Nuclear Weapons, Language, and Nazis
How should military leaders speak?
On August 9th, Secretary of Defense Mattis spoke to Sailors on a Naval Base in Kitsap, Washington. The themes contained within his remarks are not out of the ordinary, considering the North Korean threat to the U.S. territory of Guam. The Secretary praised the Sailors for their service to America, and reinforced the U.S. commitment to the nuclear triad. Naval Base Kitsap is home to one of the four U.S. Navy nuclear shipyards.
Rarely would this type of speech make any national news, expect for the use of language the Secretary chose to use when describing what service members feel when they leave the military.
You’ll still miss it. You’ll miss it like the dickens, and you’ll be changed for the better for the rest of your life. So you’ll never regret, but you will have some of the best days of your life and some of the worst days of your life in the U.S. Navy, you know what I mean? That says — that means you’re living. That means you’re living. That means you’re not some pussy sitting on the sidelines, you know what I mean, kind of sitting there saying, “Well, I should have done something with my life.” Because of what you’re doing now, you’re not going to be laying on a shrink’s couch when you’re 45 years old, say “What the hell did I do with my life?”
The military is not, necessarily, known for its reverent use of language. Still it is rare to see this type of language contained in official remarks. In most circles, it is still considered quite unprofessional for military leaders to use off-color language in the course of their official business.
Language can have serious consequences for military leaders. In 2013, Lt. Gen Campbell relieved Colonel Buckingham, citing his use of “F-bomb” while reprimanding a garrison gate guard.
Obviously, the manner in which Colonel Buckingham used off color language was for a different purpose than Secretary. But it is worth reflecting on the tone that great leaders have set, and how they styled their language.
First, it may be worth considering why speech matters.
It motivates people to action, it is a tool of persuasion. However, it is also a means for displaying your character, and your values. Soldiers are charged to live up to seven values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Integrity, and Personal Courage.
At first pass, there is nothing contradictory from using off color language. To live these values, in environments of extreme, Soldiers require discipline. Self-discipline is the ability to control one’s actions.
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Secretary Mattis reinforced the need to maintain discipline to his Marines on the evening they prepared to cross into Iraq in March 2003. He implored his Soldiers to “engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
To look for a model of self-discipline, current military leaders should look to former Army Chief of Staff, Secratary of State, and Secratary of Defense General George C. Marshall.
In 1927 Marshall’s first wife Lilly passed away from a heart condition. Marshall was teaching a class at the War College when he received the news. A guard interrupted his lecture and took him to a side office, where he took the phone call. In the The Road to Character, David Brooks describes the following scene, illustrating the character of this great leader.
The guard asked if there was any way he could be of assistance. Marshall replied with quiet formality “No, Mr. Thockmorton, I just had word my wife, who was to join me here today, has just died.”
The formality of that phrasing, the pause to remember the guard’s name, perfectly captured his emotional self-control, his self-discipline at all times.
In the current world of 140 character conversation, and crude language, we might all do better with a role model who modeled dignity, formality, and discipline.
Needless to say speech is important; and leaders must know that their speech will have consequences.
Events in Charlottesville, only two hours from the Pentagon, have continued a discussion around the limits to freedoms of speech. Strangely enough, the remarks by Secretary Mattis about nuclear security and the protests in Charlottesville converged, because of the use of one five letter word.
There was obviously no way for the Secretary to know that events in Virginia would grip the nation’s attention. It was only a week prior, when 24 hour news coverage was devoted to a nuclear war with North Korea. So it seems unreasonable to think that the Secretary would have used that language to cause news coverage of his remarks.
If his language was used as a way to connect with his audience, as his press secretary later explained, then I am not impressed. The Secretary should take his own advice that he gave to his Marines before they performed so heroically in Anbar: think before using your weapon.
However, I do not disagree with the Secretary on the content. In an almost prophetic message, he correctly identified what you would call a group of people who cling to communist flags, nazi flags, and citronella tiki-torches. This week America watched a bunch of pussies fighting each other, engaging in the most amateurish violence. I wonder how many of them will be looking back when they are older asking, what the hell they have done with their lives.
