Defending the Nation With Secretary of Defense James Mattis

and ascendant China a bellicose Russia hostile regimes in North Korea and Iran this past January the Pentagon published its plans for protecting the United States against these threats here today to discuss the national defense strategy the man over whose signature it appeared the Secretary of Defense James Madison uncommon knowledge now welcome to the Hoover institutions uncommon knowledge filming today at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC I'm Peter Robinson born in Pullman Washington James Madison listed in the Marine Corps Reserve at the age of 19 he would spend more than four decades in the Marines retiring with four stars in 2013 James Madison ANDed in combat in the Persian Gulf War in Afghanistan and in Iraq he served as supreme Allied commander of NATO for transformation as commander of the US Joint Forces Command and as commander of the US Central Command his decorations include defense Distinguished Service Medal the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star with valor On January 20th 2017 the Senate confirmed mr. Mathers as Secretary of Defense with 98 voting in favor earlier this year secretary mattis published the national defense strategy the first such document in a decade ladies and gentlemen the 26th Secretary of Defense James Madison the attacks of 9/11 took place more than 16 years ago and ever since our armed forces have found themselves combating terrorism in Afghanistan the Taliban in Iraq al Qaeda and then an array of insurgents in Syria Isis that is over the course of three administrations six congresses and now a whole generation of troops and officers for that matter a whole generation of the American people have come of age thinking that what our armed forces do is combat terrorism the national defense strategy page one quote interstate strategic competition not terrorism is now the primary concern of u.s. national security close quote explain that mr. secretary well I think for those of you at Hoover Institution I know there's some of my old colleagues out here you'll remember George Shultz secretary Shultz saying over the last several years that we have a world that's a wash and change and any strategy you have must adapt to the world as it exists not the one that used to exist in this case we had not had a defense strategy ladies and gentlemen in ten years this was the first defense strategy in ten years this is your defense strategy it's not the Pentagon's it's not the US Department of fence we are the United States Department of fans so you own us and were accountable to you we get an awful lot of the nation's treasure and we needed something to guide us because without a strategy without a sound strategy fit for its time the most brilliant generals the the most well equipped troop of the most high-tech equipment fine tactics none of that works unless your strategy your framework for what they're doing can actually tie in ways and means together so what we did we looked at why out of nine out of the last ten years have we been getting at what's called a continuing resolution why were we underfunded well we never had a strategy where we could go to the Congress the people you elect to represent you and say here is the rationale so he put this strategy together and we had to assess what is the dangers and what are the dangers in the world and what is the primary danger secondary tertiary the normal things that we all do in our lives of various points in this case we had to look at the attack on the state system and if you look at China today and the way it is shredding trust in the South China Sea the way of using predatory economics if you look at Russia trying to get a veto Authority mmm over the economic security and diplomatic decisions of countries around its periphery and mucking around in other people's elections if you look at even the terrorists and how in one case Isis they bulldoze the boundary line between Syria and Iraq what you're looking at is a variety of forms of attacks on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state system that's the bottom line so we had to step back say which of these threats can be most apt to change our way of life and very clearly China and Russia a little large in that they have chosen to be strategic competitors but you and I will ten years from now look back on this administration and judge it most for is whether or not it established a productive positive workable relationship with China that's number one when we look back at these times so we add dev a strategy that allowed us to move forward so our diplomats and our president move from a position of strength when they engage with the world where they people want to engage with our diplomats because they speak with a military backing them up and that's what you see going on in this document but the bigger issue mmm there is a bigger issue here Peter back in 2004 I'm a two-star general command all 20-some thousand sailors and reigned and we're out in the Western you freddie's River Valley I got 29 guys with me and we're traveling and we get slowed down we have flat tires and stuff it's a very terrible place 17 out of those 29 lads will be killed or wounded the succeeding four months we pull into one of the camps in the middle of nowhere and I was a reminder reminded that next morning that America has got two fundamental sources of power power of inspiration and the power of intimidation now many times our military acts as the power of intimidation sometimes power of inspiration as well but when the Sun came up the lieutenant with his of those forty sailors Marines came up and said would you like to meet a guy who was digging a hole out here put a bomb in on the road you came in last night that gets a little person