The“Austin Communication Gap” A Crisis of His Own Making

By all accounts, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has been very good at his job for the past three years. As a former, highly decorated, four-star Army General and “soldier’s soldier,” he served honorably from 1975-2016 earning five Defense Distinguished Service Medals, Silver Star for bravery in combat, and two Legions of Merit.

In recent years Austin has traveled the world as “Sec Def” visiting troops in war zones, engaging with allies, and acting with resolve against the poly-threats that face the US and its interests. Which brings us to the current threat to his own interest.

• The “Austin Communication Gap” started on January 5th when the Pentagon announced that he had been admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center four (!) days earlier on January 1st for complications from an unnamed medical procedure.?
• What? A whole raft of VIPs including his boss President Joe Biden, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken,?Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the US Congress, and the rest of the world – had no idea he was on MC (Medical Certificate, as we say here in Singapore, when you get a doctor’s pass) or that he was being treated for prostate cancer.
• Austin had his initial, elective medical procedure on December 22nd, then returned home. On New Year’s Day he was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital intensive care unit in extreme pain (it turned out to be a post-op infection that’s being successfully treated). As you read the above paragraph, you know exactly what the US President found out on January 5th!

A quick pause to recognize that any form of cancer and its treatment is a very personal challenge; all cancer patients should be supported and cared for at the highest level possible. There is no room for guilt or embarrassment around seeking treatment.

• While “regular” people can choose whom to tell (or not) about their personal, medical condition, high-level government officials in our 21st Century communication environment (and the transparency it requires) don’t have that option. In December 1978, then-President Jimmy Carter announced to the world (some said too) openly that he would take several days of bed rest for a bad case of hemorrhoids. Yes, he was the, um, butt of many jokes and his advisors wanted to downplay the news. But Carter was convinced the public had a right to know the full story.

Back to today… at a time when wars are waging around the world, and other security threats abound - citizens need to know that our high-level government officials are fully on the job, and if they’re not, why. For what it’s worth, the DoD has said Austin had “full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoD’s day-to-day operations worldwide” during his treatment. The massive fallout and the crowing from left and right politicians and the White House about how Austin should have told someone (anyone!) before the hospital visit is spot on. They’re all right.

In Crisis Communications we know that it just takes a moment to damage otherwise sterling reputations. I believe the “Austin Communication Gap” will become a cautionary tale and case study in the reasons why clear, forthright communication is so important. It’s well-established that releasing your own “bad news” on your terms and with your framing, is always better than someone else releasing it, who might not know the full picture.

Had Austin, on December 20th, publicly announced that he was going to have a minimally invasive procedure to treat prostate cancer, everyone would have wished him well and gotten on with their Christmas shopping and parties. Now he (and the White House) will spend months in a key election year recovering the high-ground of a crisis that was of his own making and completely avoidable.?