My privilege to welcome you today on this Beautiful Day for the 2019 founding debate. Todays discussion is made possible by a generous gift in honor of the late jim reiss, former president and c. E. O. Of mount vernon. We hold the debates each fall to mark the opening of the fred w. Smith National Library for the study of George Washington. Now, six years old, the Washington Library has flourished and become an internationally recognized place for thoughtful scholarship and debate. Since mount vernon does not accept any state or federal funds, were profoundly grateful to the foundation and other patriotic americans who make it possible for us to keep mount vernon open 365 days a year. Please join me in thanking joy and dr. Dennis franks who are with us here today. applause i would also like to acknowledge several other guests. John kelly, United States marine corps retired and his wife karen. United states army retired and his wife holly, rear admiral peter retired United States navy and a scholar in our lLeadership Institute. Brigadier general craig nixon, United States army retired and his wife debbie, Brigadier General chad 30th commandant of the National War College. Uss George Washington, and commander of chaplain of the uss George Washington. Thank you all for joining us. Now i suspect if washington were with us today i suspect would heartily enjoy and endore the sign when George Washington took over command of the American Army back in 1775, there literally was chaos. The opposing force, the british army, was the largest in the world. In the 13 colonies, there was no real American Army. There was nothing more than a rag tad band of civilians untrained, undisciplined, with no uniforms and few supplies. It took painstaking work, dedication and perseverance. Eight years away from mount vernon to win that war and to then go on to create the american nation. And in that time, washington learned to lead in a way that has few equals in the history of mankind. Thats why were so pleased and i am so honored today to introduce our special guest, general james mattis, the 26th secretary of defense, to share with us his remarkable story of leadership from 18yearold recruit in the Marine Corps Reserve to four star general. We especially like his subtitle, learning to lead, because we here at mount vernon are helping others learn to lead, sharing George Washingtons leadership skills with corporate government and nonprofit bodies around the country to our Leadership Institute and through discussions such as this one today. We look forward to hearing general mattis share insights about his career. The lessons he has learned through service in iraq and afghanistan, leadership in three wars, including leadership of the u. S. Central command, where he directed a quarter million troops across the middle east. This conversation could not be more timely. Helping to facilitate the discussion today in whats surely likely to be a lively q a, dr. Doug join me in a warm welcome for general james mattis. applause applause thank you all for being here and thank you for that very warm welcome for the general. My mic is on now. laughs and i was just thanking you for being here and for that warm welcome. Lets get right it into. The general has a tight schedule. Hes a man in great command right now as hes been his whole life as a leader, so why did you write this book . You get to my color of hair. Its not that im going to say the right way to do something because in some cases i did the wrong thing and i try to be very candid about it but you want to pass on to young people what worked, what didnt work and what you learned, idea being they dont make the same mistakes i did, that they make their own mistakes. We all make mistakes, its whether you learn from them. George washington made many mistakes. Hes very candid about it and confronted certainly tough times. Right now, you said its a good time for this lecture. I would also say, a reminder by looking at our history, country has been through tough, ruckus times, much more difficult times, so there is a lot to be said by following George Washingtons idea of leadership and actually he was one of those i studied over my career, required to, i might add by the marine corps. They were not interested in my mid life crisis. They convinced me to read history and George Washington couldnt be missed. Lets talk a little bit about washington instead of jumping into your own biography. We were just at the washington president ial library. We brought up some wonderful items for you to enjoy. Talk a little bit about washington. What does he mean to you as an american leader . He had a very precise way of leading. If you study George Washington, even as a young officer on the frontier, four words sum it up. It sounds rather methodical but it was not. It was to listen and learn, and then help and then lead. If you keep those four points in mind as you look at what hes doing as he matures as an officer, as he matures as a leader, they arent the same thing. Your troops are the one you declare if youre a leader. You can have an Officers Commission but he learns to actually lead. For example, he listens and he learns from allies. He listens and learns from a guy named lafayette. He learns from roshan bo, von steuben. He listens to his allies and he learns from them. When you listen and learn from someone youre showing them respect so you see it engrained in his way of approaching life and life is at the camp for him many times on the frontear of the eastern seaboard the next step is to help. You listen and learn. You really listen. You dont listen to rebuff them or tell them what you think. You listen and you learn and then you help them and then you lead. And you see this repeatedly during the worst days of the revolution, when his troops are freezing to death and congress has adjourned without voting enough money for blankets. He has all the reasons to start sucking his thumb and saying poor me. He doesnt do it. He stays steadfast and stays with that very methodical listen, learn