I thought yeah I'd like to me and he said that way he's well-educated educated in Europe he speaks perfect English I said really bring him on over so they bring him over he obviously a little uncomfortable you know there he was but it's wheelbarrow the night before a couple of artillery rounds a car battery you know detonator he's got a shovel digging he looks up and there's five guys carrying m16s looking at him it's not looking good for him on his 401k so they cut his handcuffs off and he's shaking like a leaf of course and got him a cup of coffee and he's drinking what are you doing this for you know you're sunni we're Marines we're the only friends you got in this town in this country there's all you Jews you Zionist hear this and that that's it okay you're here to steal the oil and all this go away I said you're obviously an educated man if you're gonna run your rant like that just go away any ease it will sit here for a minute yeah and I said sure and he sat there and he asked for a cigarette fear well don't give him this give him my Ani cancer lecture you know right now it's play nice he's quite not too concerned with that as I gave mr. Sega had to light it for him in everything and where's your family he said it in place called L time about an hour away and had a wife two daughters and I said it's gonna be tough on them and he said yeah he said yeah I just don't like having foreign soldiers here I respect that I wouldn't want four and sort of market it I could you know now we're getting into a conversation and we're going on at some length and talking about our lives and everything I'm always curious about people and he said I guess I'm gonna be going to jail I said yeah you're going to have a grave me wearing an orange jumpsuit for a good a long time for this little stunt now listen to this he said general do you think we've kind of warmed each other like two human beings can when you know anything the gigs up for him you know there's nothing he said if I'm a model prisoner do you think I could someday emigrate to America now think about what he said halfway around the world America's power of inspiration reached all the way to the Western afraid River but to a guy who hated so much he was trying to kill it he would love to be sitting where you and I are today so don't ever think that it's just a matter of how many dollars are spent on defense and who's got the latest gizmo and by the way I've got people in right now who are gonna find the latest gizmos they're all from industry they're coming in they're gonna do fine on on the technology just remember power of inspiration power of intimidation sometimes you need both in an imperfect world we're never gonna buy into girls or property and they don't get to go to school it's never gonna happen we're never gonna buy into there's only one way to deal with your spiritual side it's our way or the highway we're never gonna buy that we're Americans we're the most revolutionary force on this planet we'll remember that and regain our fundamental friendliness toward one another but I will tell you there's a power of inspiration that you and I we live it so much that we even forget it you know that that is a real source of power China questions too about China you just mentioned the South China Sea you're the strategist not me but as I understand it our forward line in the Pacific runs from Okinawa down through the Philippines and the Chinese have over the last couple of years taken a number of atolls and turn them into military bases runways deepwater ports have they already bent back our force first line of defense the point about China right now I think is that they have chosen to be a strategic competitor yet we're still in a position where we can cooperate with China in some areas even while we confront them and others obviously we are going to sail and fly through international waters and international airspace and militarizing these features the tolls you called them these features in the South China Sea that doesn't change their international status one bit so it's an admittedly strategically uncomfortable position to be cooperating with someone on the one hand and confronting them on the other but when you look at the votes in the United Nations Security Council reference North Korea and that threat and you see Russia and China and France United Kingdom United States all voting and others voting unanimously to sanction North Korea you actually see in effect what's going on as we try to work with China not being bent back we are going to engage with China we're going to try to turn it into a productive engagement but at the same time we have to recognize that predatory economics and militarizing these features are are aspects of an international system that they're trying to put together that we disagree with and we're probably not going to change on that our meetings with the Chinese our counterparts between State Department and myself and our counterparts have been business like they have been only been productive you see that with where we're at right now on DPRK and so we'll continue to cooperate where we can will confront where we must but at the same time we've got to figure this out there is no rush to some kind of military confrontation there's no need for that these are choices that need to be made and we need to make the right ones as we breathe this relationship or as one we want to turn over to the next generation in good shape let me ask you about one other one other place where it's uncomfortable I'm sure the Wall Street Journal late last month quote Chinese bombers and worships conducted exercises near Taiwan this month is is April and last year the number of Chinese air patrols off Taiwan's East Coast quadruple the mainland People's Liberation Army is deploying new Jets