 books and the leadership lessons of fallout from them. Its not a bunch of boring leadership books. Its actually novels like to kill a mockingbird. A connecticut yankee in king arthurs court, its autobiography like the memoirs of general grant. There are biographies who will talk about later its a very eclectic group of books. And so i like it as a gift because you can handed somebody and they will do the People Magazine<\/a> version of read through it or they can say wow that one really catches my interest in actually in a sit down and read in love and war by vice admiral and his wife. So whats remarkable about the distinguished leaders series, the first two with general madison is in your chair just a couple months ago has 63 books to his memoir. Your both earned you are adamant that young officers and old should read. So can expand on that so in the handbook of the rotc junior cadets and they asked me what can i do to prepare myself for military service . I said theres a lot of things important, physical fitness, knowledge of shit handling, tactics, all of that. The most important thing is to read. It till you graduate from university is the day that you own your education. At the end of your life you need to see what you invest in that in that intent education need to read, read,d, read, through answer that question is if only through reading up the book, dukes of fire by steven presley, you can put yourself in that moment. It is a simulator, its a chance to test your self against the highest standards. S. I think reading is powerful and important. It is a force multiplier in our life. So the next book is seapower i love this book because it taught me first of all all they need to know about Global Climate<\/a> change because as you pointed out, its not there when he first started so to whether or not you go to places in the arctic youve never been before its name for a book thats gotta pedigree a friend of mine, commander cook and aviator vietnam said im idnot sure i want to read a book called seapower because he was in the Naval Academy<\/a> class of 63 and he even 6 read it. Explain to those watching at home what seapower was intended to do as a legacy it carries. So the subtitle is seapower the history and geopolitics of the worlds ocean. Op so instead of writing the book about people, i decided to write a book where the characters are the worlds ocean. Chapter on the atlantic, pacific, mediterranean, arctic, the south china sea, and i think there is power in that because in each of those chapters i talk about the history of that region of the world and tied to the importance of the seas parade that is the connection for the admiral youre thinkingth of common the greatest strategist the navy ever produced who created the idea of a global navy. The reason we have a powerful seagoing navy powerful marine corps is because of the vast oceans 70 of this planet is covered by m water 90 of the trade moves on the ocean, 70 of the oxygen your breathing tonight comes from photosynthesis in the sea. The oceans of matter. Thats the genesis of the book. The theory is we should have a strategy for dealing with those oceans and shirley as he articulated the strategy 120 years ago. Host my last request of the four yield the stage for your presentation is two of the chapters in this wonderful newli book, sailing true north, biographical sketches of ten admirals in the voyage of leadership. Chickweed to admirals because chester nimitz commanded Richard Nixon<\/a> he was one as you say, one of the millions of sailors on thousands of ships under his command pretty was not on the ship most of the time it the logistics options on the South Pacific<\/a> he was under nixons command. Theres nice symmetry there my first question with chester nimitz portrayed now in the neww movie midway and people read sailing true north make it in the navy t of today . [laughter] think the real question is when he even have made it out of the Naval Academy<\/a> of today. [laughter] when he was a shipment, he was often known to go we would say over the wall, unauthorized liberties and go out of town to buy beer for his classmates and bring it back. There is a wonderful vignette about this even as a mid shipment i picture him as a stately tall executive hair, just the whole package. He is in the severe shop and he sees what he thanks is a civilian over there and he buys his beer and moves on. The next day, it turns out that civilian is one of the officers at the Naval Academy<\/a>. Hes like oh my god my career is over. But he gets a Second Chance<\/a>. I think theres power in that idea that to get those you have to give people a Second Chance<\/a> from time to time. I certainly got many Second Chance<\/a>s in the course of my career. There is power in that lesson. I rating john wrote in great interest about that chapter. Her constantly researching the her constantly researching the present and the pentagon there was at that time very controversial scandal, can you expand on what that was . And whether or not buds amounts really knew that was going on . Dont wait to use the work cabal because i will dont want to use it theres intelligence gathering on civilian officials by the military. That sounds terrible and it