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Six days before the invasion of Ukraine, Defense Minister Lloyd Austin tried to persuade his Russian counterpart to admit that the Kremlin was on the verge of launching a massive attack after gathering more than 100,000 troops at the border with its neighbor.
“I know what you’re doing,” Austin told Sergei Shoigu in an icy, deep baritone.
It was February 18, and Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, was trying to convince Austin, who was visiting Poland at the time, that the build-up of Russian forces north and east of Ukraine was only for routine military exercises. Austin didn’t buy it. He had seen the intelligence, and although he still had to convince every NATO member of the inevitability of a full-scale Russian invasion, the Pentagon chief was confident of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions.
The tense, recent phone call between the two senior defense officials – described by people familiar with how it developed – was among the many actions Austin took on the eve of the war in Ukraine to warn Russia and prepare NATO for it. which was to come, officials said.
Austin’s dull, violent manner with Shoigu and his almost daily engagement with Allied defense officials contrast sharply with his public image in Washington as a silent, sometimes silent partner in President Biden’s national security team serving in the shadow of the Secretary of State. Anthony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William J. Burns.
Austin seems pleased with the behind-the-scenes role.
“He wants to succeed in this business,” said retired Admiral Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is in contact with the Pentagon chief. “But he’s not really worried about focusing on his legacy. It will be whatever his legacy is, so he won’t iron it out or try. “
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This portrait of the Secretary of Defense is based on interviews with 15 current and former government officials, some of whom have known Austin for years. Some spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. Austin, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed.
Austin has been criticized for failing to argue strongly enough to supply large quantities of weapons to Kyiv until Russia crosses the border – and that his cautious approach to public advocacy may be a factor in Washington’s reluctance to flood Ukraine with weapons. before the invasion.
The response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has been “necessary but not sufficient,” said Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), An army veteran with the House Armed Services Committee. “What we do is certainly better than nothing – but it was often too little, too late.”
Ukrainians, Waltz said, would have been better off if the United States had sent more weapons before the Russian invasion, instead of expanding supplies quickly afterwards.
“Where Austin was in this,” Waltz added, “I don’t know.”
Austin seemed unlikely to be elected to the Pentagon’s top civilian position – and not just because he was a retired four-star general who took on a role that many in Congress did not want to go to someone who had just been in uniform.
The retired generals had to spend seven years as civilians before they could be considered defense ministers. Lawmakers have issued an exception for retired Marine General Jim Mathis, elected by President Donald Trump, and prominent Democrats declined to repeat the exercise. Austin, the former head of US Central Command who led military operations in the Middle East, had another obvious shortcoming: discomfort from public work, including appearing before Congress and working with the media.
However, Austin had personal and professional connections with President Biden. The general, a devout Catholic, attended a liturgy with Biden’s son, Bo, when the two were stationed in Iraq. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wanted to steer the country into a model of diplomacy first, and he didn’t want a joking Pentagon secretary. Austin, 68, can be trusted to provide advice without being ahead of his boss, officials said.
In the Pentagon’s E-Ring, Austin’s office projects a sense of humility and history. There are few personal photos or effects, despite a 40-year military career that included a Silver Star for Courage won during the 2003 US bombing of Baghdad. . Another black son in South Georgia, Flipper, became the first former enslaved graduate of the Secretary of Defense’s alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, just ten years after the end of the Civil War.
“I’m honored to be the first African American Secretary of Defense, the 28th Secretary of Defense, but I really don’t want to be the last African American Secretary of Defense,” Austin said at an event in Black History Month in February.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (DR.I.) said that while Austin “was not someone who had just stepped out of the street,” he faced the same “dramatic” learning curve as all new Pentagon chiefs.
“It’s one thing to be in the military for more than 30 years; it’s another thing to be defense minister, “Reed said. “You have to answer more directly to the president, you have to answer to Congress, you are constitutionally accountable to the civilian.
The biggest misconception about Austin is that because he is not “screaming or bombastic in public,” he is not a dynamic player in the administration, said Sullivan, a national security adviser. Austin offered Biden his uncolored advice, Sullivan said, and did not quell disagreements during weekly meetings with Sullivan and Blinken, Biden’s longtime confidant, to uncover problems.
“It’s not just everyone who agrees with each other,” Sullivan said, though he declined to give specific examples of the Austin administration’s policies. “It’s an active process of going back and forth and finding a solution that we can all accept.”
Within weeks of taking office, Biden set out to deliver on a campaign promise: An end to the US war in Afghanistan in 20 years. The administration has been debating the issue for months, with senior Pentagon officials – including Austin – advising Biden that it would be wise to leave behind a force of several thousand troops.
As Biden was adamant on the issue, Austin kept his tongue open, disappointing the US military, which wanted him to speak more than the name of the military leaders’ position. Biden announced last April that he would withdraw all US troops within a few months, promising an “orderly withdrawal” even when the rising Taliban beat Afghan forces.
The ensuing crisis consumed Austin and his team almost every hour. Armed Taliban fighters captured Kabul on August 15, prompting the United States and its allies to launch a chaotic and deadly evacuation from a single runway as thousands of desperate Afghan civilians tried to make their way past checkpoints to the checkpoints.
Some war veterans have called for Austin and Army General Mark A. Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to resign. U.S. commanders later told military investigators that they felt Washington had no idea what was happening in Kabul.
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Representative Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), A Marine veteran who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said it was obvious to him that both Austin and Millie were “trying to do the right thing.” “During the withdrawal of Afghanistan, as the beginning of the evacuation of Afghans who had previously supported the military effort in the face of wider resistance from the administration.
“But he is ultimately the Secretary of Defense – and it is his responsibility to ensure the success of the operation,” Moulton said.
Republicans are harsher in their criticism.
“It was a time to step back as much as possible, to the extent that Minister Matisse did during the Syrian context and to offer his resignation if the plan is implemented,” said spokesman Mike Gallagher ( R-Wis.) A Marine veteran sitting on the same panel. “If he repulses, he has obviously failed to convince the president.
Officials said the crisis in Afghanistan has led Austin and his team to adopt a crisis management mindset in the summer of 2021, usually meeting morning and evening on the Pentagon’s third floor to control the exit. Weeks later, Austin returned the meetings as the possibility of a Russian invasion arose.
This immediately helped improve coordination, said Colin Cal, deputy secretary of defense for policy.
“Those 17 or 18 days in August were among the most intense, in which I think all American politicians focused on national security have been involved for a long time,” Cal said. “But this has given rise to different habits, procedures, rhythms, which have actually been transferred to the crisis in Ukraine in a way that, if we had to invent these whole-fabric processes in early Ukraine, I think it would have been slower. . “
In addition to his regular meetings, Austin began spending early weekends in the Pentagon’s basement, which was usually joined by his senior military assistant, Army Lt. Gen. Randy George, as he questioned intelligence analysts about the situation in Ukraine. In October, Austin highlighted this work by making the first trip of an employee from Biden’s office to Ukraine, where he met with …
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