and help and marches out of valley forge and they humble the red coats who would destroy napoleon a few years later. It shows how chancy it was and how much you can learn by studying leaders of the past. Well talk about that. Thats one of the profound aspects of this book is the way you integrate your own memoir with your reading and your thinking about the past and its importance but lets start where it began, as a marine for you, why the marine corps . That was a rather unstudied decision. laughs it was 19681969. I was in college. I was having a little more fun than was permitted, and as a way, we all knew we would get drafted. None of us believed we would be brought home a few years later, draft dodgers, and treated as heroes so we thought we had to go. My brother was in the marines and there wasnt much more thought to it. I signed up for the marines to avoid being in the army. Some people say i wasnt the brightest draft dodger. One of the things that you write well about, the role of sergeants and corporals in forming a young infantry officer. Talk a little bit about that. Down the road about 20 miles from here in quantico, we have an officer candidate school, probably about 85 of ocs is run by sergeants, corporal sergeants, atv sergeants, and they are the ones who determine who will be allowed to be made an officer and who wont. You learn right up front the value of the ncos. I would just tell you 40 something years later looking back on all the fighting that weve been through, combat has some very interesting and some exciting moments, but if you have good ncos, outcome is not in doubt. Your petty officers, noncommissioned officers, so long as you set them up for success, will win the fight. In the years after, a marine infantry officer, any infantry officer is very much carried by his ncos. They dont expect you to do as they say but they do expect that you will listen, and you see right away George Washingtons method of leadership coming out in the infantry, to this day, the army and marine infantry, you listen and you learn from them and then you help them by calling in artillery fire or air support or medivac, and then you lead them. So its very consistent with the way George Washington led his revolutionary army and the ncos carry on that tradition today. One of the clear things, firstoff, i love, youre very clear about what good leaders do and what mistakes youve made and that sort of thing but one of thelesses one of the lessons that you come back to is allowing the team to use their aggressiveness to achieve the job. Can you talk about commanders intent and how thats been manifested in your own leadership and how you learned that . You learn it in the field, of course, how youre going to lead. Every service has its own culture. They teach you how to lead, and then you have to apply it according to your own unique personality. And what i realized after a couple of months in the marine corps i really didnt have young sailors and marines land on their back looking at the ceiling at night saying, i wonder how i can mess up mattiss day tomorrow. It took me a while because they are kind of rambunctious when we would pull into port. They would have a little too much fun and i would be having my heels looked at the position of attention the next day in front of the company commander. But i found if they knew what you wanted to accomplish, if you really spent time clearly stating it and then doing, clarifying and confirming, have them talk back to you, they really understand this, you can unleash them and take your hands off the steering wheel, if you brought them up right, trained them for it and let them use the two qualities we need most in young petty officers and ncos in the military, initiative and aggressiveness but youve got to make it clear and its not as easy as it sounds but at the same time, you say, my aim is this and heres kind of how i see it developing, and at the end of the day heres what i want you to have done and you can put things right in there that say, by the way, there is a lot of innocent women and children on this battlefield. Every battlefield is also a humanitarian field so keep your honor clean. If youre taking a shot across a crowded marketplace to kill a terrorist is going to end up with a women or child being injured dont take the shot so you put that clarity out there, and then your troops take it. Ill give you an example. We have a line of marines across the street, 124 degrees. I didnt know it got that hot on earth until i was in the middle east. 124 degrees. The marines have bayn owe nets on their rifles. They are angry obviously. You can see whats going to happen and n owe nets on rifles. They are angry obviously. You can see whats going to happen and the Navy Chaplain and a couple of his sailors and marines walked out into the handing out rted bottles of chilled water because the people are demonstrating. Never have thought that but they knew what our job was, what to keep the peace, passed for peace, in that very for one more 2004, week, one more day, one more this as we tried to catch thing on the right track and its very hard to throw a rock handed ody who has just you a bottle of chilled water on a 124degree day. Weve got no air conditioning, mob ricity, and the disappears. Understand, were on the same thought of d have that technique but because i said youve got to try and do without any sense of try unfantism, to free these people to conquer them you turn over the initiative to the they know what to do. Well get to some episodes think there was clear intent and there wasnt clarity and the mistakes that that can create and the that creates but lets talk a little about the its of history and importance to a military leader, ny leader, and why does the marine core require books at different ranks. What the doctor is talking basically, every time you get promoted in the marine corps they say congratulations. New incigna on you. Boy, that looks good and you a sergeant says heres your new book, start reading. Even generals, when they make a couple