The disappearing act of the secretary of Defense, and why it matters 

Many of us are sensitive about our personal health information. But most of us are not “public figures” — which raises the question of the level of responsibility President Biden has regarding his secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin who disappeared for days at the end of the year for a health scare that he failed to fully report.  

After a long delay, the Pentagon has offered an in-depth briefing of Secretary Austin’s health and condition as he battles prostate cancer. 

Initially, we were in the dark about Secretary Austin. 

The Pentagon’s announcement that the Defense secretary had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day shocked both the Pentagon press corps and national security professionals, leaving many concerned about the chief military official in America being out of commission for days while wars rage in the Middle East and Ukraine and tensions continue between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. 

Austin, who is 70, was hospitalized on Jan. 1, but nobody in the White House — not even President Joe Biden — knew of the fact until Jan. 4. The deputy secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, who would stand in for him in an emergency, didn’t know until Jan. 3, and even then she didn’t know he was in the hospital. She was vacationing in Puerto Rico. 

Austin was admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, who initially said he went to the hospital for “complications following a recent elective medical procedure.” Not exactly a fulsome answer. 

The story is important for three reasons. 

One is the notification process surrounding Austin’s hospitalization, which relates to defense orders, chain of command, and military authority. U.S. military forces are currently on high alert in the Middle East; two aircraft carriers are in the Mediterranean, as a deterrent to Iranian intervention in the Israel-Hamas war, and those carriers and other vessels have come under fire by Houthi rebels. Iranian-backed groups have repeatedly attacked U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea since the breakout of the Israel-Hamas war. 

“If Biden wanted any military forces anywhere in the world to take offensive action, his orders to the regional combatant commander would go through the secretary of defense,” according to Slate. “If Biden or his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called a ‘Principals Meeting,’ Austin would represent the Defense Department.” 

Second is the concern that our military has had over long delays in getting senior officials confirmed to lead this nation. In early December, the Senate finally confirmed promotions for hundreds of military officers whose nominations had been held up by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville for months. Tuberville’s hold was a way to protest a Pentagon policy on abortion that reimburses travel expenses for service members who have to travel to seek an abortion or other types of reproductive health care. There are still a handful of senior military officers awaiting confirmation for posts at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Space Command. 

Third is the poisoning of our public confidence in government, which this incident worsens. According to the Pew Research Center, trust in the federal government, which has been low for decades, has returned to near record lows following a modest uptick in 2020 and 2021. “Currently, fewer than two-in-ten Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right ‘just about always’ (1%) or ‘most of the time’ (15%),” Pew reports. “This is among the lowest trust measures in nearly seven decades of polling. Last year, 20% said they trusted the government just about always or most of the time.” 

As for the solution, the Defense secretary should step down and pay attention to his health for the well-being of the nation. It is clear that the notification process surrounding Austin’s hospitalization was lacking, although a full investigation is just beginning. 

In today’s partisan political atmosphere, with a presidential election looming, anyone serving in government must be on guard against mistakes or perceptions of mistakes (which, in Washington, D.C., is often the same thing). It takes little or nothing for one party to cry foul; already Republicans are talking about impeachment.  

In the end, it comes down to the definition of a “public figure,” which, according to a famous Supreme Court case, Gertz v. Robert Welch, resolved that a public figure is “an individual who has assumed roles of especial prominence in the affairs of a society or thrust themselves into the forefront of particular public controversies to influence the resolution of the issues involved.” 

That is the price of service. 

I wish Defense secretary well in his recovery. 

Tara D. Sonenshine is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and currently senior fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.