--- title: Chuck Hagel: Why the Secretary of Defense Is Resigning description: His low-profile demeanor ill-suited for ISIS fight canonical: https://time.com/3602263/hagel-pentagon-retreat/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T15:48:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:19:29.097Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Chuck Hagel is Resigning og:description: His low-profile demeanor ill-suited for ISIS fight og:url: https://time.com/3602263/hagel-pentagon-retreat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cbc259d491e482b/69876a8c524fc07914deaefa/chuck-hagel-resign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3200 og:image:height: 1800 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel embrace during a press conference to announce Hagel's departure at the White House on Nov. 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Chuck Hagel is Resigning twitter:description: His low-profile demeanor ill-suited for ISIS fight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cbc259d491e482b/69876a8c524fc07914deaefa/chuck-hagel-resign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hagel Retreats from Pentagon Under Fire > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Nov 24, 2014 3:48 PM UTC  You can see it by Obama’s bowed head and Hagel’s sorrowful face – this is an “I’m sorry” hug, plain and simple. You can see it by Obama’s bowed head and Hagel’s sorrowful face – this is an “I’m sorry” hug, plain and simple.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Nov 24, 2014 3:48 PM UTC Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is [stepping down](http://time.com/3602096/chuck-hagel-pentagon-resign/), after he and President Barack Obama concluded that his low-key style—despite his military experience in Vietnam—isn’t well-suited for the expanding war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). The sudden change at the top of the President’s national-security team comes after the Administration seemed slow to react to ISIS’s rise over the past year, and responded with what many inside the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill saw as a timid bombing campaign launched in August. Some Hagel allies were quick to defend him, saying he was doing the job the way the White House wanted him to do it. But others said his languid style—on display during his lackluster confirmation hearing in January 2013—left him vulnerable to criticism from those who want a more aggressive military strategy. **MORE:** [3 people who could replace Chuck Hagel](http://time.com/3602266/secretary-defense-hagel-obama/) The decision to seek a new top Pentagon civilian came after several weeks of discussion between Obama and Hagel following the Democrats’ shellacking in the mid-term elections. Hagel, as the lone Republican in Obama’s Cabinet, “began speaking with the President about departing the Administration, given the natural post-midterms transition time,” a senior Administration official said. News of Hagel’s departure was first reported by the New York _Times_. Hagel, 68, served as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam, and was the first grunt to run the Defense Department. He served as a GOP senator from Nebraska from 1996 to 2008, and took over a Pentagon exhausted by 12 years of war and facing budget cuts, only to see conflict erupt in Iraq and Syria. He quarreled with the White House’s National Security Council, especially over the best approach to deal with the three-year old Syrian civil war, which incubated ISIS. Hagel recently sent a memo to National Security Adviser Susan Rice arguing for more clarity on how to deal with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. “Hagel was chosen for pliability,” former Army officer and scholar Ralph Peters says. “Yet, in the end he emerged as a man of conscience telling the President things he did not want to hear.” Candidates to succeed Hagel include Ashton Carter, who has served as the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian, and Michèle Flournoy, who would be the first woman to hold the job. Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., also could be tapped, Pentagon officials say. Hagel plans to stay on until his successor is confirmed. It was notable when Hagel testified alongside Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Dempsey was the one who made news. While Dempsey overshadowed Hagel—particularly on the possible need to send U.S. ground troops in to fight ISIS—in part that was due to Hagel’s quiet demeanor. Neither Hagel nor his associates had given any sign he was getting ready to leave the Pentagon after less than two years on the job. Hagel conceded last week that the U.S. and its military is facing challenges well beyond ISIS, stretching from Iran to Russia. “If we’ve had such good policies over the years, then we probably wouldn’t be in this situation,” he told PBS’s Charlie Rose on Wednesday. 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