America's generals and admirals are intended to be exemplary defenders of duty, honor, and country—but what can we learn by exposing the bad leaders lurking within these venerable ranks? Despite the exemplary service of most American military officers, a persistent minority of U.S. flag officers (Navy admirals and Army, Air Force, and Marine generals) have embroiled the profession in scandal since the Revolutionary War. This lecture scrutinizes a range of historic and contemporary leadership failures, including moral cowardice, sex crimes, insubordination, toxic leadership, and obstruction of justice. For example—the widespread sexual abuses that occurred at the 1991 “Tailhook” convention of naval aviators in Las Vegas or Douglas MacArthur’s career-long practice of disregarding orders and insubordination under three presidents—Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Truman.

This talk will be given by Jeffrey J. Matthews and derives from his book, Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks: Dishonorable Leadership in the U.S. Military (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023)