Reviews for Call Sign Chaos

by Jim Mattis and Bing West

Publishers Weekly
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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 “ taking 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. (Oct.)


Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

Readers expecting Call Sign Chaos to be a tell-all providing juicy insights into Mattis's service as Secretary of Defense for Trump will be sorely disappointed. Mattis mentions his time in the Pentagon only in passing, and he barely mentions Trump. Mattis, who served for decades in the Marines, ending his active career as a four-star general, had another goal in mind. He wanted to impart to his readers a sense of what it means, and what it takes, to be a leader in a combat situation. Call Sign Chaos looks at Mattis's military career from his beginnings leading troops in the 1990–91 Gulf War to the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Off the battlefield, Mattis led NATO's military arm and was head of the Central Command overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A staunch believer in the value of allies in the present complicated world, Mattis has plenty of advice for young men and women facing their first command—whether it be a small unit or an entire army. Full of commonsense advice and real-life examples, this book provides plenty of solid guidance for anyone interested in learning what it takes to lead in challenging environments. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; general readers. --Edward A. Goedeken, Iowa State University


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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 reasona 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 Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.