is. It was probably more benign than that its probably in the t category of oil, this person in the white house thanks this way and this one thanks the soil. But the parents of gathering intelligence to move a military agenda was pretty damning the record is unclear whether he was waiting of that or not. Ii am going to give him the benefit of the doubt i met him i knew himha is an individual of High Integrity<\/a> andgr ill talk about him and a moment or two. The lesson here for all of us is the careful of the optics be careful have something appears, it can drag you down if you are not very careful to maintain yourself at the highest levels of standard at all time. Followup question to that is he was deep selected nixon did a lot of deep selecting, he reached for people, he pulled kissinger from harvard and kissinger never met him. What is the advantage and does the navy need to do more deep selecting or less now . I would say more maybe you know that the audience doesnt we just selected the current chief of naval operations. Michael a couple of months ago was a three star kind of thinking about maybe if the stars align i might get a fourth star someday. The secretary of the navy, richard spencer, faced a crisis and that original candidate, admiral bill moran at an issue and had to step aside. So instead of going to the fourstar bench, secretary of the navy reached away down a relatively thinking to a threestar officer and elevated him over the entire fourstar community. It is happened before, admiral arley burke was elevated as a threestar. The advantage of doing it is you get a fresh set of eyes and no one who was elevated has any baggage to pay off. You get a clean break that can be very advantageous i would argue is the navy goes into this very turbulent 24th century, we would be well served to do a little more selecting. So that gives me a perfect transition to a clean break i can turn my stage over to the admiral to give your presentation ill be back at the end of it. So thank you sir very much. Well first and foremost i want to thank you to hugh and the nixon library. I also just spend a moment while the furniture is moved. Which it is. So thank you, above all hugh, its good to have you here as well, he was loving wife, navy mom, navy daughter. Got a lot of navy going on in the house and that, i see that. That was a wonderful introduction. Normally when people hear that introduction, supreme illini commander and all of that they see me they typically have two reactions. One is wow i thought you would be taller. [laughter] and the other reaction as well, if youre really that cool, wiry or not a Navy Fighter Pilot<\/a> like a maverick because i was on a destroyer and live ships not to be honest with you, really honest i desperately wanted to be a Navy Fighter Pilot<\/a> when i was young boy but i had a really traumatic experience at an airport that made aviation really difficult for me. [laughter] heres what were going to do. Going to do this at about 25 minutes so we are going to sail fast. Want to talk about the oceans. But what i really want to talk abut his character. I need everyone to understand the difference between leadership, jim mattis was here a while back sherry talked about leadership. Not here to talk about leadership im here to talk about character. Leadership is what we do to influence others. Its a big door and it swings out there influencing millions of people as it did for me that big door of leadership swings on a small hinge that hinge on character. You cannot swing that door of leadership unless your character allows it to swing. We are in a wash and books of character i wanted to write and book about in her voyage and how we needed ourselves for thats character. Write about what you know about. I decided to write using aframe rock work of ten admirals. Organ is that back in history, 2500 years we are going to pull it right up to the present and talk about ten very dynamic admirals. There has to be a Greek American<\/a>, not american but greek in this thing. At least 2500 years ago there is an x essential threat athens is threatened by the persian empire. The persians of course the iranians of today. They are about to conquer athens, the city state, but the power of persuasion convinces his captains to go and fight a battle in which they arere outnumbered five perhaps ten to one in these triremes at the rowing captains of that day launched. Here is the advantage they had. All of the rowers were free men, no slaves. That persian fleet, five times the size, was rode by slaves. So he said to his captains, tomorrow you must grow for your family. Tomorrow you must roll for your city, tomorrow, you must row for freedom. And they destroyed the persian fleet. It is an extraordinary story of accomplishment and charisma. But, within three years after that victorious battle, his arrogance overtakes him. End he ends up alienating his countrymen, hes vanished from greece. And he ends his life in the courts of the persian emperor. Its a greek tragedy. It is a story of how you can be given incredible gifts, but if you allow your ego and your arrogance to overtake them, you will metaphorically and up in the court of the persian kings lets go to a different part of