Live coverage of the former north korea. E from instead we bring you a different event. The president and c. E. O. Moderates the hour long discussion. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Is and im the vice egent for Mount Vernon Ladies Association and on behalf of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association oard its my privilege to welcome you today on this Beautiful Day for the 2019 debate. G todays discussion is made generous gift in honor of the late jim reiss, president and c. E. O. Of mount vernon. Tohold the debates each fall mark the opening of the fred w. Smith National Library for the washington. Rge now, six years old, the Ashington Library has flourished and become an internationally recognized place scholarship and debate. Since mount vernon does not or federal tate funds, were profoundly Grateful Foundation and other patriotic americans who make it keep mount us to vernon open 365 days a year. In thanking joy and dr. Dennis franks who are with us here today. I would also like to acknowledge several other guests. Marinelly, United States corps retired and his wife karen. Army retired and his wife holly, rear admiral retired United States our and a scholar in institute. Brigadier general craig United States army retired and his wife debbie, general chad 30th commandant of the National War College. Washington, and commander of chaplain of the uss George Washington. You all for joining us. [applause] now i suspect if washington were with us today i suspect would eartily when George Washington took over command of the American Army back in 1775, chaos. Iterally was 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 undisciplined, with no uniforms and few supplies. Painstaking work, dedication and perseverance. From mount away vernon to win that war and to hen go on to create the american nation. And in that time, washington in a way that has few equals in the history of mankind. Why were so pleased and i am so honored today to guest, e our special general james mattis, the 26th defense, to share with us his remarkable story of from 18yearold recruit in the Marine Corps Reserve to four star general. Especially like his subtitle, learning to lead, because we mount vernon are helping others learn to lead, sharing washingtons leadership skills with corporate government bodies around the country to our Leadership Institute and through iscussions such as this one today. We look forward to hearing general mattis share insights career. Is the lessons he has learned hrough service in iraq and afghanistan, leadership in three wars, including leadership of central command, where e directed a quarter million troops across the middle east. Not be versation could more timely. Helping to facilitate the in whats today urely likely to be a lively q a, dr. Doug join me in a for general james mattis. Thank you all for being here that very warmor welcome for the general. On now. S and i was just thanking you for being here and for that warm welcome. Right it into. The general has a tight schedule. Hes a man in great command hes been his whole did youa leader, so why write this book . You get my color hair. Its not that im going to say the right way to do something cases i did the wrong thing and i try to be very candid about it but you want to to young people what worked, what didnt work and what you learned, idea being the same make mistakes i did, that they make their own mistakes. All make mistakes, its whether you learn from them. George washington made many mistakes. Very candid about it and onfronted certainly tough times. Right now, you said its a good time for this lecture. Say, a reminder by looking at our history, country ruckus through tough, times, much more difficult times, so there is a lot to be aid by following George Washingtons idea of leadership and actually he was one of those career, d over my required to, i might ashgsd by corps. Rine hey were not interested in my mid life crisis. They convinced me to read washington george couldnt be missed. Lets talk a little bit about washington instead of jumping your own biography. We were just at the washington president ial library. Up some wonderful items for you to enjoy. Talk a little bit about washington. He mean to you as an american leader . He had a very precise way of leading. Study George Washington, ven as a youngs officer on the frontier, four words sum it up. T sounds rather methodical but it was not. It was to listen and learn, and then lead. Nd if you keep those four points in mind as you look at what hes 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. Ou can have an Officers Commission but he learns to actually lead. He example, he listens and learns from allies. He listens and learns from a guy and a guy named lafayette. Learns from roshan bo, von steuben. E listens to his allies and he learns from them. When you listen and learn from omeone youre showing them respect so you see it engrained approaching life and life is at the camp for him any times on the seaboard the next step is to help. You listen and learn. You really listen. Rebuff them sten to or tell them what you think. You listen and you learn and then you help them and then you lead. You see this repeatedly