WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:00.550 Right now, 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:02.720 the world's two most powerful militaries, 2 00:00:02.920 --> 00:00:03.880 America and China, 3 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:06.990 are both clearing out their top generals at a pace 4 00:00:06.990 --> 00:00:09.350 not seen since the lead up to World War 2. 5 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:10.110 In America, 6 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:11.910 senior commanders are being fired, 7 00:00:12.040 --> 00:00:12.550 resigning, 8 00:00:12.680 --> 00:00:13.530 or pushed out. 9 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:14.210 Meanwhile, 10 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:14.710 in China, 11 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:15.510 at the same time, 12 00:00:15.830 --> 00:00:18.060 entire layers of their high command are 13 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:20.120 disappearing into investigations, 14 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:20.820 prisons, 15 00:00:21.040 --> 00:00:22.210 and in some cases, 16 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:23.470 even death sentences. 17 00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:28.010 Apparently job security gets worse the closer you get to the nuclear codes. 18 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:31.810 But these are the same people responsible for commanding millions of troops, 19 00:00:31.900 --> 00:00:34.250 overseeing enormous nuclear arsenals, 20 00:00:34.270 --> 00:00:37.240 and trillions of dollars in defense spending between them. 21 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:39.830 I think that raises some pretty big questions 22 00:00:39.980 --> 00:00:41.400 that are worth exploring, 23 00:00:41.540 --> 00:00:44.300 like why are so many top generals being removed, 24 00:00:44.580 --> 00:00:45.810 who's replacing them, 25 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:46.970 and what are these. 26 00:00:47.090 --> 00:00:48.590 New generals preparing for. 27 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:49.560 I'm Chris Cappy. 28 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.790 Hit the subscribe button and let's find out. 29 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:52.190 Now, 30 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:52.750 to be clear, 31 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:56.310 what's happening in the United States and in China is not the same thing. 32 00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:57.510 The political systems, 33 00:00:57.600 --> 00:00:58.340 the methods, 34 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.240 and the reasons for removing these officers are very different as we'll see. 35 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.180 But what we're looking at today and what we're focusing on 36 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.440 is the shocking scale of military leadership turnover 37 00:01:08.600 --> 00:01:10.470 at the top in both countries. 38 00:01:10.930 --> 00:01:13.750 And that kind of turnover actually has historical precedent. 39 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:17.040 This phenomenon has happened only once before in recent history. 40 00:01:17.130 --> 00:01:18.160 But before we get into that, 41 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:20.760 I was looking to switch to a brand new mattress because I had 42 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:23.280 been using this old one for an embarrassingly long period of time, 43 00:01:23.410 --> 00:01:24.130 like 10 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officers were removed, 83 00:02:53.450 --> 00:02:54.040 imprisoned, 84 00:02:54.210 --> 00:02:54.680 executed, 85 00:02:54.730 --> 00:02:56.030 or sent to the gulags. 86 00:02:56.210 --> 00:02:58.990 Stalin feared that powerful military officers 87 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:01.120 could become his political rivals 88 00:03:01.330 --> 00:03:03.010 or participate in coups, 89 00:03:03.130 --> 00:03:06.390 so the regime targeted commanders who were accused of, 90 00:03:06.530 --> 00:03:06.950 or 91 00:03:07.090 --> 00:03:10.320 they fabricated evidence of disloyal conspiracy, 92 00:03:10.450 --> 00:03:11.310 espionage, 93 00:03:11.530 --> 00:03:13.840 or insufficient political reliability. 94 00:03:14.010 --> 00:03:17.200 Stalin's HR department had a very aggressive severance. 95 00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:18.420 Meanwhile, 96 00:03:18.450 --> 00:03:20.280 in Nazi Germany at the same time, 97 00:03:20.370 --> 00:03:22.720 they were going through their own leadership shake-up. 98 00:03:22.930 --> 00:03:23.920 In 1938, 99 00:03:24.100 --> 00:03:26.640 Hitler purged two of his most senior commanders, 100 00:03:26.770 --> 00:03:27.060 his, 101 00:03:27.170 --> 00:03:30.330 his war minister Blomberg and his army commander Fritz. 102 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:32.680 He believed that they were too cautious and too 103 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.880 ideologically committed enough for his future war plans. 104 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:37.850 The Nazis weren't Nazi enough. 105 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:38.600 Immediately, 106 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:40.700 scandals suddenly appeared around both men. 107 00:03:40.850 --> 00:03:42.920 Blomberg was pushed out over his new wife's past, 108 00:03:43.010 --> 00:03:46.480 while Fritz was falsely accused of liking his fellow man a little too much. 109 00:03:47.090 --> 00:03:50.560 The message Hitler sent to the rest of the officer corps was pretty clear. 