the world go to china theories we are now in the year 1400, 14 oh five. Chinese emperor invests in this admiral, this admiral is interested with an enormous treasure fleet, constructed of wood, which explores the south china sea, the indian ocean, to give a point of comparison about europeans and chinese, look at those ships in the upper right. See that massiveth wooden one . That is the scale of the flagship which is 500 feet long and has a crew of 600. See that little toy vote next to . That is the flagship of christopher columbus, the santa maria which 100 years later, in 1492 clump christer columbus sailed thehe ocean blue. Thats with the europeans were sailing to explore the world. The chinese were sailing massive ships. By thehe way, that treasure fleets that economic juggernaut of the e 1400s looks a lot like chinas strategy today one filth, one road there is a lot to learn from him about his ability to organize, his ability to fulfill what his boss wants him to. Lets jump a little further forward to the time of the spanish armada, surfing Francis Drake<\/a> he saves england leads the british fleet against the spanish armada. The caribbean hes known is of pirates, a rapist, a murderer. He enslaves, he burns the cities,ki he kills indiscriminately. He is perhaps the darkest character of these admirals he is a patriot, he is also a pirates. How many of you have been in disney world on the ride, pirates of the caribbean, like everybody, based on sir drake. Here is my favorite british admiral, vice admiral lord nelson he fights another x essential battle he defeats the polands fleet is off the coast of spain. I liked admiral nelson a lot, he was about 5foot 5 inches tall. [laughter] a man of normal height. [laughter] but he was fearless in combat. He lost an arm, his right arm in one battle he lost an eye in another battle. And he was beloved by his sailors, he took care of his sailors, and his captains who worked for him, adored him. He was a team builder. As an x essential battle, beloved by his sailors and captains, was he perfect . Not so much. This is emma hamilton, beautiful, young, actors would think of her today he has an adulterous affair with her, over a number of your he fathers a child out of wedlock, the sky would never get through Senate Confirmation<\/a> today. [laughter] see that picture of him you looked at signal flags to know where to sail your ship looks good right he was a difficult subordinate he put the telescope to his blind because he doesnt like the order from the admiral assessments flag captain i dont see any signal there, go to come to starboard. [laughter] this is where the expression you turned a blind eye to someone comes from so a great hero of his country, his moral compass does not always sailed true north, felt like all of us we talked about our friend, arthur, arguably the most brilliant officer of the navy had produced in the 1880s and 1890s he produces a global not just for the navy but why America Needs<\/a> the oceans. He said that intellectual is a man with spectacles on his nose and winter in his heart. He is not a loving giving person he think, fight, pursue the truth wherever it takes him. Arguably the most important of all of our work colleges and military education institutions. Ut so not the warm chummy figure, he is a miserable commander at sea, he commands a ship badly, but boy is he smart. Again, that mixture of his character. Who else . Heres one not many people will know. It is a british admiral his name is Jackie Fisher<\/a>. He is a british admiral at this turn of the last century. What i like about Jackie Fisher<\/a> is he comes into the british navy, when there are sailing ships and muzzle loading cannons by the time he commands the british navy, as the sea lord, it is gone from wooden ships sales and muzzleloading cannons, two steell hull gone with cold moved on to oil, long range fire control platforms, huge cannons, submarines are coming and he is an extraordinary innovator. He is a contemporary of winston churchill, and he is also hugely egotistical. He is o the only one in the room, is that core essential person has to show you how smart he or she is the minutes the door opens. So this massive ego but tied to this brilliant tasteful organization. Lets come back to america. Lets go to i would argue the best admiral in american history, certainly. Fleet admiral chester nimitz. Comes out of fredericksburg test texas landlocked once you go to west point and zip going to annapolis, he becomes a steady growing force within the Navy Commands<\/a> the bureau of personnel, what happens the Pacific Fleet<\/a> is destroyed. They turned to chester and he was told pack a bag, go to pearl harbor make it command of the Pacific Fleet<\/a>. The problem is the Pacific Fleet<\/a> is sunk it is at the bottom of pearl harbor. Arlucky the carriers were out. Its a few submarines there of the Pacific Fleet<\/a> not only the gorgeous battleships inn the beautiful White Service<\/a> uniforms he takes command and Academy Entrance<\/a> set of khakis watching bodies being pulled out of the smoking hole of the arizona. Thats resilience. Who squares his shoulder be black nimitz, macarthur, slowly he takes apart the japanese empire. Two ships