Trump Fires National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster

Eased out with a 4th star on the way and probably a Combatant Command recommendation...kinda how it works in DC when 3 stars take the NSA job. Worked that way for Alexander Haig and Colin Powell...
The rumor mill about the 60th Superintendent has included his name. Among many others.
 
USNA, USMA and USAFA Superintendents are all 3 Stars (LTGEN or VADM). Normally these are “put out to pasture” billets followed by retirement. I doubt LTGEN McMaster will be the Superintendent at USMA. My guess is he will get a 4th Star.
 
USNA, USMA and USAFA Superintendents are all 3 Stars (LTGEN or VADM). Normally these are “put out to pasture” billets followed by retirement. I doubt LTGEN McMaster will be the Superintendent at USMA. My guess is he will get a 4th Star.

K. Thanks.

Hope you're right. If he doesn't, it will speak volumes.
 
USNA, USMA and USAFA Superintendents are all 3 Stars (LTGEN or VADM). Normally these are “put out to pasture” billets followed by retirement. I doubt LTGEN McMaster will be the Superintendent at USMA. My guess is he will get a 4th Star.

I guess we were both wrong.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...aster-get-a-fourth-star-pentagon-theories-fly

I saw the story that he was retiring. I'm sorry to see his career end this way.

In no way do I believe that a military career or background should be a prerequisite for National Security Advisor, but it's impossible to read Amb. Bolton's history without murmuring a long "Hmmmmm."

https://www.military.com/daily-news...s-split-bolton-national-security-adviser.html

I don't see much introspection when I read:

He had supported the war but wrote in his Yale University 25th reunion book: "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."

There isn't much introspection in his OIF post mortem either.

Compare that to McMaster, who at roughly the same time (Mid 1990's) devoted himself to figuring out just what went wrong with US efforts in SE Asia, that a bright young man like John Bolton would hide from service. At least one point of the book was to make sure that, in the future, bright young men like Tom Cotton and Seth Moulton would embrace the opportunity to serve.

Maybe, if Amb. Bolton were following Condoleezza Rice or Susan Rice it wouldn't strike me the same way.
 
Well, no where does that statement imply he was hiding from service. Given his age I'm confident he was in college until at least '69 and would have had a student deferment. He then joined the National Guard.

Henry Kissinger was certainly non-military and never served in any military forces. Best damned National Security Adviser we ever had.

I actually agree with him on the war. Certainly by '68 it was clear we were exiting that conflict and America's heart was not in it. What was Nixon's slogan in '68? I believe it was "Peace with Honor". I'm no Bolton booster or apologist, but it would be nice if we could stick to facts and not conjecture.
 
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Henry Kissinger was certainly non-military and never served in any military forces.

Henry Kissinger did serve in the military, he was a Sergeant in the Army during WW2, he worked in Intelligence. It was fascinating reading about his time as a CIC Agent tracking down the Gestapo as well as his work in de-Nazification of areas he was in control of, he was awarded the Bronze Star during his time and saw combat including dangerous intel work during the Battle of the Bulge. Because of all his accomplishments over the years, people sometime forget the important roles he played in WW2 and right after the war.

A very fascinating person in our history to read about.
 
Well, no where does that statement imply he was hiding from service. Given his age I'm confident he was in college until at least '69 and would have had a student deferment. He then joined the National Guard.

Henry Kissinger was certainly non-military and never served in any military forces. Best damned National Security Adviser we ever had.

I actually agree with him on the war. Certainly by '68 it was clear we were exiting that conflict and America's heart was not in it. What was Nixon's slogan in '68? I believe it was "Peace with Honor". I'm no Bolton booster or apologist, but it would be nice if we could stick to facts and not conjecture.

Some observers believe the Vietnam War was close to being won in 1972. The Viet Cong were defeated. The rural countryside was nearly 100% pacified. Guerilla war was no more. You could drive a jeep from Saigon to Danang without a weapon and be safe. North Vietnamese Army launched an all out invasion, the Easter Offensive, of South Vietnam in April of that year and were decisively defeated. During that offensive, the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) stood and fought. US air power, with new laser guided "smart" bomb technology, ruled the skies and wiped out hundreds of Soviet-built tanks. Later that year, Nixon's much-maligned Christmas Bombings saw fleets of B-52s unleashed on the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi & the primary port city of Haiphong for the first time, with devastating effectiveness. More damage was caused to North Vietnamese war infrastructure in 10 days than was done in the previous eight years combined. By the time of the armistice in January of 1973, America's POWs were being returned in reasonably good health, with North Vietnam not wanting to release a couple thousand starving, beaten scarecrows having improved treatment of these prisoners in recent years. By 1973 the South Vietnamese has a million men under arms, as a result of Nixon's successful Vietnamization program (which should have begun in 1962, not 1969). The South Vietnamese had the fifth largest air force on earth.