110 00:03:50.770 --> 00:03:53.690 Hesitation was becoming a career limiting condition. 111 00:03:53.850 --> 00:03:55.000 In 1939, 112 00:03:55.170 --> 00:03:56.760 as war broke out across Europe, 113 00:03:56.810 --> 00:04:00.130 the United States started its own version of a military purge. 114 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.070 President Franklin Roosevelt made General George C. 115 00:04:03.130 --> 00:04:03.690 Marshall 116 00:04:03.930 --> 00:04:07.600 Army Chief of Staff and gave him the job of turning a small, 117 00:04:07.650 --> 00:04:09.270 outdated American force 118 00:04:09.410 --> 00:04:12.790 into something that could survive a modern industrial war. 119 00:04:13.050 --> 00:04:13.830 Marshall thought 120 00:04:13.970 --> 00:04:15.760 too many of the senior officers were. 121 00:04:15.850 --> 00:04:16.240 Old, 122 00:04:16.370 --> 00:04:17.040 cautious, 123 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:20.570 and mentally stuck back in the past war of World War 1. 124 00:04:20.810 --> 00:04:22.000 Over the next couple of years, 125 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:25.240 Marshall forced hundreds of US military officers 126 00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:26.650 into early retirement 127 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:27.710 or fired them. 128 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:30.150 Then he promoted younger leaders who were more 129 00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:33.040 willing to experiment with new types of armor, 130 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:33.920 air power, 131 00:04:34.250 --> 00:04:34.750 radios, 132 00:04:34.770 --> 00:04:36.320 and combined arms warfare. 133 00:04:36.490 --> 00:04:39.050 And some of the resistance really was old school. 134 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:41.480 There were still senior officers at the time who 135 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:44.890 believed horse cavalry had an important battlefield future. 136 00:04:45.070 --> 00:04:48.670 Just as tanks were proving what mechanized warfare could do in Europe. 137 00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:50.760 Nothing says prepared for the next war, 138 00:04:50.890 --> 00:04:51.230 like 139 00:04:51.450 --> 00:04:54.000 arguing that horses need just one more chance. 140 00:04:54.290 --> 00:04:57.040 Marshall helped push the army toward armored divisions, 141 00:04:57.210 --> 00:04:57.990 mechanized 142 00:04:58.130 --> 00:04:59.640 and younger command structure. 143 00:04:59.810 --> 00:05:00.210 Basically, 144 00:05:00.490 --> 00:05:02.600 before America could fight the Axis powers, 145 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:07.010 it first had to defeat the guys still emotionally invested in saddles. 146 00:05:07.300 --> 00:05:11.340 Fast forward 80 years and something strangely familiar is happening today, 147 00:05:11.530 --> 00:05:14.200 and the reasons behind these military purges are worth. 148 00:05:14.310 --> 00:05:15.000 Remembering, 149 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:17.640 because the same themes keep showing up today, 150 00:05:17.810 --> 00:05:19.560 loyalty to political leadership, 151 00:05:19.810 --> 00:05:21.230 doubts about competence, 152 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:24.070 and arguments over whether the generals in charge are 153 00:05:24.210 --> 00:05:26.290 actually prepared for the next kind of war. 154 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:29.430 The first signs of a military purge in China started 155 00:05:29.650 --> 00:05:32.840 when their leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012. 156 00:05:32.970 --> 00:05:35.490 He immediately starts purging left and right. 157 00:05:35.650 --> 00:05:37.840 He goes after the junior officers at first, 158 00:05:38.130 --> 00:05:40.150 because Xi inherited a military where 159 00:05:40.290 --> 00:05:43.440 corruption had become deeply embedded in the promotion system. 160 00:05:43.750 --> 00:05:47.080 Officers were literally buying their way into higher ranks. 161 00:05:47.260 --> 00:05:50.800 It would be like if you could go to your platoon leader in the US Army and just 162 00:05:51.020 --> 00:05:53.260 pay him to be promoted to platoon sergeant. 163 00:05:53.460 --> 00:05:54.720 But by 2014, 164 00:05:55.090 --> 00:05:58.040 entire networks inside the People's Liberation Army 165 00:05:58.180 --> 00:05:59.970 were under corruption investigation. 166 00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:00.840 At this point, 167 00:06:00.970 --> 00:06:04.630 the purge had gone from targeting the lower level petty fraud 168 00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:06.710 to high level senior officers 169 00:06:06.930 --> 00:06:08.540 who are now under the microscope. 170 00:06:08.850 --> 00:06:11.280 These are the men who had spent their entire lives, 171 00:06:11.450 --> 00:06:14.760 decades building influence inside the Chinese PLA. 172 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.390 Then suddenly they found themselves detained, 173 00:06:17.530 --> 00:06:18.270 interrogated, 174 00:06:18.290 --> 00:06:20.320 and disappeared from public view. 175 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:22.750 They're black bagged and sent to watch 176 00:06:22.850 --> 00:06:23.080 and. 177 00:06:23.330 --> 00:06:25.310 Hours of re-education videos, 178 00:06:25.330 --> 00:06:26.190 if they're lucky. 179 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:30.030 President Xi Jinping was targeting the officers involved in what's called the 180 00:06:30.130 --> 00:06:32.080 patronage bribery system. 181 00:06:32.250 --> 00:06:35.640 This system had come to define the Chinese military for decades. 