upper left, thus the arizona folks. If you have not been to p pearl harbor, gone to the temple of the navy, go and see the arizona. That is a start of world war ii. Bottom right . Whats that . Thats the missouri. That is a ship upon which the surrender document of the japanese emperor was signed. This is the beginning and end, will happen the middle . Chester nimitz fill in the middle. Through that hole he never raises his voice. It is not engages ego he builds teams. This is a kind of admiral you want. Lets jump forward and rapid up had big personality, huge eyebrows, he was selected to be the chief of naval operations, he was an innovator not of technology, he didnt come up with the devices the innovation of bud zimmer wall was real engineering the navy as a society. He faced attention and race in the navy, in the 70s. And he faced up in ways that ultimately help to bring us together. Tried many, many innovations. The thing to know about the admirals whose value driven. He woke up every day of his life saying whats the right thing to do. Thats a good quality and anybody. What about this character . Are there any nuclearea submariners in the mixture question one or two . Not so many. He was famously taken the navy into the age hes brilliant, hes very difficult, hes famous for making life hard for everyone around him by demanding more from that everything be done to perfect specifications. He is cantankerous but boy was he smart. At the end of the day, he creates the nuclear navy. By the way, an immigrant to the United States<\/a> born and russia comes here when hes six years old. So last admiral, grace hopper. In the navy we call her amazing grace. World war ii happens she has a phd in mathematics or meall university, she is naturally brilliant. Shes teaching mathematics in university, she knows she wants to be in the war effort. The problem is, the navy is not bringing women in. She only weighs 105 pounds. The men will wait to get into the navy as 120 pounds. She starts drinking milkshakes. [laughter] s a good problem to have. Eventually, she puts on enough weight but what really happens is we need her. We need her brilliant mind as we are coming up with a div computers built the first mainframe at 8 feet wide and 50 feet long. Weve got to figure out how to program this thing. The idea of programming does not exist Computer Science<\/a> doesnt exist. She invents all doubt the small group of people. She writes cobol, still used today. I started programming in cobol myself in the 1970s, met grace hopper. Shoot tiny, energetic, always had a smile on her face. Young grace hopper, somebody wanted to have a beer with. She was terrific. Because she was unafraid to try everything new. Intellectual curiosity was her character trait. So. Theres ten admirals and right about now you should say okay, admiral, when you think . What are the attributes of character that come out of the ten admirals . Im and hit them very quickly in the bergen open it up for some comments and questions. First attribute, that i believe comes across again, again and again is a character attribute view once that big door of leadership to swing, the quality you have to have is this. Empathy. Listening better. Te who is this . You dont know who that is. As an officer in the 1930s listening for incoming aircraft. It is a very innovative system for its day. There is a metaphor good leaders are empathetic. That was chester nimitz. He walked into the room to listen. Before he started to talk. Thats a pretty good quality and a leader. Intellectual curiosity. Reading, unite talk to melissa moment ago, grace hopper when she died had 10000 books in her twobedroom apartment in your city. I have like 5000 books in my library and my wife because of the gentle madness. [laughter] i love books and love reading but grace hopper beat us all in that apartment with 10000 books for the most complex books of mathematics and engineering. As well as detective novels and james bond fiction. She read the sip for us when she was intellectually curious at allll times. Theres some books and reading lately but by the way its not just nonfiction, its novels. Find times to read some fiction. You want to understand was going on in china . Bottom left in the tension between rural and urban . Pickup awaiting by hodgen to understand what its like to live as a refugee in syria, check out exit west. You went understand what its like to live in authoritarian society . Read Margaret Atwoods<\/a> latest book, this is the sequel to the handmaids tale. It will chill you and it should. Fiction, allows us to combine with the facts we learn and nonfiction and put us in that simulator. So intellectual curiosity again and again, i saw these admirals. Values, we have to cherish our values. Democracy, liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of education, freedom of the press, gender equality, racial equality, looked we execute the end perfectly but they are the right values. I will give you a very practical example of values. Look at that beautiful picture, you look at that of you think while im proud of my u. S. Navy. And someone gave this to me as a gift a couple of decades ago. I hung it up in my office, and then i really looked closely at this