Herbert Raymond McMaster (born July 24, 1962) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 25th United States National Security Advisor from 2017 to 2018. He is also known for his roles in the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Born in Philadelphia, McMaster graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1984 and earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. His dissertation was critical of American strategy and military leadership during the Vietnam War and served as the basis for his book Dereliction of Duty, which was a NYT Bestseller and is widely read in the United States military. During the Gulf War, then Captain McMaster commanded Eagle Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment in the Battle of 73 Easting.
After the Gulf War, McMaster attended graduate school at UNC Chapel Hill then taught military history at the United States Military Academy from 1994 to 1996. After serving as a squadron executive officer and a regimental operations officer in the 11th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Irwin, California, he commanded the 1st Squadron 4th Cavalry at Schweinfurt, Germany from 1999 to 2002. After an Army War College Fellowship at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, he served as an executive officer and director of the Commander's Advisory Group at United States Central Command forward headquarters command in Qatar. In 2004, he took command of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment and fought the Iraqi insurgency in South Baghdad and Tal Afar from 2005 to 2006 after which he became a top counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Baghdad from 2007 to 2008. Brigadier General McMaster was the Director of Concept Development and Learning at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2012, he commanded Task Force Shafafiyat (Transparency), International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Major General McMaster commanded Fort Benning, Georgia and the Maneuver Center of Excellence from 2012 to 2014. In 2014, Lieutenant General McMaster became Director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General (Futures) at TRADOC.
In February 2017, McMaster succeeded Michael Flynn as President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor. He remained on active duty as a lieutenant general while serving as National Security Advisor, and retired in May 2018. McMaster resigned as National Security Advisor on March 22, 2018, effective April 9, and accepted an academic appointment at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, in 2018.
McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visiting Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business., serves as the chairman of the Board of Advisors at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a distinguished visiting fellow at Arizona State University.
McMaster is also the host of Battlegrounds With H.R. McMaster, a platform for leaders from key countries to share their assessment of problem sets and opportunities that have implications for U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy.
Early life H.R. McMaster was born in Philadelphia on July 24, 1962. His father, Herbert McMaster Sr., was a veteran of the Korean War who retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel. His mother, Marie C. "Mimi" McMaster (née Curcio), was a school teacher and administrator. He has a younger sister, Letitia. He attended Norwood Fontbonne Academy, graduating in 1976; and high school at Valley Forge Military Academy, graduating in 1980. He earned a commission as a second lieutenant upon graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984.
McMaster earned a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). His thesis was critical of American strategy in the Vietnam War, which was further detailed in his NYT bestselling book Dereliction of Duty (1997). The book details how and why the Vietnam War became an American war. It harshly criticized high-ranking officers of the era, arguing that they inadequately challenged Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson on their Vietnam strategy. The book examines McNamara and Johnson's staff alongside the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other high-ranking military officers, and their failure to provide a successful plan of action either to pacify a Viet Cong insurgency or to decisively defeat the North Vietnamese Army. McMaster also details why military actions intended to indicate "resolve" or to "communicate" ultimately failed when trying to accomplish ambiguous, confusing, and conflicting military objectives. The book was reportedly much read in Pentagon circles and included in military reading lists.
Military career
McMaster's first assignment after commissioning was to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, where he served in a variety of platoon and company-level leadership assignments with 1st Battalion 66th Armor Regiment. In 1989, he was assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Warner Barracks in Bamberg, Germany, where he served until 1992, including deployment to Operation Desert Storm.
During the Gulf War in 1991 McMaster was a captain commanding Eagle Troop of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of 73 Easting. During that battle, though significantly outnumbered and encountering the enemy by surprise as McMaster's lead tank crested a dip in the terrain, the nine tanks of his troop destroyed 28 Iraqi Republican Guard tanksGal Perl Finkel, US National Security Adviser Faces Challenges at Home and Abroad, The Jerusalem Post, February 22, 2017. without loss in 23 minutes.
McMaster was awarded the Silver Star. The now famous battle is featured in several books about Operation Desert Storm and is widely referred to in US Army training exercises. It was also discussed in Tom Clancy's 1994 popular nonfiction book Armored Cav.
McMaster served as a military history professor at West Point from 1994 to 1996, teaching among other things the battles in which he fought. He graduated from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1999.
