Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks is not an ad hominem attack on America's senior military leadership. It recognizes that a decisive majority of admirals and generals have served honorably and that all leaders, military and civilian, make mistakes--often the very same mistakes. Troublesome issues of extralegal violence, sexism, racism, toxicity, obstruction, and corruption are not unique to the armed forces. To solve such problems, all organizations (including public institutions) must dare to expose and confront their leadership failures, no matter how disconcerting or embarrassing. Candid self-examinations are crucial for the U.S. military given its vital role in our democratic society. Because of the disproportionate power and influence of generals and admirals, their misconduct can have utterly dangerous effects, eroding not only civilian faith and confidence in the military, but also trust and respect within the all-volunteer ranks.

John Adams wrote, "Liberty cannot be preserved" unless the citizenry has "that most dreaded, and envied kind of knowledge," the truth about the character and conduct of its leaders. This book's primary objectives are to draw wider public attention to the nature of bad leadership and to illuminate specific types of unethical and criminal conduct committed by senior U.S. military leaders. Although we Americans are culturally inclined to study organizational success and good leadership, there are practical reasons to explore the failures and unseemly side as well. Most significant perhaps is that with an enhanced understanding of bad leaders (and bad colleagues and bad subordinates), we are better equipped to identify them, contest them, and hold them accountable. This is especially pertinent for leaders in government service. While the goal herein is to expose and catalog complex and pressing leadership problems, one hopes that a frank and historically grounded work such as this one will stimulate further debate and critical self-assessment within the U.

S. military. Sober examinations of bad leadership can and should contribute to the positive development of good leaders. As Harvard's Barbara Kellerman writes in Bad Leadership , "To deny bad leadership equivalence in the conversation and curriculum is misguided, tantamount to a medical school that would claim to teach health while ignoring disease." Moreover, Lord John Dalberg-Acton, the grandson of a Neapolitan admiral, was entirely correct when he argued that we historians have a professional obligation--"[a] historic responsibility"--to hold powerful leaders accountable as "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks employs operative definitions of good and bad leadership. Good leadership is ethical, lawful, and effective. Bad leadership is either unethical, criminal, or ineffective, or worse, all three .

This book concentrates on unethical and criminal conduct by active-duty military leaders, thus setting aside the subjects of honorable but ineffective flag officers and the unchecked misbehavior of generals and admirals in the retired reserves. As for method, the text utilizes a case-study approach to scrutinize seven types of criminal or unethical leadership by American admirals and generals: war crimes, insubordination, moral cowardice, toxic leadership, obstruction of justice, sex crimes, and public corruption.