think something really wrong about it look at the first row, you see all of those officers look at the sailors, very lined look at the second to row in that photograph. Three people missing right . So anybody who is in the military, if you turn the junior rotc formation they would not have a gap like that of the second row right . So where are those chief petty officer . Well, i got out a magnifying glass i finally found them i dont have a point to, there are three africanamerican chief petty officers there all the way to the back of the formation that is the correct reaction. Photograph taken in 1949. The neighbor mentioned navy is desegregating trying to get better. What happened in this photograph, i dont know i will give you a highly educated guess, i would guess the secondincommand of the ship set up the photo and the captain came down from the ship, you know the captain as he is right in the center, first row is scrambled eggs on his calf is the commander. Got a really grumpy expression on his face, my guesses, 1949 he came down and saw three black faces, chief petty officers they wouldve been the chief cooks on the ship. And he said you three, go stand in the back. Why do i show you this picture . Two reasons. Because as people of character, we need to look closely at things and understand exactly what is before us, before we log it. Secondly we ought to ask ourselves every day, when my doing now . That in 50 years is going to look oh so wrong. Thats a good test of character. Teamwork, nelson, this is a takedown of a group of somali pilots by French Forces<\/a> except heres what you dont know. Those are French Special<\/a> forces, they were landed there by an italian helicopter, refueled by a danish frigate overwatch by portuguese maritimes control command of a nato american is a punchline we found this thing with information from iran. Piracy is one thing nations can agree on. The point is teams have strange angles to them. Nelson understood that he built teams better than anybody else, thats an attribute of character. This is the last one. Beautiful ship, again right . Its the uss maine. The uss maine is very famous and naval history for very tragic reason. This beautiful cruiser blew up in havana harbor in 1898. And when it blew up, the nation, the United States<\/a> immediately fell in line with reporting that said this ship was a blown up by spanish terrorists. We use that word. Okay . So what happened . Spanishamerican war happened. Randolph hearst, yellow journalism we launched into this war. A lot of people died. Ui we acquired some colonies it was not a happy chapter all things considered. When we salvage the ship, 50 years later, we discovered the main had not blown up because of an external mind attached to the whole, it blew up because of an internal boiler explosion. The premise of the spanishamerican war was not right. So, i will tear and john tell you what find a picture of the main viewfinder on the wall in my office forever i have been in my career. I keep it there to remind me that before we lose our temperature before we launch into a war, before we make the big decision, we need to stop and make sure we have all of the facts. I also keep it there to remind me that no matter how well you think you are doing, your ship can blow up underneath you at any moment. , thats a good lesson. So to wrap it up and then we will open it up. Characters hard, its a lot harder thanr leadership again im a Greek American<\/a> sum required to have one mythological reference in all presentations this is sisyphus who pushes a boulder up but the gods punish him in the boulder rolls back down. Characters like that we try so hard, we make mistakes that boulder rolls overr us. In the seas get pretty rough in the voyage of character. Stay with s it, processes will calm for you if you spend time thinking about the importance of character. Which i would argue transcends leadership. It is the enabler of leadership. Last slide. This comes with a quote. I love this photo. Taken about five years ago, these are somali migrants there standing on a beach in the red sea. What are they doing . Theyre lifting up their cell phones, flip phone try to get a better signal. Newsflash that does not help. [laughter] theyre doing it anyway. Metaphorically what is happening in this photograph, they are reaching for the lights, they want to connect, they want to be part of a larger world they want to get to thehe next step in their journey. This is a photograph of hope. Of hope. In my last thought for you tonight, about character, comess from napoleon. I love coding napoleon because short people have to stick together all times. [laughter] if you remember nothing else from her evening together in this marvelous, marvelous library, the center of intellectual thought, which proves every day the biggest questions of character if you remember nothing else to member this fromno napoleon. He said a leader is a dealer in hope. A leader is a dealer in hope. Everything else ive talked about tonight devolves on the inner wyatt sense of selfconfidence that inspires others with hope. Not with fear. But with hope. The leader is a dealer in hope, that is the heart of character, thank you very character, thank you