General Jim Mattis ended his remarkable career as a four-star US marine general, and finally as US secretary of defense. His book Call Sign Chaos is co-authored with Bing West, also an ex-marine and one-time assistant secretary of defense. It is partly an autobiography and partly a treatise on leadership.
The autobiography relates his career from second lieutenant to general by way of three wars: the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of that neighbouring country; the removal of the Taleban from Afghanistan in 2001 following 9/11; and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Finally come his days — a total of 712 — as defense secretary, from January 2017 to December 2018.
Throughout this account Mattis develops his philosophy of leadership. It is one of deep comradeship with his marines, of sharing exhilaration and hardship with them, of allowing — indeed, encouraging — subordinate commanders to use their initiative, and of always learning, not least through extensive reading.
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