Inside South Vietnam, there was no Jeffersonian democracy, but newspapers and radio stations in Saigon and the major cities could publish openly criticize the government or the army or the Americans. You could hardly say the same for North Vietnam. Movie theaters operated. Businesses functioned. Taxes were paid. Saigon had a working stock exchange. Privately owned cars and motorcycles created traffic jams. Politically, South Vietnam came a very long way over the previous decade. Reasonably free and fair elections took place, in a new country with no tradition of democracy. The days of a president winning 99% of the vote or disgruntled generals taking power through coups were over. Sure, corruption wasn't completely wiped out, but it was kept to a manageable level.

After a decade of intense US involvement in South Vietnam, the country was a paradise compared to Iraq a decade after the 2003 US invasion. All thanks to General Creighton Abrams, who took over from General William Westmoreland and performed miracles while the US was steadily withdrawing its troops, and President Richard Nixon, who was steadfast in his leadership.

All this makes it so much more of a damn shame that the entire thing collapsed in 1975. Lots of blame so spread around. The 1973 oil embargo and dramatic price increases hit South Vietnam hard, and North Vietnam (100% subsidized by the Soviet Union) not at all. The global economic recession of 1973-1974 followed. The rapid decline of both economic and military aid from the US, whose population was exhausted of the entire Vietnam experience. Sure, the democrats held the majority in Congress in 1974-1975, but nobody was protesting very much (including President Gerald Ford) when they dramatically decreased aid to the South Vietnamese.

Had the peace of 1973 been more like that on the Korean peninsula after 1953, South Vietnam may have survived.
 
Henry Kissinger was certainly non-military and never served in any military forces.

Henry Kissinger did serve in the military, he was a Sergeant in the Army during WW2, he worked in Intelligence. It was fascinating reading about his time as a CIC Agent tracking down the Gestapo as well as his work in de-Nazification of areas he was in control of, he was awarded the Bronze Star during his time and saw combat including dangerous intel work during the Battle of the Bulge. Because of all his accomplishments over the years, people sometime forget the important roles he played in WW2 and right after the war.

A very fascinating person in our history to read about.

Born Heinz Kissinger to a Jewish German family, Henry Kissinger emigrated to the US in 1938, after Kristalnact, fleeing the Nazis whom almost certainly would have murdered him. He was 15 and spoke no English when arriving in New York City. He didn't become an American citizen until after he was serving in the US Army (a "dreamer" of sorts, 1943-style.) He was trained as an infantryman but in Europe, in the 84th Division, his German language skills (he STILL hasn't lost the accent, to this day) he was reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps. He saw action during the Battle of the Bulge. The 84th Division spent about 170 days (almost six months) in combat, suffering some 7,200 casualties (killed, wounded & captured) out a division with 16,000 man strength.

http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/84thinfantry/index.html

http://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/9809.asp

While Secretary of State, Kissinger handled negotiations as diverse as Leonid Brezhnev, Anwar Sadat, Mao Tse-Tung, Le Duc Tho, etc. All wanted to discuss Kissinger's war experiences and immigrant experience in America.
 
Well, no where does that statement imply he was hiding from service. Given his age I'm confident he was in college until at least '69 and would have had a student deferment. He then joined the National Guard.

@kinnem, I like people like you because they keep me honest. You are correct. I should not have used the term "hiding". Amb. Bolton graduated from Yale in 1970, joined the Maryland National Guard and attended Yale Law school at the same time. I can't judge what was in his heart; only what he said. What he said was was also said by many other young men who went on to lead honorable lives. Like them, he avoided active duty military service. I said it is interesting to contrast his views of the era with those of Gen McMaster. One engaged in serious reflection and introspection publicly. One has not. Nothing more nothing less.

Henry Kissinger was certainly non-military and never served in any military forces. Best damned National Security Adviser we ever had.

I think you'd have to admit that Brent Scowcroft was pretty good. Bush 41 had exceptional foreign policy chops going in and maybe his challenges were less than Kissinger/Nixons's, but the rapid collapse of the USSR and the lightening quick retreat from their sphere of influence, by all accounts, shocked the intelligence and national Security community at the time. Bush and Co. had to make it up as they went.
 
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