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James Zumwalt is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the 1989 intervention into Panama, and Desert Storm.
Lieutenant Colonel Zumwalt writes extensively on foreign policy and defense issues, having written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The San Diego Union, Parade magazine and various online publications.
His articles have covered issues of major importance, oftentimes providing readers with unique perspectives that have never appeared elsewhere. This has resulted, on several occasions, in his work being cited by members of Congress and entered into the US Congressional Record.
His thoughtful perspectives earned him an invitation to join the prestigious Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), of which the honorary co-chairmen at that time were Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Jon Kyl, former Secretary of State George P. Schultz and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey.
While the CPD, in an earlier manifestation was a non-partisan organization with one goal “to stiffen American resolve to confront the challenge presented by terrorism and the ideologies that drive it,” the group more recently re-emerged with a goal to educate and inform American citizens and policymakers about the existential threats presented by the People’s Republic of China.
LtCol Zumwalt is featured as one of 56 US military professionals in “Leading the Way,” a book by best-selling author Al Santoli, which documents the most critical moments of the interviewees' combat experiences from Vietnam to Somalia. He has also been cited in numerous other books and publications, including TIME magazine, for unique insights based on his research on the Vietnam war, North Korea (a country he visited ten times and about which he is able to share some very telling observations) and Desert Storm.
LtCol Zumwalt is the author of three books: “Bare Feet, Iron Will: Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields,” “Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty,” and “Doomsday Iran: The Clock is Ticking,” as well as a chapter contributor to two books on leadership by Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic, USN (Ret.)
He speaks on many of the issues about which he writes, including lessons learned from the Vietnam war based on interviews with those who served on the opposite side of the battlefield.
In interviewing nearly 200 former North Vietnamese veterans (including their Commanding General, Nguyen Vo Giap), he gained fascinating insights as to how a fighting force, weak in technology but strong in commitment and ingenuity, was able to wage an effective war against a vastly superior high-tech enemy.
Based on his personal interrogations of dozens of senior enemy officers during Desert Storm, he is able to contrast his findings of the Vietnamese mindset with that of Iraqi fighting forces which, while stronger in technology but weaker in commitment and ingenuity, proved unable to meet the same challenge.
Additionally, LtCol Zumwalt can provide unique insights on the Middle East, the global war on terrorism and the causes of Islamic extremism. He speaks about potential conflicts of the future, posed by countries such as Iran, North Korea, Russia and China.
Moving a bit slower in his seventies, LtCol Zumwalt still looks to make a humanitarian contribution whenever possible, leading him to spend most of April 2022 at the Ukrainian border assisting a non-governmental organization to relocate orphans out of harm’s way.
LtCol Zumwalt’s family has a tradition of military service dating back to the American Revolutionary War.
As the son of one of the 20th-century’s great naval heroes, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., who appeared on the December 21, 1970 cover of TIME magazine and was recognized in 2018 by Military Officer magazine as one of the one hundred most impactful military leaders over the previous one hundred years, LtCol Zumwalt also speaks about leadership and the personal characteristics that contributed to his father's tremendous success.
The Navy honored the admiral with a most unique ship—the world’s first stealth destroyer—that now bears his name.
LtCol Zumwalt has spoken at numerous high schools and colleges. Additionally, he has been a Veterans Day guest speaker at the Reagan Library. He has spoken to both civilian and military groups, the latter including the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, and the Naval War College in Newport, RI.
In 2019, LtCol Zumwalt was honored by his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, receiving the NROTC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Lt Col Zumwalt has two adult children. His daughter is a prosecutor in Maryland. His son served two tours in Iraq as a Navy bomb technician, defusing more than 150 explosive devices—and becoming the fourth family generation to earn the Bronze Star—before transitioning to the much safer profession of conducting insurance assessments.
LtCol Zumwalt and his wife, Karin, reside in Lakewood Ranch, FL where they are raising two young adopted boys who keep them active.
