National security

The good, the bad and the ugly of H.R. McMaster’s national security advice

A year ago, the name H.R. McMaster would have evoked near-unanimous praise from the national security community. He was a venerated tank commander and counterinsurgency warrior who earned a PhD in history. He wrote a widely praised book about the failure of military leaders to challenge civilian leadership on Vietnam War strategy. And although no one was thinking about it in mid-January, he seemed like a much better person to advise a president than, say, Michael Flynn.

That was then, and now McMaster is Trump’s national security adviser. This would have been a challenging job for anyone given the current president’s … um … let’s say “decision-making style.” Last month McMaster went on the record to acknowledge that on foreign policy, Trump “has moved a lot of us out of our comfort zone, me included.” Reports about friction between McMaster and Trump have fueled widespread speculation about his departure in 2018.