182 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:37.390 Xi Jinping was attempting to 183 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:40.050 tie new troops loyalty to himself 184 00:06:40.440 --> 00:06:41.870 instead of to their officers. 185 00:06:42.210 --> 00:06:42.640 For Xi, 186 00:06:42.730 --> 00:06:45.880 a corrupt military was also dangerous to his power. 187 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.080 Nowhere is there a better explanation than this 188 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:50.250 than Xu Kaiyo, 189 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:53.120 who grew up poor in a small Chinese village, 190 00:06:53.340 --> 00:06:56.520 where his grandparents were both farmers and his father worked 191 00:06:56.620 --> 00:06:58.330 as a clerk in the grocery store. 192 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:00.330 But despite these humble beginnings, 193 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:03.330 he tested extremely well in his high school exams. 194 00:07:03.780 --> 00:07:06.650 So he gets into the Harbin Institute of Military Engineering in China, 195 00:07:06.780 --> 00:07:08.730 which is this elite university that's 196 00:07:08.730 --> 00:07:11.130 usually only reserved for China's princelings, 197 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:14.210 who are the descendants of senior Communist Party leaders. 198 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:14.960 And 199 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:17.050 he somehow got into the Chinese version of 200 00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:19.370 West Point without basically having the correct name. 201 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:22.210 Chu becomes a rising star in the CCP 202 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:24.370 and for many decades he's in charge of 203 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:27.400 basically which officers get promoted and which don't. 204 00:07:27.540 --> 00:07:29.920 So you can imagine the kind of power he wielded. 205 00:07:30.140 --> 00:07:32.450 He takes millions of dollars in bribes 206 00:07:32.590 --> 00:07:34.610 to promote some over others. 207 00:07:34.700 --> 00:07:36.080 By 2013, 208 00:07:36.260 --> 00:07:39.720 he's worked his way up to the highest rank in the entire 209 00:07:39.940 --> 00:07:40.370 system. 210 00:07:40.460 --> 00:07:43.170 He's vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. 211 00:07:43.510 --> 00:07:44.140 At that point, 212 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:48.260 he had climbed about as high as you could go without actually being Xi Jinping, 213 00:07:48.590 --> 00:07:50.740 and that's when everything starts to fall apart. 214 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:52.180 At 70 years old, 215 00:07:52.430 --> 00:07:55.170 he's tragically diagnosed with terminal cancer, 216 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:56.530 and then right afterwards, 217 00:07:56.550 --> 00:07:59.120 he's charged with corruption by the CCP. 218 00:07:59.390 --> 00:08:01.900 But why did they charge a dying man? 219 00:08:02.150 --> 00:08:03.870 Because President Xi Jinping 220 00:08:04.150 --> 00:08:06.440 was sending a message to everyone else. 221 00:08:06.670 --> 00:08:08.010 No one was untouchable. 222 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:09.090 Soon after that, 223 00:08:09.390 --> 00:08:10.300 another high ranking general. 224 00:08:10.430 --> 00:08:13.240 Gao Bhushan is charged with a massive 225 00:08:13.380 --> 00:08:15.330 pay for promotion scandal as well. 226 00:08:15.580 --> 00:08:19.680 The purge was moving from these junior leaders to senior leadership, 227 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:21.880 to men who run the entire system. 228 00:08:22.060 --> 00:08:22.650 By this point, 229 00:08:22.780 --> 00:08:24.720 the anti-corruption campaign audit 230 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:27.620 was starting to look more like a demolition job. 231 00:08:27.780 --> 00:08:28.610 In 2016, 232 00:08:28.780 --> 00:08:31.490 Xi Jinping abolished old command regions, 233 00:08:31.580 --> 00:08:34.340 and he then replaces them with new theater commands. 234 00:08:34.580 --> 00:08:37.330 This helped centralize power under just him. 235 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:39.929 The entire high ranking military system 236 00:08:40.070 --> 00:08:41.630 is then completely reshaped. 237 00:08:41.789 --> 00:08:42.940 And by 2016, 238 00:08:43.150 --> 00:08:44.910 being a senior PLA officer 239 00:08:45.070 --> 00:08:48.270 had become a very efficient way to quickly discover whether 240 00:08:48.430 --> 00:08:49.540 Xi Jinping liked you. 241 00:08:49.920 --> 00:08:53.110 And this is where the American side of the story starts to take shape. 242 00:08:53.310 --> 00:08:57.100 The United States didn't suddenly reinvent the idea of firing generals. 243 00:08:57.270 --> 00:08:58.220 In the American system, 244 00:08:58.310 --> 00:09:02.090 the military is deliberately subordinate to elected civilian leadership, 245 00:09:02.270 --> 00:09:05.940 and presidents have removed even enormously powerful commanders 246 00:09:06.150 --> 00:09:08.640 when they believed that the relationship had broken down. 247 00:09:08.910 --> 00:09:12.990 President Truman famously fired General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War, 248 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.140 after the two clashed over strategy, 249 00:09:15.270 --> 00:09:17.500 and MacArthur publicly challenged the administration. 250 00:09:17.790 --> 00:09:18.350 Policy. 251 00:09:18.670 --> 00:09:22.130 MacArthur was one of the most famous commanders in American history. 252 00:09:22.300 --> 00:09:24.940 President Obama famously fired Stanley McChrystal, 253 00:09:25.030 --> 00:09:27.420 a legendary US Special Forces commander, 254 00:09:27.670 --> 00:09:30.380 who was the man in charge of operations in Afghanistan. 