The Cost of Loyalty

Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military

De: Tim Bakken

Narrado por: Lance C. Fuller

Bloomsbury presents The Cost of Loyalty by Tim Bakken, read by Lance C Fuller.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020

A courageous and damning look at the destruction wrought by the arrogance, incompetence, and duplicity prevalent in the U.S. military—from the inside perspective of a West Point professor of law.

Veneration for the military is a deeply embedded but fatal flaw in America’s collective identity. In twenty years at West Point, whistleblower Tim Bakken has come to understand how unquestioned faith isolates the U.S. armed forces from civil society and leads to catastrophe. Pervaded by chronic deceit, the military’s insular culture elevates blind loyalty above all other values. The consequences are undeniably grim: failure in every war since World War II, millions of lives lost around the globe, and trillions of dollars wasted.

Bakken makes the case that the culture he has observed at West Point influences whether America starts wars and how it prosecutes them. Despite fabricated admissions data, rampant cheating, epidemics of sexual assault, archaic curriculums, and shoddy teaching, the military academies produce officers who maintain their privileges at any cost to the nation. Any dissenter is crushed. Bakken revisits all the major wars the United States has fought, from Korea to the current debacles in the Middle East, to show how the military culture produces one failure after another.

The Cost of Loyalty is a powerful, multifaceted revelation about the United States and its singular source of pride. One of the few federal employees ever to win a whistleblowing case against the U.S. military, Bakken, in this brave, timely, and urgently necessary book, and at great personal risk, helps us understand why America loses wars.©2020 Tim Bakken (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Axe to grind?

As a retired (female) military officer myself, I’m familiar with much of what the author had to say. On many occasions I found myself thinking “so true!” However, in many other moments I felt the author just hates Westpoint (WP) and military officers. It didn’t help that he tells us straight out that WP senior officers didn’t listen to him and he felt wronged by WP. He makes gross generalizations about officers and characterizes military personnel as incompetent monsters. He was also very very partisan which for me lowers the veracity of one’s analysis. Overall, I felt like the author was forming an obviously biased brief about an organization he is hell bent on taking down. He drew conclusions to a lot of matters that he couldn’t possibly know the complexity of as authoritative and absolute. Because of this, I found myself questioning the legitimacy of his references and wondered if he broad brushed other media to find other authors whose views matched his own. Finally, a drinking game could be made with the number times the author used “penchant,” “hubris,” and “Westpoint.”

At last, the truth!!!

Fantastic, refreshing, gratifying...and horrifying. We need more people like Tim to help make our world a better place.

Must Read

If you were ever in the military you must read this book. The author tell you all about the military academies.

Trust is What Makes Armies Function

I completed this book a few weeks ago. However, in the environment of COVID, George Floyd and Vanessa Guillen, its premises on flaws within the military deserve inspection and review. While I dismissed some of the hyperbole from his time at West Point based on my perspective as a non-Academy grad instructor, I could appreciate Bakken's perspective. His critique of the services, to include combat performance, management of criminal justice (to include sexual assault / harassment and drugs), and the aftermath of conflict (Tillman, Gallagher, and Lorance) are worth reflection. While many of his recommmendations appear unsuitable, infeasible, or impractical, they may be under consideration by the national politic if we fail to act. In an era where our “dissociation from civilian society,” and perception of prioritizing loyalty over truth can have long lasting effects on civil-military relations, this book is a reminder to not let the hubris of our past impact leading our military formations of tomorrow.

Interesting, realistic take weakened by tone

I enjoyed the book and are very familiar with the material discussed. My real complain is that the author sabotaged himself with the overall tone he applied to the book: he sounds like an extremely grieved person venting. The facts he focused so much on the Academies, specifically west point adds to that notion. He could have made this a more profound, objective book by focusing less on west point, and more on the experience in the actual force. That would have required more research than just citing readily available material like he did. I understand it most be difficult, but it would have added effectiveness to his argument.

Interesting discussion

Definitely highlights troubling issues that face the American military and nation as a whole. A little too focused on West Point being the center of the Army universe, which it is not, and comes across as myopic.

Biased, Inconsistent, & Incoherent Rant

I struggled to get through this audiobook. From the very onset, it was clear that the author was extremely biased. I ended up doing some research on him and discovered that he still works at West Point. Protected under Federal Whistleblower laws, the author is clearly using his protected status to poke West Point, the Army, and greater Department of Defense in the eye with this smear. The information appears largely inaccurate and inconsistent as the author goes on ranting for hours upon hour. Only in the final 20 minutes does he actually present any recommendations, which essentially boil down to getting rid of the military academies, replacing all military leaders, and essentially getting rid of the military.

Personally, I think the author is simply upset by his life choices. Never having served in the military, I think he feels inadequate compared to his military and veteran colleagues at West Point. Despite his continuous claims of military hubris, I think the author is the one that has some serious issues. Somehow, he thinks, despite lacking any military experience, should be the Dean or Superintendent at West Point.

I also question his “facts.” He made several mistakes throughout, such as talking about “M5” assault rifles (really talking about M4) and staring that retired Colonels collect over $200,000 a year in pensions ( a retired Colonel with 28 years service receives just $108,000 a year). The blatant errors and falsehoods make me question the authors other claims. Overall, his clear lack of knowledge with regard to the military suggested to me that the last place this guy should be working is the United States Military Academy.

I ended up returning the book after I finished listening.... I hardly ever do that.

Trash

This was filled with so many factual falsehoods I couldn’t finish. Utter waste of money.

Opinion Posed as Truth

I am a career infantryman with 17 years of active duty service, and while the military has plenty of real issues worth criticism, this book does not accurately capture them.

The author is not military; he is a civilian professor of law at West Point. While West Point is a prestigious academic institution, it is not the military in practice or spirit. His experience comes from the classroom, not from serving with soldiers in the field or in operational settings. That perspective matters, because throughout the book he misrepresents or distorts key points. He rarely lies outright, but he consistently leaves out context—whether from ignorance or intention—in ways that spin the narrative.

Much of his complaint centers on privileges he did not receive as a civilian professor, compared against those granted to active duty faculty. He portrays this as unfair without acknowledging that those benefits were tied to service, not to the teaching position. This sets the tone for much of the book.

Errors of fact also undermine his credibility. For example, in the original edition he referred to the M4 carbine as the “M5 rifle”—a basic mistake that reveals a lack of familiarity with military equipment. These kinds of inaccuracies are small but telling.

Perhaps the greatest oversight is his failure to recognize that officers are only half of the leadership equation. What makes the U.S. military unique is its NCO corps, which he barely mentions, because he has no experience with it. Without that perspective, any assessment of loyalty, leadership, or culture is incomplete.

I read this book on the recommendation of one of my platoon leaders as an exercise in listening to perspectives I might not agree with. On that level, it has value—it will challenge your patience and sharpen your ability to consider opposing viewpoints. But if you are looking for a truthful account of the military’s inner workings, this is not it. The military has its faults, sometimes severe, but this book misses the mark.

In my view, The Cost of Loyalty belongs in the fiction section, not on the shelf of serious military analysis.