very [applause] admiral thank you. We do have time for a few quick questions, were tight on time, he flew in from vietnam this morning and hes flying his symbol this evening. And our first question will come from the many cadets with this from Troy High School<\/a> navy the rotc what is your question sir . My question would be what would you say to cadetsthese peopleon who would have high functioning autism or adhd something that precludes them from joining service right away but they still have the aspiration to want to cause these changes and innovate. What a wonderful question. Im going to answer it as follows. I am often approached by people very nicely and say to be admiral, thank you for your service. I really appreciate that. Heres the answer to your question. There are so many ways to serve this country. Certainly in uniform im proud of everybody here who has warred a uniform or is wearing a uniform. Military service is important. How about police, firemen, emt, peace corps volunteers, diplomats, cia officers, schoolteachers and rules california teaching packed classrooms for 48000 a year, doun you think theyre serving the country . I do. Nurses in innercity clinics, lawyers who volunteer to help people who are accused of crimes. Journalists, not always popular but let me tell you something. I would go into combat in afghanistan altered doubt with my bulletproof everything in mymy helmet, guys on my right and left with big guns, i was actually pretty safe. Next we would simply like Richard Ingle<\/a> and nbc news and an illfated bulletproof vest i can assure you would not stop a ebola. Hes got a look tinpot helmet on leaning off to one side hes risking his life to tell us whats happening. You think hes serving us . Idea. So my answer is find a way to serve. Within your capacity within your proclivity, within what works for you. Find a way to serve. I ask for everybody tonight is when you see others who are serving your country, stop a schoolteacher and tell him or her thank you for your service. Stop a post man, tell them thank you for your service. Theres a lot of ways to serve this country, that would be my answer. Thank you. Back of the room to write . So admiral first think if your service i appreciate that. Secondly you talked about resiliency. Being that a such a profound statement of why you think hes one of the greatest, can you touch on the characteristics or behaviors that people need to develop resiliency . I just got back from the high School Spending<\/a> time with some of the parents and students. I think its a great message for all of us on how to become more resilient. Well, let me tell you about two of my contemporaries. One is really famous, one not so much, bill mcrae is on the right Michele Howard<\/a> is on the left. Resilience. Michele howard is 4 feet 10 inches tall shes africanamerican, she comes from a pretty challenging background, she goes to the Naval Academy<\/a>, rises up to the ranks, and then theres captain phillips of the takedown the simile pirates, Michele Howard<\/a> is in charge of that commission shes one of the first people woman with in the history. She is a wonderful person and what she overcame in terms of bias is pretty inspirational. Thats real resilience. On the right, built mcraven sixfoot two eyes are blue and things perfect in his life. Not right before 911 has a parachuting accident he breaks his back 911 happens he is in the hospital watching all the other seals to go out to deploy. Comes back from that it deep blue is a captain and then goes on to an very strong career heres what you may or may not know about bill hes been fighting leukemia for tenas years. He is an incredibly resilient person. And regardless of how you think about anything politically, these are two people who have demonstrated extraordinary resilience one Michele Howard<\/a> under circumstances very hard for anybody here to understand. Africanamerican, woman, coming through the navy, tiny little person. Thats a very tough deck stacked against you. She broke every ceiling. Bill mcraes and, very common i would say half the people in this room have faced a significant medical challenge at one or another. He does itsi with grace and with pragmatism, and he shows the best of resilience and that is quite common buddy he does it with such grace that i admire him deeply. So yes resilience is extremely important for all of her admirals, and for all of us. Others question. [laughter] i attended my 50 year reunion and i thought the buildings looked the same but i was wondering what is training due to character and the people in the military officers of the future . So i think barb had her at this than when you are and i drifted through the Naval Academy<\/a> buying beer and buzzes on the weekend, inside joke there. I think today, all of this Service Takes<\/a> issues of character very seriously and at every level, we work hard to make sure all of our young men and women make the right moralht choices. Weve got a controversial issue going on right now about some special forces folks the president has decided to pardon, i dont know the details of this case is i want to focus you over here on settlement named lieutenant Michael Murphy<\/a> does anybody know who he