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General Mark A. Milley twice called a senior Chinese general to say that he himself would give China advance warning if the United States was preparing to make an attack against the Asian giant.
These two calls happened before the November 2020 presidential election. One occurred on Oct. 30 and the other on Jan. 8, according to information revealed by the new book ‘Peril,’ written by Bob Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, and national reporter Robert Costa.
“In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike,” read a Washington Post article.
According to what is described in the WaPo, General Milley’s calls to the Chinese general were “prompted” because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not trust either the ability or the state of mind of former President Donald Trump, so he decided to go behind the former president’s back.
“The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China,” reads the WaPo.
In that first call, General Milley said, “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, (…) We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”
He then told General Li that “if we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
General Milley talked to Pelosi about Trump’s “insanity”
The second call came in the context of the Capitol takeover. Milley called the Chinese general “to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6.”
“We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes,” Milley told Li.
Because General Milley believed Trump had suffered a mental deterioration after the November election, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also reached out to House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi to explain what was happening with the former president. According to the book’s transcripts, Pelosi told Milley that Trump was “insane” and he said he agreed.
According to the book, Milley secretly worked to limit Trump as much as possible, including restricting access to nuclear codes through system locks, according to one of the transcripts of the conversation between Pelosi and Milley.
The WaPo report explains that Pelosi demanded to know, “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?” Gen. Milley told her there were “a lot of checks in the system.”
The book also explains that, unlike with Trump, General Milley chose not to constrain Democratic President Joe Biden in terms of his foreign policy decisions at all. “Here’s a couple of rules of the road here that we’re going to follow. One is you never, ever box in a president of the United States. You always give him decision space.” General Milley said of Joe Biden, “You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is.”
According to Jack Posobiec, a White House official said, “Several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath, per WH official.”
The recent revelations in the book ‘Peril’ are generating criticism against General Milley, whom some are calling a traitor and even calling for his arrest.
“Milley needs to be arrested for treason. Congress must act on this now, as we all know the Biden administration will do nothing,” tweeted veteran Amber Smith.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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