Category: Grand Central Publishing

Behind the scenes in the Sit Room

On By Marc NadeauIn Barack Obama, Bay of Pigs, Bill Clinton, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, George Stephanopoulos, Grand Central Publishing, Gulf War, Hachette Book Group Canada, History, John F. Kennedy, Kippur War, Leadership, Politics, Vladimir Putin, World AffairsLeave a comment

From Pearl Harbor to the neutralization of Osama bin Laden, every US President is confronted with crises. Any one of them also needs to manage relations with foreign leaders. Hence, a need for an organized mechanism and apparatus to navigate the traffic and make sure that POTUS can take the pulse of the world at a moment’s notice. This is made possible thanks to a vital institution, whose history is brilliantly recounted by former Clinton administration official and ABC host George Stephanopoulos in The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis (Grand Central).

Before its establishment, Presidents monitored world events on an ad hoc basis. For any military history enthusiast, the depiction of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair being pushed in a former billiard room to consult maps pinned on the walls to monitor developments unfolding during World War II is captivating. Like so many other things, John F. Kennedy would be an innovator by creating the Situation Room in light of the 1961 Bay of Pigs disaster. Every one of his successors would rely on this evolving institution to accompany the United States’ presence on the world scene.

The most important takeaway from the book relates to the notion of the “three Ps”. The Situation Room is: 1) a place where information is gathered, processed, analyzed and decided upon; 2) it regroups people who serve the Presidency in a selfless and non-partisan way and; 3) a process revealing how every commander in chief manages the affairs of the world.

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The Hero Code: “Find what you’re good at and give it to others”

On By Marc NadeauIn Abbottabad raid, Admiral William McRaven, Giving, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group Canada, Journal of Strategic Studies, Military, Osama bin Laden, SEALs, Special Forces, Taylor & Francis, The Hero Code, US NavyLeave a comment

Ever since I watched his famous speech “Make Your Bed”, I have been captivated by the career and thought of retired Admiral William H. McRaven, the former commander of the Navy SEALs. I was therefore excited to receive a copy of his most recent book The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived (Grand Central Publishing).

While I was reading it, an article from the Journal of Strategic Studies caught my attention. Written by National Security Affairs Professor James J. Wirtz, “The Abbottabad raid [during which Osama bin Laden was permanently neutralized by Navy SEALs] and the theory of special operations” elaborates about the theory of special operations, whose father was none other than Admiral McRaven. He theorized it in his master’s degree thesis in a period when, in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, we lived in a “[…] new, unipolar world, [where] U.S. special forces would be relegated to tertiary missions within a Cold-War force structure that appeared bloated, obsolete and ripe for significant reductions.”

McRaven’s work sought “[…] to demonstrate that a tactic and unit deemed largely irrelevant by conventionally-minded officers and civilian strategists could actually achieve strategically and politically important effects, but only if planned and executed by special operators themselves against significant targets in proper ways.” And you can figure that the devil was – and still is – in the details.

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Don’t be afraid of the mud

On By Marc NadeauIn Admiral William McRaven, Captain Sir Tom Moore, Covid-19, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group Canada, Make Your Bed, Military, Sea Stories, SEALsLeave a comment

11 months ago, right into the first wave of the pandemic, I reviewed Admiral (ret.) William H. McRaven’s excellent book, Sea Stories. Devouring this book was one of the most uplifting moments of this somber period. Not only because I’m a big fan of the author, but also because it is extremely well-written, and the content touched a chord.

That was before I put my hands on Make Your Bed, his shorter previous book which is the companion to the famous commencement speech he gave at the University of Texas in May 2014. While Sea Stories inspired me “from the outside”, Make Your Bed is not in the same category. The 10 life lessons it contains make you dive right into your own life and path. And that’s not always easy.

During his training to become a Navy SEAL, Admiral McRaven was told by one of his instructors: “[…] life isn’t fair and the sooner you learn that the better off you will be.” The purpose of this review is not meant to be autobiographical, but I have no choice but to share a bit of my own story to make you understand why this book has had such a powerful impact on me.

As a young adult, I witnessed my parents’ divorce and suffered greatly from it. In a nutshell, everything kept spiraling from bad to worse, with no end in sight. The temptation to “ring the bell” (a Navy SEAL wanting to quit only needs to ring three times the bell that’s located on the courtyard of the SEALs training camp in Coronado, California) was extremely strong. A few months before the family house was sold, I made a crucial decision. In hindsight, that was the best one I could take. I was moving to the University’s student’s residence. I wanted to be close to my classes, to the library where I spent lots of time and to live with other people my age. It was a huge gamble. After I paid the rent for the first month, I found myself with only 50$ in my pockets.

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The art of making friends

On By Marc NadeauIn Admiral Mike Mullen, Admiral William McRaven, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Books, Hillary Clinton, History, Leon Panetta, Memoirs, Military, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Sea Stories, SEALs, Special Forces, US Navy1 Comment

AdmiralMcRaven_TaskAndPurpose
Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) (Source: Task & Purpose)

“Help as many people as you can. Make as many friends as you can. Work as hard as you can. And, no matter what happens, never quit!”

These are not the usual words or piece of advice you generally expect from a military figure like the retired commander of American Special Forces. But that’s the philosophy of Retired Admiral William M. McRaven, distilled in his most recent book Sea Stories: My Life of Special Operations.

Let me say it from the get-go. The book is pure joy to read. Not only because Admiral McRaven details his life as a Navy SEAL and the main operations in which he took part – like finding a crashed Navy airplane in the mountains of British Columbia (hey, I’m proud when a great author writes about my country), the capture of Saddam Hussein or the find and seek operation to neutralize Osama bin Laden (“the most successful special operation since World War II”). For a military enthusiast, those are great pages to read and the author has a gift for expressing himself eloquently and precisely. No word is superfluous.

But what amazed me the most is the mindset of that great military figure. If you haven’t yet, I invite you to watch the video of his speech inviting you to make your bed first thing in the morning then going about to change the world. Make your bed is also the title of a previous book by the famous Navy SEAL.

SeaStoriesImageAn outspoken believer in God and family man, Admiral McRaven also refers often to stoicism in his book – a predisposition also shared by none other than Former Defense Secretary and retired US Marines General James Mattis. Comfortable and at ease with his beliefs and values, he also finds no qualms in bringing terrorists to justice.

But what impressed me the most is what I learnt about the elected officials Admiral McRaven worked with and for. To that end, the following excerpt about his interaction with President George W. Bush regarding the neutralization of terrorist Abu Ghadiya (“the most wanted man outside Iraq”) in 2008 is worth quoting at length:

“At one point in the brief the President stopped me and asked, “Why are we sending the SOF guys in? Can’t we just drop a GBU‐31 on this guy?”

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