Summary of Soldier Secretary by Christopher C. Miller: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America's Most Dangerous Enemies

By Willie M. Joseph

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Soldier Secretary by Christopher C. Miller: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America's Most Dangerous Enemies

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Chris Miller, President Trump's last Secretary of Defense, shares harrowing stories of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, gives an insider look at the tumultuous final days of the Trump administration, and issues a stark warning about the readiness of the military under President Biden. In Soldier Secretary, he reveals for the first time everything he saw in a book that is candid, thought-provoking, and like that of no Secretary of Defense before him. Miller is an irreverent, heterodox, and always-fascinating thinker who argues for a radical rethinking of U.S. national security strategy. He offers a roadmap for how the United States can win in the era of unrestricted warfare by shedding the bloated defense bureaucracy, bringing American forces home from endless conflicts, renewing our national unity, and beating China at its own game.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Feb 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215038604

Willie M. Joseph

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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Christopher C. Miller’s Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America's Most Dangerous Enemies designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

At 3:44 p.m. on January 6, 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on the phone in a state of total nuclear meltdown. Two hours earlier, a crowd of Trump supporters had unlawfully entered the Capitol and Congressional leadership had been swept away to a secure location at a pre-Civil War era Army installation. Pelosi demanded that I send troops to the Capitol now, and when I pointed out that I had already ordered the mobilization of the District of Columbia National Guard and that forces were on their way to the Capitol as soon as they were properly equipped and synchronized with the Capitol Police, Pelosi implored me to send troops to forcibly expel a rowdy band of MAGA supporters. The events of January 6 and the months that followed revealed the true character of our ruling class, showing that we are ruled by a bunch of geriatrics who ruthlessly and selfishly maintain their hold on power and refuse to develop the next generation of leaders.

As a lifelong soldier, I learned from my dad and uncles that stress is hardwired into your cerebral cortex and that you either learn to live with it or you don't live. To this day, some small part of me wonders whether I joined the Army out of fear. This book is the story of one soldier's rise from a private in the Army Reserve to the highest office at the Pentagon. It is about the heroes I fought alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the sacrifices my generation has made on behalf of our nation. It is also about our country's failure to change in the decades following September 11, 2001, and how we must change in the future if America is to survive.

Common sense is one thing our elites have yet to take from the American people. I'm not looking to gain the plaudits of a national security establishment, and I'm not looking for fame or fortune. I'm just a guy doing my job and trying my best to serve his family, nation, and God with dignity, empathy, and honor. I'm writing my experiences and thoughts to help the American people make sense of this brief, but important, period of American history and to help us find our way forward.

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

The Vietnam War was the background noise of the narrator's childhood in Delaware and Iowa, and the draft was still going on. When Iranian revolutionaries overthrew the Shah, stormed the American embassy in Tehran, and took our diplomats hostage, the story captivated the nation and their group of friends. After President Jimmy Carter authorized a rescue mission, the narrator decided to join the Army, but needed to get approval from his parents. He returned the next day with a signed permission slip and was picked up early Sunday morning and delivered to the bus station. He had packed a Case brand fixed blade knife that he had purchased from the True Value hardware store.

I was sent to Camp Dodge, where I got my physical and took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). My career counselor asked me what I wanted to do in the Army, and I said I just wanted to be in the Army. The sergeant realized that I was an above average yet totally clueless recruit that he could jam into whatever quota hole was dogging him that month, and that the most difficult quota to fill was for the Infantry. I was the last recruit in the building when he called me back into the waiting area. The protagonist of this story is a paratrooper who takes advantage of a limited time offer to sign an enlistment contract and attend Basic Training between his senior year of high school and freshman year of college.

During Basic Training, the drill instructors are allowed to inflict enormous physical and emotional stress to weed out the weak and instill physical and mental toughness in those who remain, but the stress is calibrated carefully to avoid a mass exodus. It is during Basic Training that the protagonist first realizes they have an above-average capacity for pain, thanks to random luck in the genetic lottery and the example of their Mother, the most physically and mentally toughest person they know. They also discover that they possess above-average smarts, but the regimen hasn't changed much since World War II. The Army's approach to education in the 1960s was seen as antiquated and barbaric, but it was seen as a win-win for everybody, as the community got rid of a troublemaker, the Army gained another warm body, and the volunteer got a healthy dose of discipline