ships and other weapons in such that the islands defenses are in danger of being overwhelmed to which the United States of America responds how first of all where there are these kinds of issues that have been around for a long time peacefully settling these is the right way to go and so we're talking about that law part we're talking with them about that all the time I would comes up a gluten Lee but the bottom line is by international law provides a framework for addressing these kinds of issues I think that our policy is appropriate I won't go into details on it right here and take too long but I think our policy is appropriate and we will continue to support international legal frameworks for the way we go forward in our relations in the Pacific or anywhere else for that matter but specifically here we need to make sure that we do things that keep the world stable and keep the relationship productive and so far I think that's working we do register what they're doing through military but there's been no offensive action and so I think it's cornering direct Russia the national defense strategy this document Russia seeks veto authority over nations on its periphery and to shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and change European and Middle East security and economic structures to its favor close quote Russia has a declining population and economies smaller than that of Italy and of course it's completely exposed to energy prices but in particular the long-term trend to falling energy prices as the United States produces more and more oil how worried do we need to be are we simply containing an ageing power or are we can't containing something that's newly aggressive in Russia you know back probably 15 years ago somewhere around there 20 years ago 12 years ago I still remember Russian Marines training with US Marines in North Carolina preparing for deployments together as UN peacekeeping troops and those days are unfortunately far in the rearview mirror at Russia has chosen muck around in democracies elections they've violated territorial integrity and using force of arms for the first time since World War two in Europe you look at what they're occupying right now in Georgia what they're doing in Crimea what they're doing the donuts base and the don boss out there in eastern Ukraine and when you put all this together it's something that's got to be addressed and addressed by democratic nation standing together this is the bottom line at some point Russia will have to come back for all the reasons you just outlined and more they will have to come back and see NATO as something other than a threat to them NATO is not a threat I have too much regard for the professionalism of the Russian army officers they know it is not a threat to them they may have to say it is for public reasons or for for political reasons domestic political reasons in fact they know NATO is not a threat but they also see NATO because it's growing in numbers as democratic nations want to be part of NATO the primary military alliance in the world of democratic nations they also believe that it is in some way going to produce a bad outcome for for Russia in the long term and we need to get a philosophical high-level strategic discussion going again with Russia in the long term Russia has more I think more in common with Europe more in common with America than with anyone else for their long-term survival and it is an our best interest that the Russia Federation does not collapse we do not want to see it collapse so at some point I believe that America is their best hope and turn to their long-term future nobody can be more helpful to Russia so as we go through this very difficult time and it is difficult we've had to change our nuclear turning posture it is I'm not trying to downplay the challenges that we face right now but I'm more optimistic in the longer term just as I am with China in the longer term to a lot of decisions are going to have to be taken and in that regard the strategy that we put together means that our diplomats will be negotiating from a position of strength throughout the Russian position in Syria we've twice struck the forces of President Assad in response to the use of chemical weapons and with Gideon Rahman writing the Financial Times the airstrikes were intended to send a message of Western relevance and resolve while minimizing the risk of getting involved in a wider war that mixed message means that none of the bigger issues in Syria are closer to resolution mixed message we didn't see it as a mixed message at all and I think that I can objectively defend what we did our troops in eastern Syria are there in a advise and assist role in other words the Syrian democratic forces made up of the YPG the Kurdish people there and the Arab forces together composed the SDF and with them and they have taken a lot of casualties that's how we're going after Isis and that's the authority we have from here in town to have those troops there we have purposely stayed out of fighting in the Civil War that is a policy decision however at the same time as the Civil War is going on and our goal there is to force that peace over to the the Geneva process and the United Nations brokered way that we're going to try to return some degree of stability and peace to Syria at the same time if someone violates the chemical warfare prohibition then that to us is a vital interest and we cannot get to the point where you and I simply read the north morning newspaper and say well someone Chemical Weapons again they were not used in World War two battlefields they were used as we all know in the killing camps but they were not used on the battlefield from World War two they have actually not been used about a hundred years since World War one ended except by Assad's