Brennan distinguished leadership series. The first member of the series was general james mattis who was here two months ago. Jack brennan was the first wofriend of nixon a veteran witn the white house returned with president nixon, retired from the marines rather than leave his side so we thought we would name it and then we had a distinguished professional jack continues to serve and we are glad so many of you are here. If you are in or what you stand and allow us to think you. [applause] our guest is admiral James Stavridis, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1976. He went on to a 37 year career and some extraordinary media stations along the way including as the Combatant Commander of the u. S. Central command, Southern Command from 20 of six to 2009, and of course as the nato allied Supreme Commander. He earned his phd and masters of arts from the Fletcher School of law and diplomacy which he subsequently went on to leave after his retirement from the navy. Admiral James Stavridis is the author of ten books but also in operating executive with the Carlyle Group which most americans know as the preeminent venture capitalist funding the United States and to chair the boards of the councils at the associate and is among the most treasured guests i have on my radio show and im leading a can aim to get him on the board of at least one or hopefully three of the Tech Companies so google, facebook and amazon bring to the prescription someone knowledgeable about all these things so from his 37 id also like to point out he spent 11 of those years of outside so that is quite a recommendation. Please join me in welcoming jmiral James Stavridis. [applause] what we are going to do tonight is a little different from the audience here and watching on cspan. Im going to ask a few questions and then do a presentation and i want to make it a little bit broader i do not have a copy of otmy first question is ive nevr asked why did you call it the accidental admiral . The place you want to end up as a four star is the pacific. You want to be out there where all the great naval admirals were coming and i was kind of anding to go to the pacific then secretary of defense robert gates called me and said mr. Stavridis, we need you to go to europe and work at nato. I dont know much about nato or europe. I am a pacific guy and that didnt win him over and so i thought that this was kind of an accident that i ended up in europe and second because all of our lives are accidents. We can never predict them so i wanted a title of the book that emphasized you can have a brilliant plan for your life, but there will be intervening moments and so weve often said the most important words in english language are have you ever considered, and i know a guy. Who is that guy that made your career, admiral clacks admiral mike mullen who was the tremendous the joint chiefs of staff at the end of his career but early in his career in early nine, hes probably ten years senior to me, which is probably the perfect distance from a mentor in the military. When he was the head of Human Resources if you will, we call them in Navy Detailers and it broke me out of a standard career and said you know, mr. Stavridis, youve got something going on. They are going to send it to the Fletcher School of law diplomacy and put your position to do a phd. That is very unconventional. And he was there at the beginning of my career and then at the far end playing by was getting ready to become a fourstar officer is a very strong advocate. The point i want to make if he was a mentor who followed up. So often people talk about being a mentor but they dont have to follow up. They do not Truly Engaged again and again. Admiral mike mullen was there for me every single step. Ul our friends listening and watching on cspan, this is a book that you can give anyone come any time in any career and it will be invaluable to them. And i found it to be invaluable. Would you explain why you wrote this and what it does because it is quite extraordinary. Is the leaders bookshelf. Because nobody has time to actually read 50 books, whats in here is a synopsis of each of the 50 bucks and its not a bunch of boring leadership books. Its actually models like to kill a mockingbird and king arthurs court. There is biography is we will talk about later. Its a very eclectic book and i like it as a gift because you can hand it to somebody and they will either do the People Magazine version or they can say that one really catches my interest. Im going to sit down and read in love and war by the vice admiravice admiraland his wife. What is remarkable about the distinguished leaders series. There was in appendix and youre both adamant the officers would be reading. Can you expand on that . Documents that are here this evening and asked me what can i do to prepare myself for military service and i think there are good things that are important, knowledge of ship handling, tactics, all of that. That. The most important thing is to read because the data you graduate from a university is the day that you own your education. And if at the end of your life you will be the sum of what you have continued to invest in that education, read, read and practically answer the question only through picking up ad boo, a novel for example, lets take the gates of fire and you can put your self in that moment. Its a simulator. Its a chance to test yourself against the highest standards. I think reading is powerful and important and its a force multiplier in our life. The next book is seapower and i love this book because it taught me first of all all i need to know about Global Climate change because as you know, it is tha it isnt clear t was when you first started so whether or not you were going places inou the arctic you never went before but its named for a book that