What you'll learn

• 1 (00:03) **Opening & Guest Introduction** - Jocko introduces Bing West, a combat Marine veteran from Vietnam who later embedded with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as Assistant Secretary of Defense, and authored numerous books including his latest, *Cat Five: The 2033 War*.
• 2 (08:46) **Vietnam's Strategic Schism: Two Wars, One Country** - West describes how Marine General Walt was fighting two simultaneous wars: pacification in the villages and a conventional war against NVA battalions, while Army General Westmoreland pursued a search-and-destroy attrition strategy.
• 3 (14:55) **The Combined Action Platoon Experiment (The Village)** - General Walt tested an economical approach by deploying a single Marine squad into a village of 5,000 farmers to train local militia and push out the Viet Cong.
• 4 (21:56) **The Reality of Search-and-Destroy & The Attrition Fallacy** - West recounts a harrowing jungle fight where 14 Marines were killed while killing 50-60 NVA, and the command viewed this as a win based on kill ratio.
• 5 (27:32) **Presidential Leadership Failure: Johnson's Cowardice** - West describes President Johnson's refusal to commit to a winning strategy, blocking the Joint Chiefs' plan to blockade ports and bomb the North because he feared China would enter the war.
• 6 (33:50) **The SEAL Teams: Decentralized Adaptation** - West describes his 1969 study of Navy SEALs, which became the first academic-level study of the teams, concluding they thrived in a decentralized, sub-optimizing environment with no higher direction.
• 7 (44:47) **Iraq: The Push to Baghdad & The Cost of Exhaustion** - West describes driving to Baghdad in a captured Nissan with no press credentials, and witnessing a Marine regimental commander relieved by General Mattis after going three days without sleep.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app