255 00:09:30.590 --> 00:09:33.390 And it was because the two had personal and strategic disagreements. 256 00:09:33.510 --> 00:09:34.250 But in all cases, 257 00:09:34.350 --> 00:09:37.980 the generals weren't sent to Guantanamo Bay with a bag over their head. 258 00:09:38.150 --> 00:09:38.410 I mean, 259 00:09:38.630 --> 00:09:39.410 the CIA 260 00:09:39.510 --> 00:09:40.220 did do that a lot, 261 00:09:40.270 --> 00:09:41.730 but just not with their own generals. 262 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:44.980 So by the time Trump returned to office for a second time, 263 00:09:45.510 --> 00:09:46.540 In 2025, 264 00:09:46.750 --> 00:09:49.620 his second administration starts a major leadership 265 00:09:49.620 --> 00:09:52.030 overhaul not seen since the 1930s. 266 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:56.090 The US generals weren't charged with crimes and sent to prison like in China. 267 00:09:56.260 --> 00:09:56.620 Instead, 268 00:09:56.710 --> 00:09:58.050 senior officers were just 269 00:09:58.190 --> 00:10:00.010 quietly passed over for promotion. 270 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:02.360 Others were encouraged to retire early 271 00:10:02.550 --> 00:10:04.270 or to resign or they were fired. 272 00:10:04.510 --> 00:10:06.640 We can't know for certain what's going on 273 00:10:06.640 --> 00:10:08.290 inside the heads of the Pentagon officials, 274 00:10:08.540 --> 00:10:10.660 because many of these personnel decisions 275 00:10:10.660 --> 00:10:12.940 happen without a detailed public explanation. 276 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.180 So when we talk about why these officers are being removed, 277 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.700 we're piecing it together from public statements, 278 00:10:18.870 --> 00:10:19.750 policy changes, 279 00:10:19.880 --> 00:10:21.160 congressional testimony, 280 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.350 and who is actually being replaced. 281 00:10:23.530 --> 00:10:26.870 Essentially we're reading between the lines instead of pretending we have 282 00:10:26.870 --> 00:10:29.260 access to the room where these decisions are being made. 283 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:30.230 In 2025, 284 00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:32.640 a massive change started to take place though. 285 00:10:32.800 --> 00:10:37.420 The Pentagon ordered a huge reduction of 20% of the four-star generals. 286 00:10:37.640 --> 00:10:40.230 Then they ordered a 10% cut to all flags. 287 00:10:40.490 --> 00:10:40.880 Officers, 288 00:10:40.970 --> 00:10:42.030 senior leaders 289 00:10:42.130 --> 00:10:44.590 who expected to hold their position for years, 290 00:10:44.810 --> 00:10:47.420 and they were suddenly dealing with just leaving in a few months. 291 00:10:47.770 --> 00:10:50.210 Commands that were supposed to transition gradually 292 00:10:50.510 --> 00:10:52.140 begin turning over very fast. 293 00:10:52.330 --> 00:10:53.720 It's a shock to the system. 294 00:10:53.810 --> 00:10:56.030 The military's least favorite thing is change, 295 00:10:56.170 --> 00:10:57.990 and its second least favorite thing is 296 00:10:58.200 --> 00:10:58.820 change. 297 00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:00.920 The highest ranking US military officer, 298 00:11:00.970 --> 00:11:02.350 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 299 00:11:02.530 --> 00:11:03.560 Charles Brown at the time, 300 00:11:03.650 --> 00:11:05.170 is fired by President Trump. 301 00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:07.280 The chairman is the principal military advisor. 302 00:11:07.430 --> 00:11:08.160 Adviser to the president, 303 00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:09.250 the Secretary of Defense, 304 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:10.890 and the National Security Council. 305 00:11:11.100 --> 00:11:12.620 This triggered speculation. 306 00:11:12.780 --> 00:11:17.220 Was all this about strategy or was it about disagreements behind closed doors? 307 00:11:17.430 --> 00:11:19.070 Was there not enough loyalty? 308 00:11:19.300 --> 00:11:20.170 On September 30, 309 00:11:20.260 --> 00:11:20.970 2025, 310 00:11:21.170 --> 00:11:23.240 US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 311 00:11:23.420 --> 00:11:26.010 and President Trump hold a massive in-person 312 00:11:26.010 --> 00:11:28.550 meeting with 800 of America's top generals, 313 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:29.210 admirals, 314 00:11:29.300 --> 00:11:31.060 and senior enlisted leaders. 315 00:11:31.260 --> 00:11:34.410 It was an unprecedented gathering of American military leadership. 316 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:35.390 At the meeting, 317 00:11:35.630 --> 00:11:38.220 they outline an overhaul of military standards. 318 00:11:38.510 --> 00:11:41.930 Hegseth is put in charge of firing and clearing out generals 319 00:11:42.070 --> 00:11:44.250 who disagree with the next direction. 320 00:11:44.390 --> 00:11:48.180 The clearest public face of this shake-up is the Defense Secretary, 321 00:11:48.310 --> 00:11:50.180 the War Secretary Pete Hegseth, 322 00:11:50.380 --> 00:11:52.580 the civilian official who's in charge of the Pentagon. 323 00:11:52.710 --> 00:11:54.780 He's a former Army National Guard infantry 324 00:11:54.780 --> 00:11:56.950 officer who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, 325 00:11:57.230 --> 00:11:58.890 later became a Fox News host, 326 00:11:59.070 --> 00:12:01.380 and was appointed by Trump in 2025. 327 00:12:01.810 --> 00:12:04.590 He's been one of the people most publicly arguing 328 00:12:04.610 --> 00:12:07.230 that the Pentagon's senior leadership needs to change. 