Jim Mattis is an honourable man

Instead of rushing into print with blistering criticisms of Donald Trump, Jim Mattis who was generally thought to be a brilliant US defence secretary until he ran foul of the president and resigned, has remained pretty quiet since he left office on January 1. He has given a couple of interviews and has hinted at the difficultes of being a cabinet member of the Trump administration but we knew that anyway. He also spoke in his interview with the Atlantic magazine of how divided the United States is. But we know that too. What was most interesting about his latest interview, with CBS News, was his veiled threat to reveal all at some time in the future. Thanks to Bob Woodward, the Watergate journalist, we know that Mattis had several confrontations with Trump and made some particularly critical comments about serving under such a president. But that wasn't Mattis saying it. It was Woodward claiming what Mattis had said. Like his comment about Trump having the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader when confronting major foreign policy issues. Woodward also told us Mattis refused to obey a number of orders from Trump because he thought they were ridiculous. But Mattis himself has kept quiet. And when he walked out on Trump after disagreeing with his announcement about pulling all US troops out of Syria, he didn't start writing his memoirs to put his side of the case. He did write a book which is due out next week. But "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead" sounds like a worthy tome about leadership, although I'm sure journalists will hunt for any implicit criticism of Trump. However, Mattis told CBS that he did not intend to stay silent for ever. "It's not going to be for ever," he said. So there's a blockbuster memoir in hs head which at some point is going to make big headlines. But how long will Mattis wait? Well I guess he's going to wait longer than his former boss Bob Gates when HE was defence secretary. Gates burst into print with his memoir while Obama was still president, and it contained lots of criticisms of Obama's style of leadership. I had a lot of time for Gates. He was one of my defence secretaries when I was Pentagon Correspondent for The Times. But it did seem a little quick to produce a critical memoir with his commander-in-chief still in office. His book "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War", came out in January 2014, with two years left of the Obama administration. Gates had retired in July 2011. There was quite a lot of criticism of Gates at the time although he retorted that he felt it was important to bring his book out while he had relevant things to say on topical issues. I'm sure his publisher agreed with that! General Mattis might take on board the criticism of Gates when he decides to start writing hs memoir of his time serving under Trump. But Mattis is an honourable man and I think he will be more careful before he starts attacking Trump. Unless Trump loses the 2020 election. Then I guess Mattis might feel he can at last reveal all.