President-elect Biden Chooses First Black Leader of Pentagon

President-elect Joe Biden will name retired¹ four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be his secretary of defense². The choice – while not yet announced publicly – was confirmed to The Associated Press by four people aware of Biden's decision.

Biden offered the position to Austin on Sunday and he accepted, said one of the people aware of the process. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon.

As a career military officer, the 67-year-old Austin may face opposition³. The secretary of defense is a political job. Some congressmen and others believe in clearly separating civilian⁴ and military leadership of the Pentagon.

Although many former defense secretaries have served briefly⁵ in the military, only two — George C. Marshall and James Mattis — have been career military officers. Marshall was the organizer of the post-war European Recovery Program, also called the Marshall Plan.

Congress created the position of secretary of defense in 1947 as a way to make sure the agency is kept under civilian control. It set a legal rule requiring that a former member of the military must be retired for seven years or more before being permitted to serve.

Austin retired from the Army in 2016. So he will need to receive a special congressional waiver in order to become secretary of defense. President Donald Trump's first Pentagon chief, James Mattis, also had to receive the waiver.

Mattis' time at the Pentagon is considered by some to show why a retired military officer should wait seven years before becoming secretary of defense. Mattis mostly looked for information and advice from other military officers and not from civilians⁷. He resigned in December 2018 to protest some of Trump's policies.

Biden selected Austin over another leading candidate for the position, Michele Flournoy. Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official, would have been the first woman to serve as secretary of defense. Biden also considered Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon lawyer and former secretary of homeland security.

Austin is widely recognized for his military service, which includes leading troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was commander in Baghdad of the Multinational⁸ Corps-Iraq in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president. He returned to lead U.S. troops from 2010 through 2011. At the time, Biden was vice⁶ president.

In 2009-2010, Austin ran the joint⁹ staff during part of Navy Admiral Mike Mullen's term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Lloyd will make a superb secretary of defense," Mullen said in a statement.

In 2012, Austin served as the first Black vice chief of staff of the Army. The next year, he took command of U.S. Central Command. There, he created and began carrying out U.S. military plans for defeating Islamic State militants¹⁰ in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, at an event Tuesday to introduce his new health team, Biden said the United States was about to enter a "dark winter" as it attempts to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Biden discussed the three goals of his first hundred days in office: increase the use of masks around the country, vaccinate¹¹ up to 100 million Americans, and reopen the country's schools.

Biden's new health team will include Dr. Anthony Fauci, who will be Biden's chief medical advisor¹² on the coronavirus. Fauci is now the director of the National Institute of Allergy¹³ and Infectious Diseases. Working along with Fauci, Biden asked Jeff Zients, an economic adviser¹⁴, to become coronavirus "czar." He will run pandemic operations for the government, including the distribution of millions of doses of vaccines¹⁵.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was chosen as the secretary for health and human services. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, will be asked to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Vivek Murthy will return to the office of the Surgeon General, which he filled during the Obama administration.

Words in This Story

waiver – n. an official document indicating that someone has given up or waived¹⁶ a right or requirement

staff – n. a group of people who work for an organization or business

superb - adj. excellent or brilliant in a very noticeable way

mask - n. a covering used to protect your face or cover your mouth

distribution - n. give something out to people

dose - n. an amount of a medicine to be taken at a given time

1 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

5 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

8 multinational   

adj.多国的，多种国籍的；n.多国籍公司，跨国公司

参考例句：

• The firm was taken over by a multinational consulting firm.这家公司被一个跨国咨询公司收购。
• He analyzed the relationship between multinational corporations and under-developed countries.他分析了跨国公司和不发达国家之间的关系。

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

11 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

12 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

13 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

14 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

15 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

16 waived   

v.宣布放弃( waive的过去式和过去分词 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等）

参考例句：

• He has waived all claim to the money. 他放弃了索取这笔钱的权利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I waived the discourse, and began to talk of my business. 我撇开了这个话题，开始讲我的事情。 来自辞典例句