I spoke to Dr. Jeff McCausland - retired Colonel from the U.S. Army, former Dean of Academics at the U.S. Army War College, Visiting Professor of National Security at Dickinson College, and National Security Consultant for CBS radio & television - about lessons leaders can learn from the U.S. experience in Afghanistan.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your insights for leaders on the War in Afghanistan and its aftermath. First things first, though, you were a cadet at West Point during the Vietnam War, a war your brother served in. What are your sharpest memories from that time? What do you believe are the most important leadership lessons from the Vietnam War?

Jeff: My first memory is how divided we were as a nation over the issue of Vietnam, and this was coupled with major civil rights problems the nation was facing.  We often forget that the Voting Rights Act was passed during this period, and the nation suffered from riots in the aftermath of the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King.  The crescendo might have been reached in the year I graduated from high school -- 1968.  This was an extraordinary year that saw Vietnam as a focal point in the presidential campaign, the assassinations of both King as well as Robert Kennedy, and the Democratic convention in Chicago which was later described as a “police riot”.  As people talk today about how the nation is divided, I ask them if they lived thru 1968….

As far as leadership lessons I believe that leadership is fungible.  What I mean by that is that the lessons of leadership transcend time, organization, and circumstance.  Consequently, lessons of leadership that we extract from our experience in Vietnam may resonate in later conflicts that we will discuss like the Gulf War, Iraq, or Afghanistan.

With respect to Vietnam, I would draw the following lessons.

First, Dwight Eisenhower once said “leadership is deciding what has to be done and getting others to want to do it”.  The leader must gain the support of his or her team no matter how small or large.  The leader must seek to build and maintain “buy-in” from stakeholders.  Our nation’s leaders could not maintain the support for the war among the American people. This was due in part to the fact that we still had conscription.

Second, it is imperative to gather ALL appropriate data while thinking clearly about what does it tell us?  Is it truly relevant as we determine whether or not progress is being made towards our goals.   During Vietnam we used such metrics as “body count” to describe success which were disastrous.  One American general actually remarked, “if you don’t know what is important to count, you make what you can count important….”  Critical questions must be asked.  Where did information and data come from?  What does it tell us?  Is it truly relevant to the decision we are about to make?  During Vietnam too much of our analysis depended on what we learned in Saigon and not what was necessarily happening throughout the country.

Third, organizations must focus on their vision and leadership continuity.  As somebody once said, “we were not in Vietnam for roughly 10 years…we were there for ten one-year tours….”   Our nation’s leadership failed to provide a clear, consistent vision for the war.   

Adam: You commanded troops in combat during the first Gulf War. What were the best leadership lessons you learned from that experience?

Jeff: I was a battalion commander during the Gulf War with about 750 soldiers in my command.  We were part of the leading attack force for the VII Corps which conducted the famous “left hook” thru Iraq and eventually into Kuwait.  In fact, my company’s name – Diamond6 is because that was my radio callsign during the war.  Consequently, what I learned from that experience is more at the operational or organizational level than strategic.  

Someone once said that combat was like “looking at war through a soda straw” and that is very true.  You have a very clear in-depth picture of the conflict from an extremely narrow perspective.  I have three major lessons.

First, leaders must insist that their organizations “train, train, train” everyday and never accept a belief that we are as good as we can possibly be.  You cannot afford to be satisfied.  Good organizations are constantly bringing on new people, new equipment, new customers, and the environment is changing.  When things go wrong, and your organization is in a crisis is not the time for you to decide we must quickly get better – you are as good as you are going to be at that critical moment. 

Second, you must empower your team and encourage them to take initiative.  In 1990 my unit was part of the US forces that had been assigned to Germany throughout the Cold War. We had trained to fight a defensive war against the Soviet Union on the plains of Europe.  Now in a matter of weeks we were transported to Saudi Arabia and told to prepare to conduct an offensive operation in a desert environment.  We could not have succeeded without the combined efforts of every single soldier in figuring out how to do that in a very brief period of time.  Furthermore, events in combat occur rapidly.  The organization whose people do not show initiative loses….

Third, leaders must adapt, innovate, and overcome.  We received global positioning systems (GPS) which allowed us to navigate in the desert, but this also meant we had to adapt our organizations and tactics to take best advantage of what it offered.  The Iraqis were a new enemy to us.  They did have a lot of Soviet equipment that we were familiar with and utilized Soviet tactics, but we had to quickly learn about them and identify their weaknesses and strengths.  Finally, the fundamental challenge of how to survive in the desert, feed the troops, resupply, refuel, etc. all had to be dealt with.     

Adam: Why do you believe it is so important for leaders in all verticals to understand the recent American experience in Afghanistan?

Jeff: First, we are all Americans.  This was the longest war in our history.  Longer than World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam combined.  This is the end of an era, and an inflection point in our history in many ways.  Consider the fact that young Americans who are under 20 years of age have never known a time when the nation was not at war.  Consequently, we must pause and reflect on how this happened, and how it went so wrong.  Otherwise, we might make similar mistakes in future.

Second, I believe history is a great teacher especially for leaders.  The concepts and principles of leadership that we can see that were exercised well (or poorly….) stick out in bold relief during a conflict.  Consequently, it is clear to me that the complexity of Afghanistan provides a rich history that any leader can learn from.  

Adam: Many have argued that Afghanistan was an unwinnable war and one that, based on a cursory understanding of history, should have never been entered into. Do you agree or disagree with that sentiment?