is . He is the recipient of the medal of honor in afghanistan wheref he died in 2008 on a seal mission that went terribly wrong. He faced a very difficult moral choice which was whether or not to kill a young afghan boy who had stumbled onto their patrol. Hisro team, there were four of them had a debate about that. As in we dont kill this guy, hes going to go radice out. Michael murphy said we dont kill civilians they let them go team was attacked and three of them died the survivor marcus wrote a book called lone survivor, forget about this. Go read that story. That is what your military is all about, not this. Its over here. [applause] smacked ladies and gentlemen we have time for one last question but before he gets that question i want to make sure you all know we have copies of the admirals book autographed up in the museum star may she pick one up on your way out makes a terrific christmas present. Our last question, is this general right to my left what is your question sir . Thank you so very much supreme founder sit nixons library thank you so thats precisely what we need. Allow me one quick minute today and daddy were you going today and i told her where i was going and i said we are talkback character would like to ask you, good sir without getting into politics but theres a desperate time in our nation so needs character we arent appoint rest in peace president nixon, president eisenhower, roosevelt and my question in good sir is would you consider running for president . I mean that with complete seriousness. Slayton of this i was bedded for Vice President<\/a> by clinton and i was invited to trump tower to discuss a cabinet position with donald trump read that was were two bullets whizzing by my head. [laughter] my answer is, i would be honored to serve the nation again. How that unfolds, i do not know. But just as surely as i asked the jahnke debts, and your daughter and my daughters and others, to embrace the idea of serving the country in it makes sensentry in to you, i too will answer that call again if asked. Thank you very much its a pleasure. [applause] [applause] thank you ladies and gentlemen. [applause] safe travel home while members of congress or their districts due to the pandemic, we have a special edition of book tv airing during the week friday, portions of our programs on books about pandemics from authors john barry, david shown your shaw halley con jeremy brown books on the economy with authors peter wallison, henry paulson, ben bernanke e, aron glanz, Marian Cooper<\/a> and others. Later, authors kessler, bob woodward, and steven moore discuss their books about president trump. Enjoy book tv now and over the weekend on cspan2. Sunday night on q a wall street trader turned photojournalist chris on his book dignity. About the plight of those living on the margins of society in america. So is a sunday morning i believe or saturday be it was empty because all of the semites were gone. Is the industrial point immediately the intelligence just came right through. And we spoke for about an hour, half an hour or so. She told me her life is like a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. Eventually, i asked her what i asked everybody a photograph what is one how do you want me to it describe you in one sentence question she just shot back and said thats what i am a prostitute, mother of six and a child of god. So sunday night at eight eastern on cspans q a. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago. Our Mission Continues<\/a> to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs<\/a> programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. And be part of the National Conversation<\/a> through cspans daily washington journal program. Or through our social media cspan, created by private industry. Americas Cable Television<\/a> company as a Public Service<\/a> and brought to you today by your television provider. Spirit coming up tonight on cspan2 Maryland Governor<\/a> larry hogan sitting down with politico playbook to talk about the Coronavirus Response<\/a> in his state then near Governor Cuomo<\/a> talks about his response in albany after that louisiana governor on preparations for the Hurricane Season<\/a> during the pandemic. Later the House Small Business Committee<\/a> holding a hearing on the paycheck protection program. Maryland governor larry hogan spoke with politico about the states continuing response of the coronavirus pandemic. His wifes role in negotiating a deal to get testing kits from south korea. And what reopening maryland might look like when covid19 cases decreased. Lets get started thank you Governor Hogan<\/a> for joining us a lot of our viewers are not only going to be interested in the politics but the substance of this imagine we have a lot of maryland and d. C. Residents watching today. Could you give","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia801900.us.archive.org\/16\/items\/CSPAN2_20200423_225600_Adm._James_Stavridis_Ret._Sailing_True_North\/CSPAN2_20200423_225600_Adm._James_Stavridis_Ret._Sailing_True_North.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20200423_225600_Adm._James_Stavridis_Ret._Sailing_True_North_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}