WEBVTT - Gen. Mark Milley 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.559 The most senior person in the U. S Military is 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.080 always the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Person 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.639 to hold that title is General Mark Milley. He was 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.880 appointed by President Trump and continues to serve under President Biden. 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:17.759 I had a chance recently at the National Archives to 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.400 sit down with General Milly to discuss a wide range 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.919 of civilian and military issues the Chairman now faces. So 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.759 this is where our constitution, the original copy of the 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.120 Constitution is stored, and it's right over there. So what 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.560 does the Constitution mean to you as the Chairman of 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.440 the Joint chiefs of Staff. Well, for us, and I 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.920 would argue that for all of us in uniform. Uh. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.160 You know, we swear an oath um and that oath 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.800 is to the Constitution, and we're sworn to protect and 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:45.960 support and defend it against all enemies. For in a 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.760 domestic we don't take an oath to an individual, a king, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.600 a queen, a tribe or religion or any of that. Will. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:54.160 We take an oath to an idea of the idea 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.480 that's America. And that idea is expressed in the documents 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.800 that you see here, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Uh. 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.160 And that's a solemn oath, uh, and I and those 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.480 that came before me and those that will come after me, 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.520 we swear that oath that we're willing to sacrifice everything 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.720 to protect and defend that document, the idea that's America. So, 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.520 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to me, is 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.160 one of the great titles in Washington. You're the most 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.080 important military person. But what does that really mean that 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.200 be the Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff. What 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.280 is your real job? By law, the Chairman of the 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.400 Joint chief Staff is an advisor, uh. An advisor to 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.000 the President States, Secretary Defense, to the National Security Council 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.000 and what used to be called the Homeland Security Council. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.880 And it's strictly an advisory role. You're not in the 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.680 chain of command. The chain of command is the President 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.400 to the Secretary Defense, to the combatant commanders, and or 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.320 the secretaries of the military department. So uh, the job 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.000 is strictly advisory. But at the same time and not 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:50.320 in the chain of command, you are in the chain 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.680 of communication. UH. So, routine communications between the President of 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.400 Secretary Defense and the combatant commanders typically goes through the 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.880 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Uh. So you're very much 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:03.640 in evolved, but you have no decision authority. Uh. You 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.520 don't make decisions per se. You advise the President, sect 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.800 off and the others on their their decisions that they 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.520 will make. But to be realistic about it, when the 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.240 President United States wants to do something militarily, he relies 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.000 on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You're 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.560 his advisor. When he says I want to do X, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.160 Y or Z, I assume you tell other military officials. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.480 So while you're not technically in the chain of command, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:29.960 it doesn't sound as if people are going around you. 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.880 Is that right? No, typically they don't, But I would 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.359 say that I am one of the advisors. The Chairman's 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.600 job is to be the chairman of a body, a 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.040 group called the Joint Chiefs of Staff, consisting of the 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.640 chiefs of each of the services the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.560 Space Force, uh and and in the National Guard as well. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.520 And so the Joint Chiefs as a body, what I 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.840 do is I represent their views to include dissenting opinions. 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.680 But at any time, any one of those Joint chiefs, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.480 every one of them, by law is considered an independent 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.080 advisor to the president. Any one of them can invoke 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.040 their right to go and talk to the president about 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.040 a certain topic. In addition to that, the combatant commanders, 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.760 the field commanders, if you will, UH, they also provide 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.519 their advice, their best military advice, or what some would 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.880 call considered military advice UH to the president. And they 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.400 should and can and do all the time. So I 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.880 am one of several advisors. I'm I'm within the law, 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.639 it's called the principal military advisor, but not the only 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.720 military advisor. So a couple of years ago, you went 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.520 to see the President United States, President Trump, and it 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.720 was reported that you were probably going to become the 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.960 Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, a very important position, UM. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.680 And you emerge from that meeting as the projected chairman 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:45.840 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where you surprised that 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.840 you got that position rather than one that people thought 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:50.840 you were gonna get. I knew when I went over 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.120 there that I was interviewing to be the Chairman of 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.120 the Joint chiefs UH and sack youre uh and any 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.520 other position that the President deemed necessary. The US question. