At the Civic Learning Week National Forum hosted by Hoover’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions, Davies Family Distinguished Fellow General Jim Mattis spoke about civic knowledge and understanding from the perspective of someone serving in the US military. Here are excerpts of his remarks:
If you want your democracy to be defended but not policed by our military, civics is absolutely essential. It starts on the very first day, when you swear to support and defend the Constitution. And then there’s your first day at boot camp. I still remember watching as the clock took forty seconds to give me a haircut that would make even President Kim of North Korea look like a well-coiffed man. And as I was watching that, I noticed some pictures on the wall. There was the president. Makes sense; he has something to do with the military. The elected commander in chief. Then there was the secretary of defense. I was in the Marines, so there was the secretary of the Navy, too, and they’re all wearing suits.
And underneath it were pictures of the four-star commandant of the Marine Corps, the commanding general of the base, and the colonel who commanded the unit that I was reporting to for Officer Candidate School. So right away, you’re getting an education in the military.
It’s more of a work-study program than a study-work program, and it has to do with the survival of this great big experiment we call America. I would tell you, too, that there’s a sense that we have no ordained right to this democracy. That’s drilled into you.
In other words, if you want this democracy to survive—it’s assumed that it’s valuable to everybody who’s there—then you’re going to have to be very good at your job.
Why do I emphasize this for civic education? Because when you’re going to put your life on the line for something and it’s brought home to you, that emphasizes the importance. It’s brought home to you very early by the veterans who are there, and by the grim nature of your job. And I would point out that the very dignity of danger means you look at the people beside you with a certain degree of respect, wherever they came from.
Foundational beliefs
There are some expectations. One of them is we have to assume that the people coming in have little to no civic education. I know that’s a condemnation of our education system, and I think it’s gotten worse. I was in the military for forty-three years. Over those years, I noticed we had more and more concerns in the military about it.
Today, it’s a common discussion among senior officers, senior sergeants, and senior petty officers. I would tell you, too, that it manifests in very telling ways. When many swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, if you ask them how many have read it, it’s usually zero—and they do not know the difference between that and the Declaration of Independence.
Immigrants and children of immigrants will be overrepresented, and among them there’s an attitude of gratitude about being there. There’s a sense of responsibility. I don’t have any data to back this up, but perhaps it has something to do with the naturalization oath—in other words, the education that is in their family.
Another point is that 80 percent of the young people joining today have a mother, a father, a sister, or a brother in the military, which says that those who know the military best are most willing to represent it. It has become a family business. But it also shows, in some cases, that the [Department of Defense] education system may have put a little more effort into patriotism or civic education.
Over two hundred and fifty years, the military has not once been a danger to the civilian control of our government. Now, that is not normal. To the founding fathers, thank you. They were worried about this. You see it in The Federalist Papers: would this become a threat to our government? The one time it was nascent, it was nipped in the bud by a general named George Washington.
This took place before we had a constitution, when the Revolutionary Army was encamped in Newburgh, New York. The Continental Congress was admittedly violating its promises to the army, and a young lieutenant colonel named Alexander Hamilton was encouraging them to take on the Congress.
George Washington heard about it and rode up to Newburgh. At the time, the British had agreed to give us our independence but hadn’t shipped out yet for England. And Washington made it very clear—and this lives on in more specific words today—when he said an army is a dangerous institution to play with. Those words are: the president and the Congress of the United States have the right to be wrong and the military will maintain its obedience to the duly elected president and the Congress.
That is the actual, fundamental civic education embedded inside the military that keeps us on the right track.
Making citizens
In a divided society, how do we look at social cohesion and its role? I’ll give you one good look at it. I had the opportunity, the privilege, to fight many times for America. I was in a fight where I watched my Marines go against an enemy unit that did not have unit cohesion, and it showed up right away.
I saw, played out before my eyes, what would happen in our pluralistic society if people didn’t have a common set of beliefs that drew them together to say, “I’m willing to put my life on the line for this.” When you talk about E Pluribus Unum, the words on the coins in our pocket—out of many, one—there’s no place where it’ll be audited more harshly and more cruelly than on a battlefield.
Do you really believe in one another? Do you really trust in one another?
The diversity in our recruiting is widespread. We go all over the country. There are parts of the country, frankly, where we could pretty much shut down recruiting efforts with no impact. There are so few joining, and there’s little support in the communities. But there are other parts that make up for that. The bottom line is that once inside the military, you want unity of effort. Diversity coming in, unity of purpose. We get the behavior we reward, and we reward selflessness. Social cohesion is built on an understanding that you’re there for a larger purpose; you’re not there for yourself.
You’re there to turn over this experiment in good shape to the next generation.
I’ll also tell you about when we send people home. General Sherman, for example, sent his undefeated western army home after the Civil War with the words, “As you’ve been good soldiers, I am confident you will be good citizens.” In the Marine Corps, our primary manual teaches what is expected of us, and it says that we will create Marines who can fight battles and win them and return better equipped to be citizens in this society. That’s written right into the Marine Corps manual.