uring the worst days of the revolution, when his troops are freezing to death and Congress Voting urned without enough money for blankets. He has all the reasons to start sucking his thumb and saying poor me. He doesnt do it. Stays s steadfast and with that very methodical listen, learn and help and valley forge and they humble the red coats who few destroy napoleon a years later. It shows how chancy it was and how much you can learn by leaders of the past. Well talk about that. Thats one of the profound way ts of this book is the you integrate your own memoir with your reading and your and its about the past importance but lets start where as a marine for you, why the marine corps . Unstudied s a rather decision. [laughter] it was 19681969. I was in college. Was having a little more fun than was permitted, and as a ay, we all knew we would get drafted. None of us believed we would be brought home a few years later, dodgers, and treated as heroes so we thought we had to go. My brother was in the marines wasnt much more thought to it. I signed up for the marines to army. Being in the some people say i was a draft dodger. You e of the things that write well about, the role of ergeants and corporals in forming a young infantry officer. Talk a little bit about that. Road about 20 miles quantico, we have an officer candidate school, 85 of ocs is run by sergeants, corporal sergeants, and they are the ones who determine to be made allowed an officer and who wont. The earn right up front value of the ncos. I would just tell you 40 something years later looking on all the fighting that weve been through, combat has very interesting and some exciting moments, but if you ask ncos, outcome is not in doubt. Your petty officers, officers, so ed long as you set them up for success, will win the fight. After, a marine infantry officer, any infantry officer is very much carried by ncos. They dont expect you to do as they say but they do expect that listen, and you see right away George Washingtons out d of leadership coming in the infantry, to this day, the army and marine infantry, 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. Very consistent with the way George Washington led his ncosutionary army and the carry on that tradition today. One of the clear things, firstoff, i love, youre very clear about what good leaders do nd what mistakes youve made and that sort of thing but one lessonsof the that you come back to is allowing the team to use their the ssiveness to achieve job. Can you talk about commanders intent and how thats been your own in leadership and how you learned that . You learn it in the field, of how youre going to lead. Every service has its own culture. Lead, and you how to then you have to apply it own unique your personality. And what i realized after a in the marine s corps i really didnt have young sailors and marines looking at at night saying, i wonder how i can mess up tomorrow. Ay it took me a while because they are kind of rambunctious when we would pull into port. Would have a little too much fun and i would be having my heels looked at the position day in tion the next front of the company commander. But i found if they knew what accomplish, if you really spent time clearly stating it and then doing, and confirming, have them talk back to you, they you can derstand this, unleash them and take your hands off the steering wheel, if you trained hem up right, them for it and let them use the two qualities we need most in 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 is time, you say, my aim this and heres kind of how i see it developing, and at the end of the day heres what i you to have done and you can put things right in there that say, by the way, there is a women and cent children on this battlefield. Very battlefield is also a humanitarian field so keep your honor clean. A youre taking a shot across crowded marketplace to kill a terrorist is going to end up with a william or child being the shot so take you put that clarity out there, and then your troops take it. Give you an example. We have a line of marines across 124 degrees. I didnt know it got that hot on earth until i was in the middle east. 124 degrees. N owe nets onave bay 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 talk about all the levels, and the strategic sense it was clear with the intent was. It was a diplomatic success. It was a political success with the coalition put together. And the execution of it. It seems as we get closer to the present in your book, we do not see that coherence on all of the Different Levels in strategy and execution. Gen. Mattis our about the teaching strategy, villa terry history military history and all the western democracies now peered we are not the only ones to have challenges taking strategically. Think back to 1990, in the first days of iraq, moving it and subjugating, invading and conquering kuwait, president bush says this will not stand. Lastis actually one of the things i heard because before i left the states we were up in the seer nevada, climbing mountains, i was told to go back and change into desert uniforms. Back into Southern California and we flew out immediately. Over the months we were on the defensive and it was very clear they wo