by For three years, President Biden has been fine with the private nature of his introverted and shy Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III.
But by failing to inform the president that he needed surgery for prostate cancer and then had to return to the hospital with serious complications, Austin, 70, has not only drawn more attention to himself than at any other time in his life. long career. He has also drawn scrutiny and criticism toward Biden’s national security team during a period in which he manages multiple crises around the world.
When asked about Austin on Friday, Biden said he remained confident in him. But the president gave a direct, one-syllable answer when asked if it was an error in judgment on Austin’s part not to inform him that he had been out of service at times in recent weeks. “Yes,” he said.
The entire incident has exposed Mr. Austin as that rarest of creatures in Washington: an intensely private person in a relentlessly public job.
Austin, a former commander of the United States Central Command, brought with him 40 years of service when he assumed the Pentagon’s top job in 2021.
He led men and women in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and helped design and implement the campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. A West Point graduate, Austin did what no other black man had done before: rise through the military to eventually lead the country’s 1.4 million active-duty troops in a civilian role that placed him second only to the president in the domain chain.
But Austin also brought with him to the job a reputation for avoiding attention and exposing as little about himself as possible.
At the Pentagon, staff often share the meme of Homer Simpson backing up against a hedge and disappear from view to characterize his boss’s aversion to any spotlight. But that reticence, Austin supporters say, reflects decades of cultural challenges for a black man who has found success in the military by learning not to show too much of himself.
Mr. Austin has told his friends the story of how, right after graduating from West Point, he did what many young people who are becoming successful do when they receive their first paychecks: he bought a flashy new car. A few weeks later, police in Alabama stopped him and wanted to know if the car had been stolen.
“This whole thing about being a private person — you don’t spend much time with him before you realize it,” said Rep. James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who helped Biden vet Austin.
But the history of black men fighting wars abroad only to return home to discrimination, Clyburn said, taught many black servicemen to believe they could only succeed if they showed less of themselves.
Austin has talked about getting a white officer to give him his instructions when he was commander of the famous 82nd Airborne Division because he thought a white officer was more likely to be listened to.
Now it is Mr. Biden who listens to him. The two men spoke Thursday, ahead of attacks carried out by U.S. and allied forces against the Houthi militia in Yemen, even though Austin remains hospitalized.
When asked what role Austin played in planning the attacks, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said his “involvement was no different than it would be on any other day, except that he was briefing the president.” about options and participated in the discussions from the hospital. But he was fully committed, as he would be in any other event.”
For much of the three years he has been defense secretary, Austin’s low-key nature has been obscured by the mercurial presence of Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was his partner as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until Oct. 1.
“I really wish you wouldn’t write that,” Austin told a reporter last month in the Pentagon’s Ring E hallway, discussing a story about his role in advising Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
His problem was not related to the essence of the story. It was deduced that he had a role in politics.
It’s been more than a year since he appeared in the Pentagon briefing room to speak to reporters, and he typically avoids reporters who travel with him on his plane trips. The same goes for much of his staff; When he travels, he prefers to dine alone in his hotel room when he does not have a scheduled engagement with a foreign counterpart.
He does not like to chat or enter into lubricating political relationships. She waited weeks to speak by phone with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, when Tuberville began threatening to suspend military nominations to protest the policy Austin had implemented to ensure service members had continued. access to abortions and other reproductive health care services.
Austin’s relationship with the president, before this latest crisis, was believed to be cordial and affectionate, dating back to the days when Biden’s son, Beau Biden, served under Austin’s command in Iraq. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.
After Biden ignored Austin’s advice not to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the defense secretary appeared before Congress in the chaotic aftermath and protected his boss, saying, carefully, only that he did not “support staying in “Afghanistan forever.” “
When he was head of Central Command, his most prominent position in the military, Austin was known as a clever strategist. In meetings at the Pentagon and the White House, officials say Austin demonstrates a mastery of military strategy and an understanding of everyday problems on the bases.
It has been affected by some previous public controversies. After getting tangled while still in uniform during a 2015 hearing with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., about the Obama administration’s Syria policy, Austin made headlines when he publicly acknowledged for the first time that a Pentagon program of $500 million to train Syrians The fighters against the Islamic State had only produced four or five of them.
He rarely bothers to defend himself to political critics. She let General Milley respond to a Republican congressman who criticized the Department of Defense for becoming, in his opinion, too “woke.”
Austin’s supporters said that with his prostate cancer, he was following a military ethos that has been instilled in him throughout his working life: Don’t complain. But by staying silent about his illness and hospitalization, Austin threw a big piece of red meat at Republican critics of the Biden administration.
There are calls from Republicans in Congress for Austin to be removed, there is an ongoing investigation by the department’s inspector general and the evolving story of his failure to keep the White House informed about how his absence could create a breach. In the chain. The command has been in permanent rotation in the 24-hour television news cycles.
Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania became the first Democrat in Congress to call for Austin’s resignation, saying on social media that he had “lost confidence in Secretary Lloyd Austin’s leadership at the Department of Defense due to a lack of transparency about his recent medical treatment and its impact on the continuity of the chain of command.”
Added to this is the disappointment expressed by black health advocates that by hiding his cancer, Austin reinforced the idea that prostate cancer, which affects African-American men at a higher rate, is something to be ashamed of. .
“I wish Lloyd Austin a speedy recovery from cancer, but he set a bad example for black men,” read the headline. an opinion essay at the Kansas City Star.
“We have now politicized a deeply personal and private issue on a deeply personal and private man,” Adm. Mike Mullen, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said in an interview. “We should move on.”
In recent days, the Pentagon has become more forthcoming about what Austin is doing. “Over the past 72 hours, Secretary Austin has been actively involved in overseeing and directing” the US strikes in Yemen on Thursday night, a Defense Department official wrote in an email to reporters.
The email included a long list of phone calls the secretary received from the hospital.
Eric Schmitt contributed reports.
