BOOK REVIEW
Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies by Christopher C. Miller & Ted Royer 2022
About the Author
Christopher C. Miller served as Acting Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump. A former Special Forces Commander and a proud Green Beret, Miller was the first of his generation — the generation that fought our nation’s enemy’s face-to-face in the streets of Baghdad and the mountains of Afghanistan — to serve as a Cabinet official responsible for America’s security. Prior to his appointment as Acting Secretary of Defense, the Senate unanimously confirmed Miller on August 6, 2020 as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, where he was responsible for defending the nation from terrorist attacks.
About the Book
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.
If you know one thing about Chris Miller, it’s that he was President Donald Trump’s final Secretary of Defense, elevated to that position in the days after the 2020 election. If you know a second thing about Chris Miller, it’s that he oversaw the U.S. Armed Forces during one of the most controversial and tumultuous periods the military has experienced in decades, culminating in the shocking events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Yet Chris Miller is no political partisan. On the contrary, Miller has spent his adult life in the crosshairs of America’s most dangerous enemies–from Middle Eastern deserts to the bowels of U.S. intelligence agencies–and emerged as one of the leading national security minds of his generation.
Needless to say, Chris Miller has stories to tell. 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. This book is not just the inside story of what happened during the Trump administration–it’s the inside story of what happened to America, its military, and its institutions during the two decades after September 11, 2001.
Part badass, part iconoclast, Miller is an irreverent, heterodox, and always-fascinating thinker whose personal journey through war and the White House has led him to some shocking conclusions about the state of American power in 2021. With a perspective that will surprise and interest both Republicans and Democrats, Miller argues for a radical rethinking of U.S. national security strategy unlike anything since the creation of the joint armed forces in the 1980s. 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.
Miller is a true American warrior whose incredible journey from Iowa to Afghanistan to Iraq to the White House endeared him to the troops, prepared him for the unprecedented crisis of January 6, and left him deeply concerned about the future of our military and the future of our nation.
Summary of Introduction (partial)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on the line at 3:44 p.m. on January 6, 2021. Pelosi demanded that I send troops to the Capitol now. Two hours earlier, a crowd of Trump supporters had unlawfully entered the Capitol. Pelosi had been miraculously born again as a passionate, if less than altruistic, champion of law and order.
Bob Greene: The events of 9/11 laid bare the true character of our ruling class. Greene: I resent that we are ruled by a bunch of geriatrics that ruthlessly and selfishly maintain their hold on power and refuse to develop the next generation of leaders. Greene says he had never seen anyone panic like our nation’s elder statesmen did on January 6.
This is the story of one soldier’s rise from a private in the Army Reserve to the highest office at the Pentagon. It’s about the heroes I fought alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan who didn’t live to tell their tales, and the sacrifices my generation has made on behalf of our nation. This book is also about our country and how our military, our institutions, and our leaders failed to change in the decades following September 11, 2001.
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