Colonel Nathan Jessup - Character Sketch.
Nathan Jessup was a high-ranking office in the United States Army. He was based in Gitmo, and army in Cuba and he had a code of ethics that he and his men followed. A Private Santiago was in his command and he was basically a screw up. Col. Jessup does not tolerate screw-ups and the Col. took care of Santiago by ordering two soldiers to do an illegal act called a "Code Red". What they did was actually murder Santiago on Jessup's orders; and now the two officers were being charged with his murder, but a cover up was to follow and Jessup would show his true colors in the confrontation between Jessup and Kaffee in the final scene of movie.
He is a very arrogant person as shown in the first meeting with Kaffee in Cuba where he said "we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it" what he is saying is that he has full control of everything that goes on and it is nobody's business but his own. He also says he doesn't give a damn what Kaffee thinks, that he is entitled to show his power and arrogance over Kaffee.
He is a bigot with saying such comments as "he deals with bullets and bombs and blood, he doesn't want any medals. But what he doesn't want is Kaffee to stand there in his fagotty white uniform and Harvard mouth extending courtesy, he also goes on to say if you haven't got a blowjob from a superior officer, you"re just letting and opportunity pass you by. .
He is a controlling man as he also states that "he runs his unit how he wants to run his unit, he shows control and power by saying that he eats his breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill him, so don't think you can come down here and flash a badge and make me nervous. He is showing his attitude and power and control all together. He lives by the code and he makes his men follow that code; whether it leads to murder or whatever the case may be .