McMaster commanded 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, from 1999 to 2002, and then took a series of staff positions at U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), including planning and operations roles in Iraq.
In his next job, as lieutenant colonel and later colonel, McMaster worked on the staff of USCENTCOM as executive officer to Deputy Commander Lieutenant General John Abizaid. When Abizaid received four-star rank and became Central Command's head, McMaster served as Director, Commander's Advisory Group (CAG), described as the command's brain trust.
In 2003 McMaster completed an Army War College research fellowship at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In 2004, he was assigned to command the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR). Shortly after McMaster took command the regiment deployed for its second tour in Iraq and was assigned the mission of securing the city of Tal Afar. That mission culminated in September with Operation Restoring Rights and the defeat of the city's insurgent strongholds. President George W. Bush praised this success, and the PBS show Frontline broadcast a documentary in February 2006 featuring interviews with McMaster. CBS's 60 Minutes produced a similar segment in July, and the operation was the subject of an article in the April 10, 2006, issue of The New Yorker.
Author Tim Harford has written that the pioneering tactics employed by 3rd ACR led to the first success in overcoming the Iraqi insurgency. Before 2005, tactics included staying out of dangerous urban areas except on patrols, with US forces returning to their bases each night. These patrols had little success in turning back the insurgency because local Iraqis who feared retaliation would very rarely assist in identifying them to US forces. McMaster deployed his soldiers into Tal Afar on a permanent basis, and once the local population grew confident that they weren't going to withdraw nightly, the citizens began providing information on the insurgents, enabling US forces to target and defeat them. After hearing of McMaster's counterinsurgency success in Tal Afar, Vice President Dick Cheney invited McMaster to personally brief him on the situation in Iraq and give an assessment on what changes needed to be made to American strategy.
McMaster passed command of the 3rd ACR on June 29, 2006, and joined the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, as a Senior Research Associate tasked to "conduct research to identify opportunities for improved multi-national cooperation and political-military integration in the areas of counterinsurgency, counter-terrorism, and state building", and to devise "better tactics to battle terrorism."
From August 2007 to August 2008, McMaster was part of an "elite team of officers advising U.S. commander" General David Petraeus on counterinsurgency operations while Petraeus directed revision of the Army's Counterinsurgency Field Manual during his command of the Combined Arms Center. Petraeus and most of his team were stationed in Fort Leavenworth at the time but McMaster collaborated remotely, according to senior team member John Nagl.
Based on his date of rank as a colonel, McMaster was considered for promotion to brigadier general by annual Department of the Army selection boards in 2006 and 2007 but was not selected, despite his reputation as one of "the most celebrated soldiers of the Iraq War." Though the Army's rationale for whether a given officer is selected is not made public, McMaster's initial non-selection attracted considerable media attention.Fred Kaplan, Slate.com, Annual General Meeting: Finally, the Army is Promoting the Right Officers, August 4, 2008Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy magazine, McMaster Gets His Star, July 16, 2008 In late 2007, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren requested that Petraeus return from Iraq to take charge of the promotion board as a way to ensure that the best performers in combat received every consideration for advancement, resulting in McMaster's selection along with other colonels who had been identified as innovative thinkers.Ann Scott Tyson, "Army's Next Crop of Generals Forged in Counterinsurgency", Washington Post, May 15, 2008
In August 2008, McMaster assumed duties as Director, Concept Development and Experimentation (later renamed Concept Development and Learning), in the Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) at Fort Monroe, Virginia, part of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. In this position he was involved in preparing doctrine to guide the Army over the next 10 to 20 years. He was promoted on June 29, 2009.Hoover Institution, H.R. McMaster promoted to brigadier general in the U.S. Army, August 15, 2009 Of the 978 members of the West Point Class of 1984 commissioned into the U.S. Army, McMaster was the second promoted to General Officer. In July 2010 he was selected to be the J-5, Deputy to the Commander for Planning, at ISAF (International Security Assistance Forces) Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.
McMaster was nominated for major general on January 23, 2012, and selected to be the commander of the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning.U.S. Army News Release, McMaster Tapped for Promotion, Command of Benning, April 4, 2012 In February 2014, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel nominated McMaster for lieutenant general.