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Call Sign Chaos

Learning to Lead

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis—the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time—and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine.
 
“A four-star general’s five-star memoir.”—The Wall Street Journal
Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’s storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas—and short-sighted thinking—now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars.
 
Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war’s grim realities with political leaders’ human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic.
 
Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all.
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    • Kirkus

      The former secretary of defense delivers lessons for would-be leaders. The title might describe the current White House, from which Mattis (co-editor: Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military, 2016) departed after disagreeing on one issue too many with the sitting president. However, it derives from an ironic Marine Corps acronym. Mattis spotted trouble from the start, noting that, after all, the separation of military from civilian leadership, by which officers were forbidden from serving in the office "within seven years of departing military service," is there for a good reason--a reason disregarded by Trump and company. Still, Mattis, writing with Bing (One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War, 2014, etc.), has relatively little to say about his time in that orbit. Instead, he focuses on his military career, during which he rose through the ranks and replaced Gen. David Petraeus as head of the U.S. Central Command; and on the leadership lessons he learned in the field and on base. Considered an intellectual, he insists foremost on lifelong learning and constant reading: When he was called on to lead the 1st Marine Division in the Iraq War, for instance, he devoured books, from T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom ("few Westerners in recent history had achieved his level of trust with Arabs on the battlefield") to memoirs and studies of William Tecumseh Sherman, Gertrude Bell, and Alexander the Great. "I may not have come up with many new ideas," writes Mattis, "but I've adopted or integrated a lot from others," and he insisted that his officers and enlisted personnel read and study. Some lessons are obvious (don't play favorites), some gung-ho (show an "obvious bias for action"), and most eminently useful for leaders in whatever sector ("You must decide, act, and move on"). One wishes for a little more dirt, but the author, a cool-headed diplomat, seems to be reserving that for magazine interviews, dishing it judiciously. Meatier and more substantive than books like The 48 Laws of Power and a font of well-considered guidance.

      COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 30, 2019
      Former defense secretary Mattis surveys his four decades in the U.S. Marine Corps in this sturdy memoir and leadership guide co-written with combat veteran West (One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War). At the outset, Mattis lets readers know that he doesn’t discuss “sitting Presidents” and won’t be “tak up the hot political rhetoric of the day.” Instead, he recounts, among other highlights from his military career, watching his battalion turn the tables on an Iraqi ambush during the 1990 Gulf War; leading the 1st Marine Division into the Battle of Fallujah in 2004; and taking over for Gen. David Petraeus at U.S. Central Command in 2010. Mattis’s leadership lessons border on the banal—his early years in the Marines taught him the importance of “competence, caring, and conviction”—but his blunt assessments of U.S. foreign policy can be memorable. Of the Obama administration’s refusal to listen to his concerns about Iraqi prime minister Nour al-Maliki, Mattis writes, “It was like talking to people who lived in wooden houses but saw no need for a fire department.” Meanwhile, he lets his resignation letter serve as his only direct comment on serving in President Trump’s Cabinet. This judicious book burnishes Mattis’s legacy at the same time it belies his “Mad Dog” reputation.

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