329 00:12:07.370 --> 00:12:11.230 But Hegseth encouraged generals not on board with the new plan 330 00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:12.480 to leave the service. 331 00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:16.100 During his speech to these 800 some odd officers, 332 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:19.190 he compared himself to World War 2 Secretary of War. 333 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:20.910 He compared Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 334 00:12:20.910 --> 00:12:23.430 General Dan Kane to General George Marshall, 335 00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:28.260 the two men who were responsible for reshaping the US military prior to World War 2, 336 00:12:28.510 --> 00:12:30.400 the ones that we just talked about earlier. 337 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:32.470 So Hegseth framed this overhaul. 338 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:34.440 Firing of all this leadership 339 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:37.450 around preparing the force for future war. 340 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:41.050 Whether you think this is overdue reform or completely reckless, 341 00:12:41.140 --> 00:12:42.690 inexcusable overreach 342 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:44.710 is not really the point of this video, 343 00:12:44.820 --> 00:12:46.200 it's kind of besides the point. 344 00:12:46.420 --> 00:12:50.230 I find it crazy that the entire structure of the US military is being changed. 345 00:12:50.520 --> 00:12:52.520 Whether you agree with these changes or not. 346 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.090 These decisions have some pretty big consequences for the country. 347 00:12:56.250 --> 00:12:57.340 After the giant meeting, 348 00:12:57.490 --> 00:12:58.820 dozens of senior officers, 349 00:12:58.970 --> 00:12:59.360 generals, 350 00:12:59.490 --> 00:12:59.960 admirals, 351 00:13:00.010 --> 00:13:04.030 and military judges stepped down and announced early retirements. 352 00:13:04.290 --> 00:13:06.360 The US Army's top uniformed officer, 353 00:13:06.490 --> 00:13:07.310 the Chief of Staff, 354 00:13:07.490 --> 00:13:08.360 Randy George, 355 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:10.830 was pushed out into an early retirement. 356 00:13:10.970 --> 00:13:12.440 He was in charge of training, 357 00:13:12.610 --> 00:13:13.120 equipment, 358 00:13:13.290 --> 00:13:13.920 procurement, 359 00:13:14.010 --> 00:13:16.160 and running the entire United States Army. 360 00:13:16.270 --> 00:13:17.280 In the US, 361 00:13:17.650 --> 00:13:20.730 chiefs like this are typically allowed to complete their four-year terms. 362 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:23.540 So removing one early is highly unusual. 363 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:26.120 It's clear that no position is untouchable. 364 00:13:26.300 --> 00:13:27.810 It was a total restructuring. 365 00:13:27.860 --> 00:13:30.420 The Navy Secretary was fired in 2026. 366 00:13:30.580 --> 00:13:30.890 In fact, 367 00:13:30.980 --> 00:13:35.090 at least 6 of 8 top US military leadership have been fired, 368 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:35.570 left, 369 00:13:35.700 --> 00:13:37.200 or removed in the last year. 370 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:37.970 Behind the scenes, 371 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:39.490 civilian officials believe parts. 372 00:13:39.640 --> 00:13:41.160 The Pentagon had become too slow, 373 00:13:41.310 --> 00:13:42.270 too bureaucratic, 374 00:13:42.430 --> 00:13:43.410 and in some cases, 375 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:45.420 too resistant to policy direction. 376 00:13:45.550 --> 00:13:46.540 Right now at the Pentagon, 377 00:13:46.670 --> 00:13:49.010 there has been a string of procurement 378 00:13:49.150 --> 00:13:51.210 of new weapons systems that have failed, 379 00:13:51.390 --> 00:13:54.730 from billions of dollars in new frigates to failed light tanks. 380 00:13:54.950 --> 00:13:56.660 Both sides of the political aisle were 381 00:13:56.660 --> 00:13:59.100 starting to point blame at military leadership, 382 00:13:59.350 --> 00:14:02.930 blaming them for failing to respond to new threats like drones fast enough. 383 00:14:03.270 --> 00:14:04.170 And throughout all of this, 384 00:14:04.310 --> 00:14:06.810 the US military's top levels of leadership 385 00:14:07.010 --> 00:14:08.860 based its own corruption scandals. 386 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:11.860 There were years of revolving doors between people in the 387 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:15.010 defense companies and top levels of the military command. 388 00:14:15.260 --> 00:14:16.090 At a certain point, 389 00:14:16.260 --> 00:14:17.770 the line between retiring from the 390 00:14:17.770 --> 00:14:20.400 Pentagon and interviewing for a defense contractor 391 00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:22.530 chairman position got pretty blurry. 392 00:14:22.810 --> 00:14:23.550 At the same time, 393 00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:25.580 a new kind of war was emerging, 394 00:14:25.800 --> 00:14:28.590 one that was driven by fast-paced change in drone, 395 00:14:28.780 --> 00:14:29.750 cyberattacks, 396 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:31.830 and near peer competition with China. 397 00:14:31.880 --> 00:14:34.310 So inside the halls of Washington for many years, 398 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:35.910 there was a growing belief that the 399 00:14:35.910 --> 00:14:38.580 current generation of military generals were failing. 