has a fairly good pedigree and a good friend of mine and aviator in vietnam said im not sure im going to read a book entitled to this because the naval class of 63 that he converted. Explain to the audience watching at home what it was intended to do and the legacy that it carries. The subtitle of the book is the history and geopolitics of the world so instead of writing a bookd about people, i decided to write a book where the characters are the worlds oceans. Chapter on the atlantic, pacific,c, the arctic, the south china sea. And i think theres power in that because in each of those tractors i talk about the history of that region of the world and i tie it to the importance and that is the connection to the admiral that you are thinking of. The greatest strategist the navy has ever produced who created this idea of a global navy and the reason we have a powerful navy and marine corps is because of these vast oceans. 70 of the planet is covered by water. 95 of all trade moves on the ocean. 70 of the oxygen you are breathing tonight comes from photosynthesis in a sea, the oceans that are. That is the genesis of the book and the theory is we ought to have a strategy for dealing with those and shortly as it is articulated 120 years ago. Before i yield to the presentation, this has to do with two of the chapters in this wonderful new book, biographical sketches and i take these because chester commanded richard nixon, he was one as you say one of the millions of sailors on a thousand of ships under the command. He wasnt o only ship most of te time. And the other one im going to ask us about he was under nixons command, so my first question, would chester, portrayed now in the movie midway and familiar to people if they read sailing the true north, would they make it in the media of today . I think the question is what he has ever made it out of the Naval Academy of today . We would go over the wall of authorizedve liberty and buy ber for his classmates and buy it back. Just a whole package. Hes in this shop indices what he thinks is a civilian and he moves on. The next day it turns out its one of the officers o at the nal academy and so he says my career is over but he gets a Second Chance and i think that there is 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. Theres a very controversial scandal. Can you expand on what that was and what they knew was going on. The intelligence gathering on civilian officials by military and that sounds terrible and it is. It was probably more benign than that. Probably more in the category of this person in the white house thinks this way and this one thinks this way, bu but the appearance of gathering intelligence in order to move the military agenda was pretty damning. The record is unclear on whether he was fully willing on that or not. Im going to give the benefit of the doubt. I think that he was an individual with high integrity. And i will talk about him in a moment or two. But thess lesson here for all te fuss is tofthis is to be carefue optics, be careful of how something appears because it can drag you down nixon did a lo ant wouldve keeps electing as president and reached for Daniel Patrick moynihan and reached for people who were out there we deselected the current chief of Naval Operations admiral michael and incubus thinking about maybe if the stars aligned i might get a fourth star and then the secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer faced a crisis in that the original candidate had an issue and had to step aside so instead of going to the fourstar bench, the secretary of the navy reached down relatively speaking to a threestar officer and elevated rhim over the entire fourstar community. Its happened before and before that, admiral burke was elevated as a threestar. So, the advantage is that you get a fresh set of eyes and no one that is elevated as any baggage to pay off. You get a clean break. That can be very advantageous and i would argue as the navy goes into this very turbulent 21st century we would be well served to be a little more selective. That is the perfect transition to a clean break and its my pleasure to turn the stage over to give you a presentation. First and foremost i want to say thank you to few and the Nixon Library and i also want to spend a moment while the furniture is moved so thank you above all. Maybe mom and father, a lot of navy going on in the house tonight. That was a wonderful introduction. Normally when people hear that introduction, supreme allied commander then they actually see me and typically have two reactions. One is i thought it would be taller. If you are really that cool why were you not a Navy Fighter Pilot because i was a destroyer and to be honest with you, i desperately wanted to be a Navy Fighter Pilot when i was a young boy that i had a really traumatic experience at an airport that mediation really difficult for me. [laughter] heres what we are going to do and im going to do this in about 25 minutes, so we are going to go fast but i want to talk about the oceans. But i really want to talk about his character and i need everyone to understand the difference between leadership. Jim mattis was here before and im sure he talked about leadership. Im not talking about that. Im here to talk about character. Leadership is what we do to influence others. It is a big door and it swings out there influencing millions of people as they did for me when i was a nato b commander, e bad big door of leadership swings on a very small hinge and that is human factor. You cannot do that unless your character allows it to so i set out to write a book about character and we are awash in books of leadership. There are a lot of a them. I wanted to write about that inner voyage and how we need ourselves, thats character and write about what you know about. I decided to