father in town called Hama and then by this element of the regime in their Syrian civil war so where we had evidence and remember it's a gas it it goes away it's not easy to get the evidence and we won't speculate it is the most complex security situation I've ever seen in 40 odd years of doing this line of work but where we get evidence of it and where we can attribute it to someone then the president made very clear that we are going to act on it so a separate issue violation of the chemical warfare prohibition we're not going to use that with mission creep to now jump into the Syrian civil war that's for the UN to settle unfortunately Russia vetoed in the UN Security Council several times the UN's involvement there and as a result the war and the tragedy of it goes on I've seen refugees in the Balkans I've seen them in Southeast Asia I've seen him in Africa the refugees and I've been in the camp the refugees I've seen coming out of Syria or more traumatized than any refugees I've seen anywhere in the world it is a it is a tragedy much worse than anything BBC or CNN can show it's not much worse but that is something we're going to have to work with the international community on also in the international to me we're working with 74 nations and international organizations that be in NATO Arab League European Union and Interpol to defeat Isis separately we will also watch for any chemical weapons three separate distinct issues that we're trying to bring forward to a political approach monden some kind of solution you know it's quite a job you have because every question I have here's about bad news someplace in the world that's kind of my pork that's it's easier portfolio all right North Korea in November North Korea - we already know they have nuclear devices in November they tested a new ballistic missile I'm sure I'll mispronounced this but it's the hua Seong 15 which at least in theory has a range that covers the entire continental United States not just Hawaii not just the Aleutians the entire continental United States analyst Michael Elliman who's at the International Institute for Strategic Studies quote two or three test firings over the next four to six months may be all that is required before kim jeong-hoon declares the hassan 15 combat ready purely military question are we truly only a few test firings of a ballistic missile away from having the continental United States exposed to nuclear weapons from North Korea yeah is it that close I don't know things go wrong and test programs we sometimes credit other people's programs are going to go smoothly while our own we know how they go in reality but at the same time we're paid by all of you to be the Sentinels to be the guardians of this great big experiment you and I call America and we have got to assume the worst now general Laurie Robinson who commands Northern Command she is quite certain that we can take down using the Interceptor she's got in California and Alaska they small and that would be a small attack in the next several years but from the very beginning when we first came into office about 15 months ago we were told this will be the immediate crisis you have to deal with the outgoing administration was very candid the president President Obama told President Trump that and of course I heard that and the CIA briefings as I got ready for confirmation hearings hmm my first trip went out to Tokyo and Seoul as a result going overseas and I would tell you lady Elmen that it has been a diplomatically led effort from the very beginning to try to address this problem the president's buried blunt language had been part of the pressure campaign but is principally been led by State Department and that goes over many many months and you see this again with what ambassador Haley has done leading up in the United Nations the UN Security Council resolutions that impose sanctions I think those sanctions have been effective but at the same time it's been the unity of the allies of Japan of the Republic of Korea and so many others in January Secretary of State with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada pulled together the sending States in Vancouver British Columbia and that was the ministers of Foreign Affairs not the ministers of Defense I went into British Columbia I gave a brief the first night on the military situation the sending states were those under the UN Charter that had sent troops to fight there in 1950 this is Columbia and Thailand it's Sweden some other states came to United Kingdom obviously Turkey and it was interesting to see to India and Italy were not part of you and in 1950 they were present we did it purposely in Canada it's not known as bellicose nation it's to keep it in the Minister of Foreign Affairs portfolio I briefed in the evening flew out and the next day they met all day and as one of the Europeans said this weapon is it is closer from North Korea to my country in Europe than it is to Seattle or Washington DC it was a reminder of the world doesn't orient around one nation alone on this planet so what we saw was this combined effort with the Chinese of my dad to bring this to a diplomatic solution and in fact that's where we've got it now there's reason for hope that this is on the right track but again my job is to stay quietly behind our diplomats making certain if they have options and the president has options you're optimistic about the coming summit and I'm not paid to be optimistic or pessimistic of course but I would just say realistically who would have imagined this three months ago six months ago nine months ago 12 months ago I remember reading the doom and gloom in every newspaper that what was going to go wrong and so we'll have to take it one day at a time I wouldn't get out in front of anything - let's see what experience tells