400 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:42.060 A good example is the US Army's new drone battalion in Europe, 401 00:14:42.280 --> 00:14:46.020 which was created to figure out how to integrate lessons from the war in Ukraine 402 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.230 into American drone tactics. 403 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.510 Hegseth later moved to shut the battalion. 404 00:14:51.280 --> 00:14:53.500 Reflecting a broader disagreement over whether 405 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:56.380 drones should live inside specialized units 406 00:14:56.510 --> 00:14:57.690 or be pushed down 407 00:14:57.870 --> 00:15:00.930 all the way to ordinary soldiers and formations. 408 00:15:01.150 --> 00:15:03.650 So underneath all the bureaucracy in the United States 409 00:15:03.830 --> 00:15:06.060 is a pretty important argument over funding, 410 00:15:06.550 --> 00:15:06.900 organization, 411 00:15:07.110 --> 00:15:09.180 and how the army actually fights. 412 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:10.580 Because if you get that wrong, 413 00:15:10.670 --> 00:15:12.450 then somebody 20 years from now 414 00:15:12.670 --> 00:15:14.820 gets to explain why they spent billions of 415 00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:17.740 dollars on the equivalent of really advanced horses. 416 00:15:17.870 --> 00:15:18.510 There's an important. 417 00:15:18.700 --> 00:15:20.160 Political layer to all of this. 418 00:15:20.260 --> 00:15:20.730 In China, 419 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:24.880 Xi Jinping has openly spent years tightening Communist Party control 420 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:28.760 over the military and removing officers whose loyalty he questioned. 421 00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:29.650 In the United States, 422 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:31.370 the situation is pretty different, 423 00:15:31.540 --> 00:15:32.850 but politics still matter. 424 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:37.220 The administration wants senior officers who will carry out its priorities. 425 00:15:37.430 --> 00:15:38.260 So in both countries, 426 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:40.570 these firings are also about who the 427 00:15:40.570 --> 00:15:43.000 political leadership trusts to command the military. 428 00:15:43.260 --> 00:15:45.890 The purge in China is on a whole other level though, 429 00:15:46.020 --> 00:15:47.950 and the Recent escalation in the purge 430 00:15:48.130 --> 00:15:52.770 is said to have to do with coups against Xi Jinping and a possible Taiwan conflict. 431 00:15:52.930 --> 00:15:53.770 In 2022, 432 00:15:53.890 --> 00:15:54.710 Xi Jinping 433 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:56.920 takes his military purge to the next level. 434 00:15:57.090 --> 00:16:00.280 120 of China's mid-level officers suddenly disappear, 435 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:01.640 are arrested and fired. 436 00:16:01.810 --> 00:16:04.920 This includes China's then Defense Minister who suddenly 437 00:16:04.920 --> 00:16:07.310 disappeared from public view for months on end. 438 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:09.160 And when he reappears a year later, 439 00:16:09.290 --> 00:16:10.830 he's charged with corruption. 440 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:14.250 He's one of the men given a suspended death sentence in 2020. 441 00:16:14.290 --> 00:16:14.930 26. 442 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:15.670 Although in China, 443 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:17.830 this means that the execution is delayed by a 444 00:16:17.830 --> 00:16:19.820 few years and it might not end up happening. 445 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:20.390 By now, 446 00:16:20.520 --> 00:16:23.030 nearly all the 30 generals and admirals who 447 00:16:23.030 --> 00:16:26.950 run key specialized departments and theater commands in China 448 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:28.510 have been totally expelled. 449 00:16:28.640 --> 00:16:30.630 Keeping your name on the command roster at this 450 00:16:30.630 --> 00:16:33.310 point was becoming its own form of job performance. 451 00:16:33.530 --> 00:16:37.980 Roughly 50 to 70% of all of China's generals have been fired or removed 452 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.570 since the purge started in one way or another. 453 00:16:40.640 --> 00:16:42.070 Then Xi Jinping starts. 454 00:16:42.160 --> 00:16:45.100 Targeting a very specific group of officers who are 455 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:48.860 responsible for China's most strategically important military unit, 456 00:16:48.950 --> 00:16:50.500 its ballistic missile force. 457 00:16:50.670 --> 00:16:53.650 The top 5 generals of China's rocket force are removed. 458 00:16:53.870 --> 00:16:55.410 Commander Lee is sacked. 459 00:16:55.570 --> 00:16:56.300 At the same time, 460 00:16:56.510 --> 00:16:59.870 Chinese officials call this part of an anti-corruption campaign. 461 00:17:00.030 --> 00:17:02.330 But speculation starts to rise that maybe 462 00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:04.619 these men simply weren't aggressive enough. 463 00:17:04.750 --> 00:17:07.569 Maybe they disagreed with war plans over Taiwan 464 00:17:07.750 --> 00:17:08.690 and would hesitate 465 00:17:08.829 --> 00:17:09.900 when the war started. 466 00:17:10.210 --> 00:17:11.470 In January 2026, 467 00:17:11.560 --> 00:17:14.910 the Chinese purge hits the second most powerful man in China, 468 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:15.950 General Zhang, 469 00:17:16.260 --> 00:17:17.880 second to Xi Jinping himself. 470 00:17:18.040 --> 00:17:21.700 He was arrested and accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the United States. 