According to a CCTV News report on September 25, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth ordered hundreds of U.S. military generals to assemble urgently at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week without explaining the reason.
According to people familiar with the matter, this "extremely unusual instruction" was almost sent to senior commanders of the US military stationed around the world. The directive was issued earlier this week and comes months after Hegseth's team at the Pentagon announced plans for a full integration of the top military command.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed in a statement on the 25th that Hegseth "will hold talks with senior military leaders early next week", but did not provide more details.
Two U.S. officials reluctant to disclose their names said the discussions at the meeting would focus on the need to uphold the “Warrior’s Spirit” throughout the army, according to Reuters.Other officials said the meeting, which will last about an hour, could involve other areas.
One official said that given the fact that several senior officials will meet in the same place, the meeting could discuss some substantive issues, such as the government’s new defence strategy and the expected cuts in top military personnel — even though those are not officially on the agenda.
The event is expected to take place at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, officials told reporters. Some of the highest-ranking generals are expected to fly to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the “Ministry of War.”
According to reports, Hegerseth, who hosted the Fox News Channel, rebuilt the department at an astonishing rate. He fired senior generals, sought to implement Trump's national security agenda, and abolished his allegedly discriminatory diversification initiative.
In May this year, Hergezs proposed to cut the number of four-star officers by 20 percent and the number of generals in the National Guard by at least 20 percent, he explained, “The increase in the number of generals and generals will not bring more success.”
Michael O 'Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, criticized that convening so many senior military officers "endangers normal command and control capabilities" and described the meeting as "looking more like a show".
Former Pentagon official Mark Cancian said the meeting was “very unusual”: the scale of the meeting, limited preparation time and no clear agenda, making it “unprecedented.”
According to CCTV4, the US "Politico" website disclosed that in the upcoming US 2025 National Defense Strategy Report, Pentagon officials suggested that the United States should give priority to defending the US soil and the Western Hemisphere, followed by fighting against opponents such as China and Russia. The report believes that this adjustment of national defense strategy is a big shift from past strategies. It was from Trump's first term that the United States listed the so-called "strategic competition among major powers" as the top priority of its national security strategy.
After Trump opened his second term, the flag clearly pushed the so-called “America’s Priority” policy. U.S. Defense Secretary Hertz said in an interview that the biggest threat the United States faces at the moment comes from borders.
The Atlantic Monthly website notes that since January 2025, the role and tasks of the U.S. military have changed significantly, both inside and outside the U.S. For example, in the U.S., the National Guard is frequently used to address security issues in cities such as Los Angeles and Washington.
It is that the new version of the U.S. Defense Strategy will also determine the position of U.S. military deployment on a global scale in the coming period. Previously, the think tank "Defense Priority" released a report, suggesting a major adjustment to the U.S. military deployment globally.
The main contents include drastically reducing the size of troops stationed in Europe and the Middle East, and reducing the number of U.S. troops deployed in these two regions from 90,000 and 40,000 to 60,000 and 25,000 respectively.
Reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea and Okinawa while moving some U.S. troops in Okinawa to other parts of Japan and the Second Island Chain, South Korea and Okinawa’s defense tasks will be mainly carried out by the Korean Army and Japanese Self-Defense Forces.
Daily economic news is synthesized from CCTV News, Reference News, CCTV4, and Financial Associated Press