hey are told of things. One, you will never read poorly again. Youll never hear the truth again. [laughter] three, heres your list of reading, and a couple of them are by kissinger, words long. E is 27 the point that the marines make is, its an imperfect way of the future but its light we have in that dark path ahead and human nature doesnt change a lot so what across e trying to get to us was, we were responsible for our own development, for our wn learning and we would have to study this stuff. They could train us how to shoot to put a woundow dressing on a wound, how to call or an air vehicle that sort of thing, they knew we would have to know that and trained us to do it. Educate cted us to ourselves for what they couldnt train us for, for the unexpected, for the time youre awake in your sleeping bag trying to figure out how youre going to deal with the attack the next day and thats the reading paid off. Its required reading and the surest way to probably find passed over for promotion is to find did you not do the reading for your rank, effective way ry of motivating people to read in is not hen history taught with the same degree of our universities as it once was. Well talk a little bit more well. That as it struck me so much, going to eorge washington again, let me read a quote. Hes a 24 year old colonel of the virginia regiment. Regiment back to his and they had to do a court martial. One of the officers wasnt behaving correctly. Natural he makes an address to the troops, and in that he says remember its the not the commission that make the officer. That there is there is more the ted from him than title. Do not forget there ought to be a time appropriated to attain an officer as f well as to indulge pleasure. And as we have no opportunities example let us read for this desirable end and list of books they should all be reading. Life is too short to learn know from you need to your own experience. Youve got to read from others, moral dimension to it for the military officers ecause, of course, youre telling very young men, in the infantry, you know, they are infantry for infant soldier for a reason, young, soldier. Them oure going to point toward the enemy and they have got to go, you better know what youre doing. So there is the moral dimension to it, that the father of our there. Is talking about but hes also showing at a young age the understanding that held to ve to be certain standards. And by that, you know, it breaks your heart sometimes because they will be friends of yours, when they dont measure up, when dont deliver results, then they have got to be held to a tandard higher than their subordinate troops, and i used to tell young commanders who coming to grips with what makes their position very lonely, i said, listen, there is the sun. Ew under even jesus of nazareth had one 12 go to mud on him. Once in a while your suspect reaks down and youve got to impose the standards, thats all there is to it. I dont know how they selected judas. So lets talk about training then as well. Youve been involved in training lot of different capacities including command. One of the great ideas i found the y compelling was importance of simulations and equip the ng to combat to deal with without having combat experience. Can you talk a little bit about training and preparation. Combat, we of us in thought if we could get a young sail already or marine soldier, first through their three or four fire fights alive, their chances for survival went metally because you know youre going to react. You know the fear you will feel. Training will kick in and you will have confidence in the try, e next to you so you as much as you can with modern to lation techniques, basically approximate the tactical and ethical decisions that you will have to make on the battlefield. But i think, too, in time, for example, at valley forge, where he could ave sulked or lost his entire army as the summer soldiers deserted and the ones that could new the tough winter in jersey stuck women, he used von steuben, and they taught because they would make the troops drills. In those days you drilled so other you could feel their shoulder on each side of you as you marched into the youre actually transmitting the confidence of your fellow soldier and getting increase there of confidence because you feel and emember, there were, what the french called mulattos, there were blacks in that army, to 15 we think. There were people who didnt speak english well. Immigrants. There were people who didnt know each other in the regular rmy because they were from North Carolina and the guy next to them was from massachusetts. They needed to do is and whensome of combat they marched out of valley forge that spring they were trained to o up against the british regulars, most feared army on earth at the time so there is a way to do it. Lot ofow, were taking a advances out of hollywood, frankly, and were going to as far as in simulation in the military. Wonderful. O lets talk about the most feared military in the world today, and well start with the marines. Ttalion seventh you commanded in desert storm. Talk a little bit about that. Your first time battle . Ng in of the bat battalion, yes. The training we went through was days a week over the would ind of terrain we be fighting in. What i remember it most fondly or, its the last time i brought everyone home alive. Arabssailors, marines and in the battalion, kuwaitis who had been caught training in military schools returned to us, and now found ncos ines as air force the Kuwaiti Air Force in an Infantry Battalion gen. Mattis they were enthusiastic about it as the confidence of the marines and sailors permeated them. We brought them all home alive. One man who got his heirs shot off wrote a letter saying they put a new ear on him and it looks better than the old one. [laughter] i still remember it in very fond terms for the liberation of kuwait. Dr. Bradburn that campaign was extort nearly successful prude one of the things you talk about here campaign was extraordinarily successful. You