471 00:17:22.040 --> 00:17:25.579 Getting promoted in the PLA was starting to come with the occupational hazard 472 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:29.350 of becoming very interesting to the internal state security services. 473 00:17:29.560 --> 00:17:31.630 They were calling him a CIA asset, 474 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:32.980 and not a year prior, 475 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:35.060 he was best friends with Xi Jinping. 476 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:37.110 General Zhang was the only high. 477 00:17:37.310 --> 00:17:39.560 Ranking general with combat experience. 478 00:17:39.820 --> 00:17:42.880 He had served in China's war against Vietnam in the 1980s, 479 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:43.770 and because of this, 480 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:46.560 he had the respect of many young PLA soldiers. 481 00:17:46.780 --> 00:17:49.760 We know that Zhang likely wasn't sacked for incompetence 482 00:17:49.910 --> 00:17:51.850 because he was the man who oversaw China's 483 00:17:51.850 --> 00:17:54.580 rapid military modernization over the past decade, 484 00:17:54.820 --> 00:17:57.690 which makes the incompetence explanation a little awkward 485 00:17:57.860 --> 00:18:02.480 because Zhang's resume was basically the entire PLA's modernization brochure. 486 00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:04.250 He transformed the old PLA. 487 00:18:04.410 --> 00:18:05.670 Into a more efficient, 488 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:06.310 modern, 489 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:08.860 technologically advanced mechanized fighting force. 490 00:18:09.040 --> 00:18:10.510 Even American commanders 491 00:18:10.800 --> 00:18:13.660 say how great China's military modernization efforts are. 492 00:18:13.840 --> 00:18:15.180 Zhang may have been arrested 493 00:18:15.370 --> 00:18:18.540 because he was not politically on board with an invasion of Taiwan, 494 00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:22.080 because there's evidence that Zhang structured the troops' training schedule 495 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:24.100 so that they would not be ready in time. 496 00:18:24.280 --> 00:18:27.060 China experts claim that Xi Jinping had a preference 497 00:18:27.290 --> 00:18:29.110 to pursue speed and scale, 498 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.440 while Zhang favored a more focused and deliberate. 499 00:18:31.520 --> 00:18:32.040 Approach. 500 00:18:32.300 --> 00:18:35.640 Just look at how the Communist Party listed their priorities for the PLA. 501 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:38.850 It mapped out a huge range of developing capabilities, 502 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:40.600 including the rapid construction 503 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:42.890 of warships to enhance missiles. 504 00:18:42.990 --> 00:18:44.880 But under Vice Chairman General Zhang, 505 00:18:45.380 --> 00:18:47.160 resources were instead poured into 506 00:18:47.380 --> 00:18:51.190 unmanned platforms in this new type of network centric warfare. 507 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:52.850 Mao Zedong once said, 508 00:18:53.060 --> 00:18:55.450 our principle is that the party commands the gun 509 00:18:55.580 --> 00:18:56.370 and the gun 510 00:18:56.520 --> 00:18:58.490 must never be allowed to command the party. 511 00:18:58.820 --> 00:19:00.910 It's another way of saying the generals can have the 512 00:19:00.910 --> 00:19:03.520 weapon as long as everyone remembers who owns the trigger. 513 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:05.830 But why is it that in authoritarian countries, 514 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:07.820 the military leadership is executed 515 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:09.480 or removed by force? 516 00:19:09.610 --> 00:19:11.990 Why are Chinese and Russian generals arrested, 517 00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:13.900 imprisoned or executed in public. 518 00:19:14.050 --> 00:19:15.180 Their entire families 519 00:19:15.360 --> 00:19:17.360 often thrown into jail for treason. 520 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:21.100 Why aren't they just asked to retire or forced out like in the US military? 521 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:23.790 Part of the reason for this difference is because in China, 522 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:26.630 even when military officers leave their command, 523 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.190 their former troops stay loyal to them. 524 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:30.720 General Zhang, 525 00:19:30.800 --> 00:19:31.260 for example, 526 00:19:31.560 --> 00:19:35.270 many of his subordinates in his chain of command were more loyal to him 527 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:36.590 than Xi Jinping. 528 00:19:36.760 --> 00:19:41.060 The reason dictators jailed most of their popular generals in the past is because 529 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:43.900 a retired PLA general can still have hundreds 530 00:19:43.900 --> 00:19:46.470 of thousands of troops more loyal to him. 531 00:19:46.790 --> 00:19:47.580 And the party, 532 00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:50.900 the PLA is fundamentally a political organization. 533 00:19:51.110 --> 00:19:53.940 The army is an armed wing of the Communist Party. 534 00:19:54.190 --> 00:19:58.680 So ultimately this old vestigial patronage bribery system in the PLA 535 00:19:58.830 --> 00:20:02.890 had made an entire class of officers who were loyal to those who promoted them 536 00:20:03.270 --> 00:20:04.140 instead of the party. 