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.640 President Trump said to me of The first comment he 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.960 said was, Uh, you're here to interview to be the 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.640 chairman of the Joint Chief Staff. It was myself and uh, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.000 then White House Chief of Staff Kelly, and the President. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.640 We had about an hour long conversation and at the 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:14.160 end of it he said thank you very much. And 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.479 the following day he called me and made the offer 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.240 to hav me be his chairman. Uh. And all of 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.800 us serve at the pleasure of the President. So whenever 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.520 year asked for any duty position as a soldier, uh, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.800 you execute the will of the president. So when you 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.760 become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, does 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.479 your wife call you Mr? Chairman? Your children cheat you 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.000 with greater respect? How does that work? No? In fact, UH, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.880 you know, I'm very lucky to have met my wife 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.160 and we were married, and she's been with me through 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.800 thick and thin the entire time. She's an incredible woman 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.159 to the nurse still practices as a nurse. She keeps 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.160 me grounded, and both my son and daughter keep me grounded. So, Um, 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.760 you've had a lot of publicity for some things you've 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.200 had to deal with in your time as Chairman Joint 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.280 chiefs of Staff. That go through a couple of them. 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:07.400 One is the events in Lafayette Square. So there you've 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.760 publicly addressed that. But essentially you did not expect to 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.719 be seen as a kind of political role because that's 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.160 not your job. Um, Is that right? Yeah? Absolutely. I 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.719 found out very very quickly. As I looked forward and 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.240 I saw the press being set up, I realized it 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.720 was a political event, and I got out of the way. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.320 And I regret that then, and I made comments about it. 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.520 You know, some people think, you know, uh, that that 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.599 that's an okay thing to be walking with the president 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.960 sort of thing. I don't. Walking with the President's fine. 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.240 But if it's a strictly political event, and that was 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.360 I is, and it's not the president, it's me. The 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.960 uniform shouldn't be there. We have a long tradition going 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.680 way way back of an a political military, and we 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:55.880 in uniform must make every effort to remain a political 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.120 not be involved in the actual domestic politics of the 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.279 United States. And that was a moment where I realized 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.960 what was happening, and I broke away. Uh. And it's 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.680 important that I broke away, and it's important that I 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.279 apologized publicly for it. So that those in uniform know 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.520 the standard as an a political military. So let's talk 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.320 about the events of January six. I assume you've thought 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.599 about that affair bit in hindsight, do you think that 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.440 somebody could have done a better job of protecting the 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.839 capital or somebody whoever it was, could have done a 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.200 better job. I'll let the January six Commission and all 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.200 the various investigations, UH, do all the postmortems on it. Uh. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:37.160 It's obvious to me that the capital was breached. It 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.840 was very significant event, one of the most significant events 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:44.000 in recent history. But I'll let the historians and the 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.720 commissions and the investigators all sort through all that. All right, 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:51.400 You've also had Afghanistan. We've withdrawn from Afghanistan after twenty years. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.560 The exit from Afghanistan was one where we lost I 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.360 think thirteen U S military in the exit process. In hindsight, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.640 could the x have been um orchestrated better? There's a 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:08.240 few things that could have been done better. One is 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:13.320 the intelligence piece. Um, you know, an army that was 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.680 on paper three maybe a committed to fifty No one's 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.280 actually sure of the number. I suppose, but an army 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.520 and a police force that size and a government that collapses, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.240 literally collapses in eleven days. That was a surprise. So 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.520 that's something that we need to figure out. We need 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.840 to figure out how and why that happened. It almost 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:40.320 sounds like a Malcolm Gladwell tipping point study, but it's 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.720 it's something that we need to sort out. And why 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.440 is it we didn't see that? I think that's really important. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.640 Another one I think is the timing of our response 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:54.720 UH so UM we had collapsed most of our military 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.360 UH and most of the NATO allies by the middle 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.040 of July in the bases associated with them had been 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.080 transitioned over to the Afghan military. All that went relatively smoothly, 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:10.160 without many hiccups, And that was going on really for 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.800 quite a while, probably the better part of a year, 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.560 and that was going pretty well. So the NEO is 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.120 the piece that you're talking about, the non combatant evacuation UH. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.200 That is UH an operation where we ran six thousand 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.800 UH troops, some of which were prepositioned in the Middle 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:31.160 East in the event of that contingency, some of which 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.199 came from continental United States UH, and we deployed them 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.319 very very rapidly. UH took control of an airfield, the 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.600 Kabul International Airfield in a hostile environment. Uh. And we 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.520 did that eight and a half time zones away. We 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.559 set up twenty seven animmediate staging bases around the world, 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.360 and in a very short period of time, less than 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.839 three weeks, we were evacuating thousand people. The first two days, 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.480 first forty eight hours of that was very dramatic. People 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.680 were hanging off airplanes mass on the airfield, some of 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:03.559 them were in the wheel wells. It was very tragic. 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:08.559 And then at the tail end we we had um 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.560 an incident where a suicide bomber went up to a 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:17.040 patrol or or a perimeter man by Marines and killed 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.880 thirteen of our levin Marines and and a soldier in 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.079 a Navy corman. Um. And that was a tactical event 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.040 that happened that has strategic consequence. So let's talk about 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.400 your own background. Uh. It wasn't pre ordained that you 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.480 would become Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff when 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.400 you're growing up. I assumed so your family had been 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.840 in the military. Your father was an iwajima and your 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.680 mother was in the military as well. Is that right? Yeah? 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.520 My dad uh and mother they were both in the Navy. Actually, 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.839 my dad was a Navy corman, uh. And then when 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.440 he finished the corman training, um, he went into the 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:53.920 He was assigned to the fourth Marine Division, so he 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.240 was a Navy corpman. Fourth Marine Division did the assault 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:01.160 landings at Kwa Jilina Toll, Saipan in Ewa Jima, saw 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.280 an awful lot of combat. Grew up some of Thelle Massachusetts, 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.040 graduated some of the high school and then from high 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.440 school and right into the Navy. B Acorman. And my 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:16.000 mother she graduated from St. Mary's High School in Winchester, Massachusetts, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.600 and uh, she went right into the Navy as well, 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.120 also into the medical Corps, and she served out of 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.199 a hospital in Seattle taking care of the wounded coming 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.680 back from the Pacific. Very proud of their service. Both 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.360 of them passed on, but that generation was very special. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.400 So when I read about your background, I saw Boston 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.040 and a very fancy high school, Belmont High School and Princeton. 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.160 I figured he must be a Boston brahmin, a wealthy 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.679 Boston family. Is that right? No, not at all, um, No. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.600 I mean, neither one of my parents went to college, 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.200 and we grew up in a very working class neighborhood 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.160 and UM and my dad never made much money at all. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.760 My mother worked steadily the entire time, which was very 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.720 rare in those days. UM and they emphasized sports and education. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.640 And I was very fortunate went to a Catholic grammar 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.520 school which emphasized some really good education, had some decent grades, 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.720 and had an opportunity to go to the school called 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.720 Belmont Hill which had a great hockey program. And I 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.440 played for a great coach and uh, and I got 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.240 recruited by them and played for for that high school 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.040 and a really great opportunity. So you went to Princeton 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.720 and you graduated from Princeton, And were you a star 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.320 in the hockey? We're all at Princeton, And did you 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.360 think you could go to the NHL or not? Really? 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.000 I thought starting out I could go to the NHL, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.440 And I quickly learned that the competitiveness of college hockey 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.400 was probably not the NHL. Probably wasn't in my future. 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.520 But I was okay. I was just a steady player, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:46.559 and I was decent, but certainly not a star. That 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.560 did you lose a lot of your teeth playing hockey 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.480 and Princeton or not a Princeton. I I have lost 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.839 four teeth playing hockey. Playing hockey, broke broke my jar 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:59.480 and three different places, lost four teeth and probably got 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.160 more than a hundred stitches in my face. So so 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.440 I have a face for radio. Dude. When you were 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.520 at Princeton, did a lot of people say I want 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.119 to be in the military or most of your classmates 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.920 were going into something like private equity or hedge funds 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.760 or Goldman Sachs and so were you an outlier by 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.240 being in the military at Princeton? Oh? Yeah, for sure. 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.319 So I grew up in a neighborhood that emphasized patriotism. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.160 Uh and the opportunity that this country was an amazing 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.080 country that, um, you know that you have opportunities that 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.640 are not available elsewhere. So I was early on I 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.880 decided that I did want to serve. I wanted to 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:35.640 be in NHL, but I wanted to serve my country 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.360 as well. Uh. So when I went to school, there 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:43.400 was an opportunity to join OURTCU, and I did that. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.520 So I played hockey, joined ARTC and tried to study 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.320 once in a while. Uh And in the RTC program, 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.000 I was attracted to it again. I thought Uh. I 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.000 never thought I'd make a career of the military. I 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:55.600 thought I'd come in and do my four years. I 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.360 had a scholarship. Uh, do my four years and and 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.360 then get out and move on. As you say, all right, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.160 so you go into the military, and after four years 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.760 you can discharge your obligation, your r OTC obligation, and 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:08.920 then you can go into you know, whatever you want 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:10.880 to do. But you decided to make it a career, 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.600 was not right? Well, I decided to take it in 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:18.040 small chunks. I really enjoyed the military. Um, I was 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.320 in the infantry and then Special Forces and uh. And 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.400 I wanted to stay through company command and then that's 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.560 captain at level. Uh and see how that worked out. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.640 And then once I was captain and stay through major. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.080 It's just taking it small chunks. I never had a 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:37.360 long range plan whatsoever. Actually for my personal career in 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.040 the military. Got married along the way, had children. But 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:41.960 I've never looked back and never had to regret because 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:44.680 I've loved the military most see about the people that 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.120 I've served with. So when you're playing hockey, you can 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.719 lose your teeth, but when you're in combat, you can 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.360 lose your life. So when were you first in combat 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.920 and you thought I could lose my life? Well, first 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.840 combat was Panama for me in nine But uh, you 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.120 can lose your life a lot of ways in the military. Um, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.440 the military is a very dangerous occupation, even when you're 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.880 not in combat. Uh So, whether it's in training or 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.679 in combat, our soldiers and our sailors, air memoranes, Uh, 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.839 they're sacrificing a lot every single day, day in and 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:21.040 day seven to keep this country safe. Uh So, losing 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.880 your life is something that I think everyone wearing a 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.800 uniform has to come to grips with. It's not just combat. 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.560 But for me, the first time in combat was Panama. 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.440 And when that happened, did you think you could get 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.440 shot and killed there? Were You're worried about that? What 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:39.440 did your parents say? My father actually was pretty upset. Um. 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.880 My mother very religious, She accepted things and sort of 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.360 the Lord will be with you sort of attitude. But 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.120 my dad, who had seen a lot of combat in 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.600 World War Two, certainly wasn't keen on his son being 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.120 in combat. Now, did your parents live to see you 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.920 rise up to be a general or some senior officer. No, 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.200 my mother passed away in a in the nineties. UM, 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.520 so I would have been a major. I guess at 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.480 the time my father did. My father lived to see 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:09.760 me be a generalman. And my father was always proud 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.640 of our service or my service. Um. And he talked 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.160 to me about, you know, his experiences many many times. 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:18.960 But look at he was a kid. He was he 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.720 was eighteen nineteen one when the war ended, hit the beach, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:28.920 best friends killed. Uh, just saw some unbelievably intense battles. UM. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.880 And he and I talked about his experiences and my 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.800 experiences frequently later in his life. But he was always 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.080 very proud. He loved America, loved loved the country, and 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.400 loved the loose in uniform. So as we look at 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.680 the military situation United States faces today, what do you 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.640 think the greatest military risk the United States faces? That 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:51.280 from Russia, China, other places. I think it's China. Um. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.720 And I've said that publicly many times. I think as 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.920 we look to the future, and I think, Um, we 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.640 are living in his orcle epic actually, Uh, We're we're 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.360 seeing the rise of a country that is unlike something 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.680 we've seen probably ever before. Uh. And it's one of 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.640 the great historical pivot points I think that we've ever witnessed, 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.120 which is the rise of China, UH and from the 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.960 reforms of nineteen seventy nine and dan Xiaoping up till today, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.440 which is I guess that's what two years or so, 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.520 four decades. They've had an incredible economic run and with 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.240 that they've developed a military that's really significant as we 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:35.360 go forward over the next ten years, there's no question 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.120 in my mind that the biggest geo strategic challenge to 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.440 the United States is going to be China. That that 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.160 I have no doubt at all. Russia is important, not 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.120 unimportant at all. Russia has very significant military capabilities. Of 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.440 North Korea Ran is still there, terrorists are gonna be 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.240 around for quite a while. But I think China is 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.720 clearly the most significant geo strategic threat we face as 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.440 we talked today. There have recently been some reports that 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:03.440 the Chinese have a hypersonic missile that can theoretically go 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.800 into space and then come down with a nuclear bomb, 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.760 escaping our ability to uh knock it down? Is that 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.000 something I should be worried about, our all Americans should 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.000 be worried about. Well, what you saw, and I don't 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.560 want to get too much into the classification of what 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.159 we saw. But what we saw was a very significant 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:27.320 event of a test of a hypersonic UH weapons system UM, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.720 and it is very concerning. I think I saw in 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.080 some of the newspapers they used the term Sputnik moment. 