CALL SIGN CHAOS

The former secretary of defense
delivers lessons for would-be leaders.

The title might describe the
current White House, from which Mattis (co-editor: Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military, 2016) departed
after disagreeing on one issue too many with the sitting president. However, it
derives from an ironic Marine Corps acronym. Mattis spotted trouble from
the start, noting that, after all, the separation of military from civilian
leadership, by which officers were forbidden from serving in the office “within
seven years of departing military service,” is there for a good reason—a reason
disregarded by Trump and company. Still, Mattis, writing with Bing (One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War,
2014, etc.), has relatively little to say about his time in that orbit.
Instead, he focuses on his military career, during which he rose through the
ranks and replaced Gen. David Petraeus as head of the U.S. Central Command; and
on the leadership lessons he learned in the field and on base. Considered an
intellectual, he insists foremost on lifelong learning and constant reading:
When he was called on to lead the 1st Marine Division in the Iraq War, for
instance, he devoured books, from T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of
Wisdom (“few Westerners in recent history had achieved his level of
trust with Arabs on the battlefield”) to memoirs and studies of William
Tecumseh Sherman, Gertrude Bell, and Alexander the Great. “I may not have come
up with many new ideas,” writes Mattis, “but I’ve adopted or integrated a lot
from others,” and he insisted that his officers and enlisted personnel read and
study. Some lessons are obvious (don’t play favorites), some gung-ho (show an
“obvious bias for action”), and most eminently useful for leaders in whatever
sector (“You must decide, act, and move on”). One wishes for a little more
dirt, but the author, a cool-headed diplomat, seems to be reserving that for
magazine interviews, dishing it judiciously.

Meatier and more substantive than
books like The 48 Laws of Power and a font of well-considered
guidance.