537 00:20:04.450 --> 00:20:06.550 Those promotions were done through bribes. 538 00:20:06.730 --> 00:20:10.270 This is why it was so important for Xi Jinping from his perspective 539 00:20:10.450 --> 00:20:12.070 to root out corruption. 540 00:20:12.370 --> 00:20:15.240 Disloyalty from Chinese troops to General Zhang 541 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.050 could have been dangerous to his rule. 542 00:20:17.210 --> 00:20:18.280 It threatened him. 543 00:20:18.410 --> 00:20:21.460 If you let a powerful general retire in the PLA 544 00:20:21.570 --> 00:20:23.290 can actually be more dangerous. 545 00:20:23.530 --> 00:20:24.480 That makes popular, 546 00:20:24.650 --> 00:20:26.760 well-liked generals a loose end. 547 00:20:27.280 --> 00:20:31.810 These popular generals have often come back to destroy dictators in past history. 548 00:20:32.070 --> 00:20:34.420 History is filled with examples of dictators being 549 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:37.170 overthrown by their most popular military generals. 550 00:20:37.430 --> 00:20:40.570 Xi Jinping's fear of a coup from this general may not 551 00:20:40.710 --> 00:20:42.200 have been just paranoia though. 552 00:20:42.390 --> 00:20:43.340 On January 18, 553 00:20:43.470 --> 00:20:44.140 2026, 554 00:20:44.270 --> 00:20:48.140 Xi Jinping was supposed to be checking into a luxury hotel in Beijing. 555 00:20:48.530 --> 00:20:51.930 Then unconfirmed reports out of China claimed that General Zhang 556 00:20:52.050 --> 00:20:53.990 had planned to capture Xi Jinping 557 00:20:54.130 --> 00:20:55.580 and to overthrow his rule. 558 00:20:55.810 --> 00:20:56.240 Instead, 559 00:20:56.380 --> 00:20:59.480 Xi was tipped off ahead of time by someone within the operation. 560 00:20:59.810 --> 00:21:02.360 Zhang's men were ambushed by security forces and there 561 00:21:02.360 --> 00:21:04.950 was a fierce gunfight at the hotel allegedly. 562 00:21:05.210 --> 00:21:06.790 Both sides suffered losses, 563 00:21:07.010 --> 00:21:08.640 but in the end the coup plot failed. 564 00:21:08.850 --> 00:21:12.850 Shakin Xi Jinping ordered his most trusted friend arrested immediately. 565 00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:13.730 In Beijing, 566 00:21:13.980 --> 00:21:16.430 trusted friend was becoming a temporary job title. 567 00:21:16.660 --> 00:21:20.000 Whether those unconfirmed reports of a coup are true or not, 568 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:21.880 I take them with a big grain of salt. 569 00:21:22.100 --> 00:21:25.490 The larger point is that replacing senior military leaders 570 00:21:25.740 --> 00:21:27.200 makes a huge change, 571 00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:29.800 and there are multiple theories from different experts 572 00:21:29.940 --> 00:21:31.250 on how to read all of this. 573 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:34.570 The charitable interpretation is that both governments believe their 574 00:21:34.570 --> 00:21:37.730 militaries have serious problems and are replacing leaders. 575 00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:39.090 To make them more capable. 576 00:21:39.310 --> 00:21:41.580 The darker interpretation is that political leaders 577 00:21:41.580 --> 00:21:45.050 are also using military reform to consolidate control 578 00:21:45.190 --> 00:21:47.850 and surround themselves with commanders who are yes men, 579 00:21:48.150 --> 00:21:50.330 who they trust to blindly follow orders. 580 00:21:50.550 --> 00:21:51.540 Those two theories, 581 00:21:51.750 --> 00:21:54.650 those two explanations aren't mutually exclusive though. 582 00:21:54.830 --> 00:21:58.160 Generals can be removed because leadership think that they're ineffective, 583 00:21:58.180 --> 00:21:58.810 politically, 584 00:21:58.870 --> 00:21:59.640 unreliable, 585 00:21:59.750 --> 00:22:00.410 or both. 586 00:22:00.550 --> 00:22:02.350 The results of all of this is that. 587 00:22:02.530 --> 00:22:04.870 Experts have warned that it's left China and the United 588 00:22:04.870 --> 00:22:07.300 States less prepared to fight a war against each other. 589 00:22:07.560 --> 00:22:09.190 One can only hope it's true that these 590 00:22:09.190 --> 00:22:11.620 countries won't fight a war against one another. 591 00:22:11.800 --> 00:22:14.620 But history shows us leadership shake-ups like this 592 00:22:14.760 --> 00:22:15.790 can mean the opposite. 593 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.340 Periods of rapid military transformation 594 00:22:18.530 --> 00:22:22.360 often happen when governments believe the strategic environment has changed, 595 00:22:22.600 --> 00:22:25.540 and that makes what's happening in Washington and Beijing 596 00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:27.110 worth paying attention to. 597 00:22:27.730 --> 00:22:30.980 But no matter what the reason for the motivation for this purges, 598 00:22:31.530 --> 00:22:35.930 history has shown when all the world's top military leadership is removed. 599 00:22:36.700 --> 00:22:38.130 The hint of more to come. 600 00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:39.330 If you like this video, 601 00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:43.880 check out this episode on how the FBI is going after Mexico's corrupt politicians 602 00:22:44.060 --> 00:22:46.080 and the US is fighting the cartel in Colombia, 603 00:22:46.100 --> 00:22:47.740 or check out this playlist here. 604 00:22:47.940 --> 00:22:48.200 Remember, 605 00:22:48.220 --> 00:22:51.330 the Cappy Army Show is now available wherever you get your podcasts, 606 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:51.840 so 607 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:53.000 download it today. 608 00:22:53.180 --> 00:22:54.120 I'm Chris Cappy. 609 00:22:54.230 --> 00:22:55.410 See you in the next transmission.