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.480 I don't know if it's quite a spot nic moment, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.199 but I think it's very close to that. So it's 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.639 a very significant technological UH event that occurred or tests 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.159 that occurred by the Chinese, and it has all of 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.480 our attention, UM, and we're paying it. But that's just 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.760 one of that's just one weapon system. The Chinese military 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:55.439 capabilities are much greater than that. They're expanding rapidly UH 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.760 in space, UH in cyber and then in the traditional 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.200 domains of land, C and A. And they have gone 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.080 from a peasant based infantry army that was very very 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.640 large in nineteen seventy nine UH to a very capable 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.480 military that covers all the domains UH and has global ambitions. 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.360 So China is very significant on our horizon. But can 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.760 I presume that the United States has thought of doing 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.919 a hypersonic missile as well, and that we are not 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.320 caught completely flat footed in our ability to maybe produce 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.720 something like that ourselves. We are clearly experimenting and testing 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:35.440 and developing technologies to include hypersonics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.119 a whole wide range. Uh. Now, if you take a 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.639 step back, um, what what we're in in history wise 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.000 is we're in one of the most significant changes in 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.199 what I call the character of war. But today, with 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.080 the introduction of precision munitions, the ability to see all 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.960 over the world, artificial intelligence, robotics, hypersonics, all of these 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.439 things together, this is an enormous change in the character war. 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.040 We're gonna have to adjust our military going forward. In Asia. 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.600 Should I be worried about North Korea or not? North Korea. 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.480 Were always paying attention to North Korea because that's a 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.600 country that's extraordinarily well armed. They've got seventy percent of 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.480 their military is arraid within striking range of the de 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:17.720 militarized Zone. Seoul itself is only twenty seven miles from 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.760 the de military zone. It's under the missile envelope of 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.720 North Korea. Uh. And the regime of North Korea is 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.320 a brutal, vicious, tough regime, very aggressive, and it's led 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.880 by an individual. It's very difficult to figure out. They're 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.400 always doing provocations over the over the course of time, 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.960 whether it's missiles or other things. Uh. So, North Korea 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.000 is something that we always are watching very closely. Our 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.000 intent in North Korea or China or Russia, we want 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.639 to maintain a military capability and a diplomatic uh level 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.880 of effort to deter war. We don't want any conflict. 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.040 We want to deter war. But if deterrence fails, were 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.040 determined to fulfill our in the case of South Korea, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:01.000 our treaty obligations with South Korea. So far, since nineteen 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.760 fifty three, deterrence has worked, and we're hopeful that it 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.840 will continue to work. Now we've heard of cyber attacks 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.880 from China, North Korea, Russia in the United States. Uh. 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:12.879 We don't know if they come from their military, but 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.480 presumption is that some of it might. Um can you 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.320 make American people feel good that we have cyber capabilities 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.040 that are just as good as the ones attacking us? 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.840 I assume you can't tell us about all our cyber capabilities, 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.879 but I assume nobody has better cyber capabilities than we do. 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.320 Is that affair? I would say that we are the 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:33.080 world's number one capability and cyberspace. But I would also 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:35.320 tell you that China and Russia are very very good, 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.600 as well as many other countries. UH. In terms of defense. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.760 What we when when the Internet and the cyber world 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.480 first developed, people weren't thinking of it as a domain 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.679 of war. They weren't thinking of it in terms of 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.639 setting up architectures that were robust and resilient for defense. UH. 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.360 Those days are gone now. So years ago we started 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:56.720 working on that, UH, and we have a long ways 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.560 to go. But we need to make our critical infrastructure, 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.240 our financial systems, for example, are electrical systems, and many 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.920 many other pieces of our of our national economy much 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.480 more resilient to cybertech because our adversaries are very aggressive 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.400 in cyberspace. So you have a four year term, you're 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.760