us not what forecasts predict when no limits of fundamentally less than predictable circumstance Iran Bret Stevens in The New York Times last today's four I guess it was earlier this week Bret Stevens in the New York Times now that the president has withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal Iran has a choice Iran may have an economy or nuclear weapons but not both fair assessment you know Iran I would I would break it every time you think of Iran into two pieces there's the regime that holds the Iranian people in check they have proven during the Green Revolution here a few years ago they are quite willing to use force against their own people and so don't ever say Iran without identifying with part of Iran drama is it the regime a revolutionary regime or is it the young people especially mmm who have had enough of this the Iranian regime is basically not a country it is or it is a revolutionary group and everywhere you see them acting over throughout the region or elsewhere you see what they're up to with formerly a nuclear weapons program and it was a nuclear weapon brand not a nuclear program they've got a ballistic missile program they've got a cyber attack program they've got a counter maritime program then you see these surrogates proxies terrorists that they have Lebanese Hezbollah people like that less than two miles from where your right now without a nuclear weapon in their arsenal Iran sent had a plan basically to kill the Saudi ambassador two miles from here right over in Georgetown on a Saturday night at a restaurant you can imagine those of you go out on Saturday night in Georgetown what that would have done so we have very little reason to trust to the denial and deceit of that regime as they try to hide things so what did we do when we came in with what was admittedly an imperfect arms control agreement we tried for many months it wasn't something we did in the first month or the second month of the administration tried to find a way to address the sunset provisions on some elements of it and look at the inspection regimes so that the inspection if we're going to trust but verify or distrust but verify and I've read the the agreement three times and that's clearly the intent of it we wanted changes we were unable to get those changes so we're going to come up with a new agreement and what it would look like and work towards that at this point again you got it you've got to wonder about a country that everywhere they go Yemen Lebanon Syria you don't read an Assad till them power today after Russia's regrettable veto in the UN is because Iran has kept him in power that's the bottom line so we're going to have to address that aggregate problem that's five threats not just one and we're going to have to do it in such a manner that we maintain stability in the Middle East and not sell out our friends Arab and Israeli all right we've been through China Russia North Korea and Iran which are the four principal state threats that the national defense strategy identifies we have about 15 minutes left to talk about what you're going to do about them that ought to be plenty of time don't you think you identify three main lines three distinct lines of effort in this document obviously we only have time to touch on them one is building a more lethal force you became Secretary of Defense after the Budget Control Act of 2011 had imposed caps on defense spending cutting outlays from six hundred and ninety 1 billion in 2010 to a low of 560 billion in 2015 before they rebounded a little bit the budget the budget deal that was just agreed to gives you a budget for fiscal year 2018 of 700 billion roughly that's about a 61 billion dollar increase over last year without going into accounting details which I imagine our endless with a budget with an operation the size of the operation you run have you got enough the short answer is yes and it was due to bipartisan congressional support it wasn't perfect I'm very concerned about the level of debt we are passing to the younger generation but at this point I had to look at the portfolio I had and this was the best way to reverse the damage that had occurred over years of combat not replacing whether it be ships or airplanes or equipment at the rate we should have not maintaining it and eventually munitions stocks going down this has been reversed and it been reversed several times that though fundamental I like using touchstones when I'm in large organizations because ladies and gentleman it allows down at what we call the where the rubber meets the road or at the deckplate level the youngest soldier sailor Airman marine they understand what you're trying to do we need solvency and we need security because no nation can maintain its military security if it doesn't keep its fiscal house in order so part of what I have to do is make certain we spend this money well so then I go to my next lines of effort and it's only three I'm formerly a Marine infantry man it's hard to keep track more than three things at once okay first of all it's to build a more lethal force if it does not contribute to the lethality of the military in the battlefield whether it be a personnel policy a piece of equipment or a doesn't matter what it is if it doesn't contribute to that then it's probably not fit for us now you look at lethality widely part of lethality is making certain for example I have access to good education for the sons and daughters of military members so they feel like their family has got a way to move forward in life even as they're going off to fight the nation's war so it's not a narrow view of locality but it is still going to contribute to what we do as a military on the battlefield number one thing I can do for the military on the battlefields to bring them home alive and in one piece