Will History Be Kind to General Milley and His Phone Calls to China?

In January 2021 General Milley was the top military officer in the United States government.

The office of the COJC has established back channels for direct communications with its foreign counterparts. These back channels have been successfully used to stave off aggression from adversaries since the 1950s.

Milley made 2 known back channel calls to China’s top general, Li Zuocheng. The first was in October 2020 when intelligence suggested (incorrectly) that the U.S. was considering an attack on China. Milley told China this was untrue in an attempt to cool tensions between 2 nuclear powers.

The second was made in the days after January 6th, where Milley re-assured the U.S. was “100 percent steady.”

If you consider the political context of these moments, was it reasonable for Milley to have reached out to China to ensure them we had no intention of attacking China and that the Government was still in the hands of the elected leadership?

China only knows what its intelligence arm reports, and a large part of that intel is based on open source. On January 6th and the days immediately after, it was hard for anyone to really tell what had happened or the scope (whether large or small).

These phone calls are what prompted Trump to insinuate Milley should be executed.

Many believe, although Milley was the COJC, it was really directed at his office and what that office represents. Taking it one step further, it was directed at the military as a whole, or more specifically, anyone in the military Trump feels is not loyal to him (keeping in mind officers take an oath to the Constitution, not party or president).

In this context, do you believe history will be kind to Milley regarding these episodes? Overall I think it will, especially if Trump is not re-elected.