Mattispalooza: Deconstructing the Legacy of James Mattis

Join Chris, Melanie, and Bryan as they assess Jim Mattis' legacy as secretary of defense and the media splash he is making while promoting his new book. Mattis is a complicated character, and his reasons for entering the administration, for leaving the administration, and for coyly restraining his comments after leaving are similarly complicated. Although President Donald Trump's early affinity for having former generals in key positions in his administration has cooled, the debate over the role retired flag and general officers should play in America's national security political discourse rages on.   Links Jim Mattis, "Duty, Democracy and the Threat of Tribalism," Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2019 Jeffrey Goldberg, "The Man Who Couldn't Take It Anymore," Atlantic, October 2019 Issue Dan Lamothe and Greg Jaffe, "Emerging from His Silence, Mattis Faces Criticism for Trying to Take the 'Middle Road' on Trump," Washington Post, August 29, 2019 Jim Mattis and Bing West, Call Sing Chaos: Learning to Lead, (Random House, September 2019) Jim Mattis, "Letter from Secretary James Mattis," Defense, December 20, 2019 Mallory Hughes, "When a Boy with Autism was Overwhelmed on the First Day of School, Another Little Boy Held His Hand," CNN, August 27, 2019 Tyler Jost and Joshua D. Kertzer, “Armies and Influence: Public Deference to Foreign Policy Elites,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, 2019, Hannah Natanson, “A Broken Bingo Machine Left Rhis D.C. Veterans’ Retirement Home Mourning. A 16-year-old girl decided to help” Washington Post, September 2, 2019 Stephen Wertheim, “The Quincy Institute Opposes America’s Endless Wars. Why Should that Be a Scandal?” Washington Post, August 30, 2018 The Human Costs of War: Assessing Civilian Casualties since 9/11, Policy Forum, Cato Institute, September 11, 2019 Ted Galen Carpenter, NATO: The Dangerous Dinosaur, Cato Institute, October 18, 2019