mentally physically second line of effort is to build more and stronger alliances and partnerships it's very simple in history nation with allies thrive nations without allies do not survive and our strongest suit right now is our allies that is one of the major reasons when the greatest generation came home from World War two that they built the the world we inhabit today was saying after the depression many have grew up hungry and certainly skinny little runts when they went into the military after a war that cost I don't know 40 50 60 70 v'n know within 10 million how many people died in that war they said it's a crummy world as George Shultz puts it but it were in it whether we like it or not we're part of it so they created NATO they created Bretton Woods IMF International Monetary Fund World Bank they created the Marshall Plan I can go on you get the drift those things stood the test of time we're going to have to adapt them to today so we're going to also go out and build strengthen our current relationship with those allies but we're also going to expect them to carry their fair share as they've grown richer recovering from the disease costly victories of World War two that destroyed much of the much of Europe for example but we also want to create new allies so first one first line of effort is we're going to make a more lethal forest and we're going to have more allies and partner right now in Afghanistan 41 nations we were down to 39 we dropped from 50 to 39 when you're pulling out under the last administration were now at 41 and the two nations that have joined us are both Muslim nations by the way that are fighting alongside us there and after we reinforced our effort there in Afghanistan we also had 12 more nations reinforce their effort they're responding to our leadership third line of effort is going to be that we reform the business practices of the Pentagon I've been told I have the 17th largest economy in the world that is sobering that is very sobering when I realize all of you are sacrificing for us to have that so what we're going to do is we're going to audit for the first time in 70 years DoD is going through an audit I hope we find a lot of problems that every time I find one I'm gonna slap the back of the auditor and tell her well done we're gonna fix it and the money we save is going to go into lethality we're gonna turn it back in that's where we're going to work I'm not going to kill people for the problem unless I find that they they did it with intent and then you again I don't have stress I created okay out of this I'll just leave it at that and then as we audit this we're going to make certainly reform the business practices to ensure that we're getting the most bang for the buck affordability and accountability that's what we're going what's going to guide us on our budget affordability and accountability and now I know you're impatient ask me another question I want on the on the reforming that the third distinct line of effort is you call it in the national defense strategies reforming the way you do business so here's what occurs to me it correct the premise if I've got the premise wrong we think in terms of the long term competition with China we can't count on having more troops or more sailors they're a bigger country they already spend thirty five percent as much as we do on defense those figures I've seen suggest that by within ten years it'll be 60 percent they themselves say they want to have the strongest military in the world in time for the 100th and sri of the chinese of the Communist revolution in 2049 so we can't count on out spending them my Prem what occurs to me but this is my little mind I'm putting it up against your big mind and you're a huge experience is that man I'll stop there that over the long term our only sustainable advantage is going to be tied to our freedoms and our dynamism and our ability to innovate and in the old days when the military needed something we had what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex contract relationships were tight if the Air Force was planning out a decade and needed a certain kind of aircraft there were the boat the engineers from the McDonnell Douglas and Boeing and they're talking all the time and now you've got the innovation taking place and these little startups scattered around the country but especially in Silicon Valley how do you ensure that this gigantic organization that you run incorporates that ability to innovate that so is the premise correct it's a it's exciting I know where you're going with this and it's exciting because you live in Silicon Valley and I would just tell you ladies gentlemen that not all the good ideas to come from inside the Department of Defense you know that we but also not all the good ideas come only from America I tell my officers the country's most aircraft carriers doesn't have all the good ideas so when you look at other democracies around the world and can we draw together from American industry from Silicon Valley and the other areas all the good ideas that sort of thing but also because of our allies we don't have to carry the full burden ourselves there's no need for that and so we will continue to be a power of inspiration that draws the best out of our people and I think that so long as we can continue to get the eye-watering quality of the troops that we have today we'll be in good shape thanks for in mind I know if we're out of time you're Peter so I guess I got to let it go uh-oh hold on hold on I've got I've got two last questions for her and they're pretty serious actually and here's here's one of them it's China I feel this out in Silicon Valley this gets talked about a lot of Silicon Valley they're four times as big as we are it's very soon now some single-digit number of years their