Strong-willed and innovative, at times even iconoclastic, are the words being used to describe President Donald Trump’s choice for National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who replaces Lieutenant General Mike Flynn.
The Cipher Brief spoke with members of our network who have worked with McMaster and know him well to get a sense of how he will lead in this new position.
“He will challenge the status quo. When it comes to providing advice to the President, he will be very direct. He will not try to anticipate what the President wants. He will give the President his best advice and argue strongly for those positions,” said Retired General Jack Keane, former Acting Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
Retired Lieutenant General Guy Swan, who is now a Vice President at the Association of the U.S. Army, noted, “H.R. is an extremely strong-willed individual, which is a plus and can be a bit of a challenge. … He is a type A individual, you know, he is a go-getter, an aggressive individual, but maybe that’s what’s needed in the White House … to get his voice heard.”
McMaster, in the past, has challenged his superiors. Keane explained that when McMaster was a Colonel commanding a brigade in Iraq in the early 2000s, he put in place his own counter insurgency strategy in the city of Tal Afar. The military leaders – and McMaster’s bosses back then – “resented what he had done,” said Keane, but they “tolerated it because the results were so extraordinary.”
His counter insurgency strategy in Tal Afar became the basis of what was used in Anbar province, which was the beginning of the so-called “Anbar awakening,” Keane said.
Later, in 2007, “President Bush changed the military strategy to counter insurgency which became known as the ‘Surge’ that General [David] Petraeus implemented,” he noted.
McMaster’s other military credentials include playing instrumental roles as a young Captain in the Battle of 73 Easting during the Persian Gulf War and as a Brigadier General in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
McMaster is a “well-respected strategist,” said Swan, who has gone beyond military and army affairs and has experience in defense and national security, and to some extent, foreign policy. In Afghanistan, for example, McMaster led a counter corruption task force, where he was directly involved in stamping out corruption in the Afghani government.
“He’s got pretty solid credentials in defense as well as in foreign policy,” said Swan.
McMaster is in demand by Washington’s think tank communities, Swan commented, and recently has been making his rounds, speaking at the Center for International and Strategic Studies and the New America Foundation’s Future of War Conference last year.
Prior to accepting the position of National Security Advisor, McMaster dealt with the future of war as Deputy Commanding General of Futures at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Center. He was also Director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center.
In his new post, it is unclear whether McMaster will put in place his own national security team.
“In the case of General McMaster, I suspect that he will accept the staff as it is but I believe he has the authority to make changes as required,” said Keane, adding, “When we take over an organization in the military, whether it's a company, battalion, brigade or division, we take that organization as it is. What we want to do is strengthen that organization and add value because of our leadership. … General McMaster has done that throughout his career. I believe he will go into the NSC, accept the organization as it is, move forward with the people there, and develop that organization.”
President Trump already confirmed that Keith Kellogg, who had been the Acting National Security Advisor, will stay on as Chief of Staff of the NSC.
But Swan maintained that building a team he can work with in the White House will be the first and most important task for McMaster, followed by figuring out how to work with the White House Chief of Staff and other strategic advisors to make sure his voice is heard.
Although Swan said he has “great confidence” in McMaster’s abilities, the challenge for McMaster is “Where does he fit into a developing national security team at the White House and what will be the parameters that he will have to work under in that position?”
“It’s an enormously challenging job,” said Director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program at the Center for a New American Security Julianne Smith.
Smith, who served as Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, continued, “What will make this job particularly important is that McMaster will have to constantly work to develop policy solutions that bridge the ever widening gap between what the president says and what the rest of his cabinet says (take NATO as but one example). McMaster will also have to cope with competing centers of power in the White House (Presidential advisors Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon) that will undermine his role and continue to create questions inside the interagency and among our allies about who is actually calling the shots.”
“In other words, one of the world’s toughest jobs just got a lot tougher.”
McMaster is a graduate of West Point and holds a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation turned into a much acclaimed book, Dereliction of Duty, which is about the Vietnam War and criticizes the Joint Chiefs of Staff for not standing their ground against the administration’s faulty military strategy in Vietnam.
McMaster takes over for Mike Flynn, who resigned over allegations that he discussed U.S. sanctions with a Russian official before Trump took office and then misrepresented the content of that conversation to Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials.
President Trump’s first choice for Flynn’s replacement, Vice Admiral Bob Harward, turned down the job, citing personal reasons.
Kaitlin Lavinder is a reporter at The Cipher Brief. Follow her on Twitter @KaitLavinder.
