A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times

Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration.

From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.

This unvarnished look inside the Pentagon during the Trump presidency details:

• An Unprecedented Test of Civilian Control: The shocking, minute-by-minute account of President Trump asking if the military could “just shoot them” American citizens during the protests of June 2020.
• Navigating a Volatile White House: Never-before-told stories of how sober minds pulled the nation back from the brink of war with Iran and avoided other conflicts the president and his aides proposed.
• Confronting National Security Threats: A clear-eyed assessment of the growing threats from China and Russia, and the difficult, long-overdue effort to modernize the U.S. military for a new era of great power competition.
• Leadership Through a Global Pandemic: The inside story of the Pentagon’s fight against COVID-19, from protecting the force to the historic effort behind Operation Warp Speed.