write about using a framework for ten admirals so we are going to sit back in history 2500 years and pull right up to the president and talk about ten very dynamic admirals. There has to be a greek and this is 2500 years ago adkins faces an existential threat and is threatened by the persian empire. Of course the iranians have today. Theyhe are about to conquer the city state with the power of persuasion it convinces his captains to go and fight a battle in which they are outnumbered five perhaps ten to one that the captains of that they launched. Heres the advantage themistoles had. The persian fleet five times the size was wrote by slaves. He said to his captains tomorrow you must worl work for your fam. Tomorrow you must grow for your city. Tomorrow you must grow for freedom and he destroyed the persian eats. Its an extraordinary story of accomplishment and charisma that within three years after the victorious battle, his arrogance victorious battle, his arrogance alienating his countrymen, he is banished and ends his life in the course of the persian emperor. Its the story of how you can be given an incredible gifts but if you allow your ego and arrogance to overtake them, you will metaphorically and dot. Lets go to a different part of the world. Lets go to china we are now in the year 1400, 1405. The chinese emperor invests in this admiral entrusted with an enormous treasure fleet constructed of wood which explores the south china seas and to give you a point of comparison, look at the ships in the upper right. See this massive bark that is the scale of the flagship which has a50 crew of 600. You see that little toy boat next to it, that is the flagship of Christopher Columbus,hi the santa maria which 100 years later in 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and that is what the europeans were sailing to explore the world. The chinese were sailing massive ships and by the way, that treasure fleet looks a lot like the strategy today. Theres a lot to learn about his ability to organize, his ability to fulfill with his boss wants him to death to jump a little further forward to the time of the spanish armada, sir Francis Drake saves england, he believed the british fleet that in the caribbean is known as a pirate, a murderer. He has slaves and he burned cities and killed indiscriminately. He is perhaps the darkest character of the admirals. He is a patriot and also a pirate. How many of you have been in disney world on the ride pirates of the caribbean based on sir Francis Drake. Heres my favoritete british admiral, vice admiral nelson who fights another existential battle. He defeats the fleet at the battle of the coast of spain. I liked him a lot because he was about 5 feet 5 inches tall, a man of normal height. [laughter] but he was fearless in combat. He lost his right arm in battle, he lost his eye in another battle and he was beloved by his sailors. He took care of his sailorsrs ad his captains who worked for him adored him. He was a team builder. Beloved by the sailors and beloved by his captains was he perfect . Not so much. This was a beautiful actress we would think of today he has an adult rest of their with her over a number of years he fosters a child out of wedlock. He would never get through Senate Confirmation today. [laughter] and you see that picture of him looking at the signal because in those days you look at signal flags to know where to sale your ship. He was a difficultwa subordinate actually putting this telescope to his blind eye because he doesnt like the order and he is saying i dont see any signal they are goahead and come to starboard. This is where the expression to turn a blind eye to something comes from so a great hero of his country and his moral compass doesnt always feel true north we talk about our friend arguably the most intellectually brilliant officer of the navy has produced in the 1880s, et 90s he produces a global strategy for america not just for the media why America Needs the oceans. An intellectual is a man with spectacles on his nose and winter in his heart. He is not a loving giving person. The balance is not good, but what he does is think and write and hers pursue the truth. He creates a Naval War College arguably the most important of all of our war colleges and institutions. So, not a warm figure he is a miserable commander at sea. But boy is he smart. Again, that mixture in his character. Heres one not many people know, hes a british Admiral Committee is a british admiral at the turn of the last century and what i like about Jackie Fisher is that he comes into the british navy plan there are sailing ships and can inspire the time he commands the british navy as they see lord ita sea lordson promotingd muzzleloading cannons to steal homes done with cold, moved on to oil, longrange fire control platforms, huge cannons, sub marines are coming in. Hes an extraordinary innovator and contemporary of Winston Churchill and hes also hugely egotistical. Hes the only one in the room. He is the person that has to show you how smart he or she is the minute the door opens. So, this massive ego tied to this brilliant case for innovation. Lets come back to america and lets go to i would argue the best admiral in American History certainly the fleet admiral comes out of fredericksburg texas, wants to go to west point, and going to annapolis and becomes a growing force within the navy command the bureau ofin personal know. He has a good study career going on. What happens the Pacific Fleet is destroyed. The navy and the nation turn and he is told pack your bag, go to pearl harbor and take command of the fleet. The problem is thend pacific flt is at the bottom of pearl harbor. Luckily the carriers were out. Theres a few submarines there. He takes command of the Pacific Fleet bought on one of those battleships and gorgeous u