Jeff: One of the fundamental problems of the war in Afghanistan was in defining clearly what “winning” meant at the very onset.  I believe that we had no choice but to enter Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11th 2001 once we had ascertained that al Qaeda had used its territory to train, organize, and equip terrorists who committed those horrific attacks.  But our initial purpose or goal was to defeat and destroy al Qaeda.  The Taliban were the ruling authority in Afghanistan and had allowed al Qaeda to operate on their territory.  President George W. Bush demanded they turnover Osama bin Laden and his men to the US but when the Taliban refused the war with them began. 

We defeated the Taliban in a few months of fighting, occupied Kabul, and drove bin Laden as well as the remnants of al Qaeda into Pakistan.  But at that point two things happened.  First, the Bush administration expanded dramatically its goals or what “success” looked like.  The American administration decided we would build a democracy in Afghanistan, create a market economy, and seek greater rights for women.  These goals proved unattainable.  

Second, the Bush administration also began moving key special operations forces and other units out of Afghanistan to prepare for the invasion of Iraq.  Afghanistan was declared a “success” and became what in the military we call an “economy of force operation”.  This means that this is not the primary mission, and you only seek to keep the situation at its current state.  Consequently, as the war in Iraq dragged on both al Qaeda and the Taliban were able to resurrect in Afghanistan.

This is something leaders should consider carefully.  In his new book, Be 2.0 Jim Collins discusses that too often leaders spend a great deal of time planning a major undertaking for their organization.  They consider all the ways that it might go wrong and how they will react.  But they often spend too little time thinking about “what do we do if it works”? How do we exploit success to the maximum extent possible before we become distracted by the next “bright shiny object”?     

Adam: What are do you believe are the most important lessons leaders can learn from the War in Afghanistan? 

Jeff: Again, I would offer three.  First, there is an old saying “culture eats strategy for breakfast every day,” and this is very true.  I do not believe we ever fully understood the culture of Afghanistan, our Afghan allies, and our adversaries.  Consequently, many of our efforts failed.  

Afghanistan has historically been a country comprised of many different ethnic groups that were often at odds with each other.  If you asked a person in Afghanistan -- “who are you?” they might respond by first saying they were a Muslim, next that they were a member of a particular tribe, third that they were from a particular ethnic group (Pashtun, Tajik, Hazaara, etc.) and only them might they acknowledge being an “Afghan”.  We also did not understand how this affected our ability to create an effective army, and in many ways we tried to create an army that looked like ours, and we thought would also serve to bring these groups who had been divided for literally centuries together. 

Second, the bedrock of leadership is ethics, character, and integrity.  A leader can exact a lot from his or her team through fear but ultimately maximum performance particularly during a crisis only occurs if the team trusts the leader.  It is the “glue” that connects the leader to the organization.  If the leadership is corrupt trust will not exist.  Corruption in the Afghan government and military was rampant.  I often say that if we were talking to an Afghan soldier and a Taliban soldier we might ask them a very simple but important question – “what are you fighting for?”  The Taliban soldier would likely say, “I am fighting to defend my religion (Islam) from the crusaders (the West)!  I am also seeking to free my country from foreign occupiers just like my grandfather did against the Soviets in the 20th century and my ancestors did against the British in the 19th century.”  Those are inspiring reasons.  The Afghan soldier might shrug his shoulders and say, “I am fighting for a paycheck if my company commander or battalion commander doesn’t steal the unit payroll” which sadly they frequently did.  

Two quotations come to mind.  Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “the moral is to the physical as three is to one.”  Unfortunately, the Taliban were inspired to support their cause.  In the 9th century the Islamic scholar Ibn Qutayba wrote, “there can be on government without an army, no army without money, no money without prosperity, and no prosperity without justice and good administration.”  The government we tried to create in Afghanistan failed this test.   

Adam: What are do you believe are the most important lessons leaders can learn from the withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Jeff: It is important to separate the policy decision of leaving Afghanistan from the actual withdrawal operation.  I have written in some detail on this point.  The key lesson is that the plan for the withdrawal was based on intelligence analysis which proved flawed.  This analysis told the President and Pentagon leaders that the Afghan military and government would survive for at least six months if not longer following the withdrawal of all American and other allied forces.  As late as July 8th President Biden assured the American people that it was it was “highly unlikely” that Taliban would take control in Afghanistan.  But that is exactly what happened within six weeks of his remarks.

Leaders must constantly consider what are the implicit and explicit assumptions that are the basis for important decisions.  These must be challenged and reviewed frequently, as we adapt our plan in light of a rapidly changing environment.  Soldiers often say in combat, “no plan survives the first round fired”.  Planning is still important, but it is ultimately how you adapt the plan to changing conditions that will ensure success or failure.    

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Jeff: Once again, our withdrawal from Afghanistan is a seminal moment, and this event is likely an inflection point in our history. Consequently, it is critical that we pause to reflect on what we can learn from this and apply to our policies in future. History does not repeat itself BUT it often rhymes. Our failure to learn from this tragedy may doom us to repeat it.

It is also important for us to reflect on the sacrifice that young Americans have made over the past 20 years. They are now our new greatest generation. We suffered over 2400 dead and 20,000 wounded. Many of them grievously. Our allies lost over 1000 killed in action, and it is believed more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians died. For Americans, the obvious question is – “was it worth it?” This is difficult if not impossible to answer at this moment. But I believe the over one million Americans and our allies who served in Afghanistan should hold their heads high and remain proud of their service. Their nation called upon them in a moment of crisis, and they responded. Furthermore, the United States has not suffered an attack like 911 in the last 20 years, and I firmly believe it is in large measure due to their service. We all owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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