GDP will be bigger than ours they're ramping up their defense spending and so the what you hear a lot is look after the Second World War we displaced the British and now the Chinese are about to displace us and it's the same pattern little country because it had a temporary technological advantage Britain was able to rule the Seas we came along a bigger country shoved them to one side yeah and there's a real profit - people talk about that and it bothers people at a level that they don't it's not an agony but it's in the back of people's minds how do you address this kind of background feeling that something is slipping away that we're not really going to be able to hold our own this decade will be fine next decade the decade after that trouble how do you address that you know if there's something slipping away I think it's internal it's not external why do I say that I travel all around the world now and I meet with heads of state and ministers of Defense and ministers of Foreign Affairs it is we created in the world something after World War two that looked like our internal landscape an open society one with respect for human dignity one with respect for law the internal landscape of China is one of authoritarianism it's one they are trying to promote outwardly how many people are going to sign up for that in the world and is China really outnumber the world I think not so it's going to be whether or not we and the democracies can actually govern ourselves can we come together to work together in school districts and in countries to solve problems can the European Union address the euro crisis the the crisis they've got can democracies do their job as governments and and fix problems and if we can that model that open model will survive in the free competition of ideas in the world if instead the bonfires of the vanities decided to consume everybody and we all begin walling ourselves off from each other in our country or from other democracies then perhaps an authoritarian regime can internal authoritarian regime can be exported and and put in a commanding position frankly I'd bet on the open open construct I'd bet on what unlimber 's the human mind and the spirit and allows people to work together and so I think there's a way for us also to work with China as we go forward I think the competition can be channeled correctly if we set that relationship correctly if we go back to having philosophical discussions about the strategic relationship each of us wants for ourselves and for each other so maybe that means I'm an optimist that's probably gonna ruin my image right there last question last question I think you'll remember this you and I were chatting over a cup of coffee up in my upstairs office one afternoon at the Hoover Institution and I had begun receiving phone calls from various companies in Silicon Valley that wanted you on their board and I said forgive me you're now mr. secretary but then you were Jim I said Jim you know you still Joe if you've I'm from the West you've you've you've lived your life on a soldier's income and you can do pretty well out here in Silicon Valley and you replied Peter all it takes to make me happy is two pairs of jeans and a full tank of gas and yet here you are not a driven man in that sense here you are in what is surely one of the small handful of the most demanding exhausting frustrating jobs on the planet Jim if I may what keeps you at it why are you back here you know ladies and gentlemen we're when you're brought up in the military and I won't say that I was the most willing volunteer it was 1969 when I came in I was actually 18 years old when I came in and but I figured I had to go in and do my duty you know that's what you did in the days when we had conscription had the draft but then I stuck around I didn't stick around for the jobs I actually grew to hate mine filled with a passion by age 21 and and ever since but I loved being around sailors and Marines who sometime would bite their lip all the way through but they would crawl forward they would they looking for something with a coat hanger they didn't want to find and and lead their buddies through and so I just stuck around for the people but what happened over those years was the NCOs the young I was in the infantry it's named for infant soldier young sorta how you get their name okay most of the buggers who are in assault units could not go in and buy a beer legally okay the little buggers figure out how to do it okay but my point is over the years I grew exceedingly fond of these very selfless young folks who sign a blank check all of you payable with their lives and so I stuck around it long enough that I learned that when the president United States Republican or Democrat asked you to do something you do it to the best of your ability you don't get into the hot political rhetoric or anything else you go in roll up your sleeves and go to work and I I just say to you young people in the room you know we owe you the same you know you and I were born in this country by a complete accident we had no say-so in it we chose to live in the country that's our choice we have a responsibility to the young people to turn over good a shape as we inherited it when we got it and that pie the the thing at Keeneland our institution and uncommon knowledge I'm Peter Robinson ladies and gentlemen join me in thanking James Madison the 26th Secretary of Defense of the United States [Applause]

Channel: Hoover Institution

Views: 143,541

Keywords: James Mattis, Jim Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense, Iran, North Korea, Pentagon, NATO, Syria, Middle East, Iraq, Armed Forces, Military, American Enterprise Institute, Hoover Institution

Id: A8aOcHgbRZw

Length: 46min 30sec (2790 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2018