CALL SIGN CHAOS

Learning to Lead

By Jim Mattis and Bing West

Jim Mattis’s “Call Sign Chaos” will disappoint readers hoping for a tell-all account of his tenure as Donald Trump’s first secretary of defense, but they will still learn a lot about the man who held that position.

Written with Bing West, an author and former Marine, the book provides a tour through Mattis’s four decades of service in the Marine Corps. The narrative details his experiences fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his subsequent roles as NATO’s supreme allied commander for transformation and as the head of the American military’s theater-level command in the Middle East. Readers will come to know his worldview and approach to leadership. Most of all, they will learn how much he loved being a Marine. At the end of the book, Mattis writes that if nothing else, he hopes the book “conveys my respect for those men and women who selflessly commit to serving our country.” On that metric, he unquestionably succeeds.

There is much to admire in Mattis’s views of leadership and the values they embody — competence, decency, a willingness to hear the hard truth and to tell it, caring for those below you and a commitment to reading and absorbing the lessons of history. If Mattis had a thesis, it might be his recommendation that a leader should act like a “player-coach.” Leadership, he says, is a collaborative endeavor that is best achieved by delegating responsibility to subordinates and enabling them to take the initiative. A logical implication — and a second prominent theme in the book — is the need for a leader to communicate clearly and to articulate goals. For Mattis, this is as true for presidents in their relations with military leaders as it is for commanders talking to their grunts.

Mattis’s experiences have also ingrained in him a faith in the significance of allies and alliances for the United States. The book is replete with references to the importance of American leadership, diplomacy and international cooperation. By contrast, Mattis’s years serving in wars in the Middle East seem to have impressed upon him the need for vigilance and the necessity of backing up one’s threats with force. Iran’s role as an antagonist in the region has been especially significant for him.