STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here are three things to know about H. R. McMaster, President Trump's new national security adviser. The first is that he led an armored force in the 1991 Gulf War, destroying an Iraqi force in minutes. The second is that he returned for the second Iraq War and was praised for his combat service again. The third thing involved time spent in a library.
ANDREW EXUM: What's interesting about H. R. was what he did in between the wars.
INSKEEP: Andrew Exum is a man who knows McMaster. Exum is an Iraq veteran himself who later served in the Pentagon post under President Obama. He's also one of many defense specialists who has read McMaster's writing.
EXUM: He wrote this doctoral dissertation which became a best-selling book about the failure of the Joint Chiefs, really criticizing his own institution. And that cemented his intellectual reputation within the military, which has gone along with a pretty formidable operational reputation.
INSKEEP: The book was titled "Dereliction Of Duty." It's about how the United States got caught up in the quagmire of Vietnam and is all about how past presidents, in that era, gathered military advice.
EXUM: The main thrust of the book details the failure of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military leadership, to give their best military advice to, first, President Kennedy but mainly President Johnson about the escalation in Vietnam. What fascinated me when H. R. McMaster was nominated to be the secretary's national security adviser was a second facet of the book that's a little less explored, which is the tendency of both Kennedy and Johnson to rely on a very small group of advisers outside the formal NSC process, which was a departure from the Eisenhower administration.
And when I went back and read those passages after H. R. was named, you know, it struck me that that's very akin to the way in which this president has thus far operated with respect to some major decisions, relying on a small group of informal advisers, which in some ways insulates him from the formal processes that are meant to give him best advice. It will be fascinating to see whether or not H. R. is successful in bringing back some discipline to the national security decision-making process.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk that through with concrete examples with this president. H. R. McMaster will be asked to coordinate National Security Council responses to Syria, what to do about ISIS, what to do about Russia. Can you take us through one of those situations and explain why you feel it's important to have, as you say, discipline, rigor, a variety of options? Why are those things important?
EXUM: One is in the fight against the Islamic State. Donald Trump has been very clear that he wants to escalate the fight against the Islamic state, that he wants a plan from his military leaders to deliver decisive defeat against the Islamic State in the near term. The Obama administration was very much focused on this as well, but they had made the decision, in conjunction with the military leaders, to work by, with and through local partners. That's meant that the campaign has been longer. It's been messier. But it hasn't involved a lot of U.S. ground troops.
INSKEEP: In other words, you get the Iraqis to fight on the Iraqi side of the border; you get Kurds to fight on the Syrian side of the border.
EXUM: That's right. One option, before the Trump administration, would be - is that the right answer? - that if you're trying to really accelerate the defeat against the Islamic State, should you commit more ground troops? That's something that, quite frankly, the military leadership has looked at. And it will be important for the military leadership to be able to walk the president through why it arrived at the decisions and recommendations that it did and to give the president a wide range of options with all of those risks and advantages that are associated with that.
INSKEEP: Have you met a H. R. McMaster?
EXUM: I have. I've known him for over a decade.
INSKEEP: And what's he like?
EXUM: He is a real presence. He's a large man. He is a big bowl of a guy but somewhat soft-spoken with a wicked sense of humor, one of the more intelligent people with whom I have ever spoken. I think it's no hyperbole to say that he's one of the more talented officers that the United States Army has ever produced, having distinguished himself not just intellectually but also at various echelons of command and very different types of conflicts.
INSKEEP: You just described him, academically, writing this book where he said what he thought even though it would annoy a lot of people. Is that the way that he's like face-to-face - he looks at you and says what he thinks, period?
EXUM: I think he's constitutionally incapable of not giving you his best military advice. That may be because (laughter) so much of his academic reputation is staked on doing just that.
INSKEEP: Is it your instinct that he's the right person for this particular job?
EXUM: I think he comes into this job with strengths and weaknesses. His weaknesses being that he doesn't have a personal relationship with this president and that he hasn't spent a lot of time in Washington in the political realm. I think what worries me most is simply the temperament of the president. I can't imagine any national security adviser having an easy time with a president who gets tired on a phone call with Australia - Australia, of all places - and wrecks relations with, arguably, our closest military partner.
I can't imagine any national security adviser would have an easy time with the president waking up and, you know, making an offhand comment about Sweden because of something, you know, that he saw on Fox News the night before. It would drive any national security adviser mad. I'm sure it'll do the same thing for H. R. McMaster. The fact that he does not suffer fools gladly, I think, will lead to some fireworks in the National Security Council. But I think those will be fireworks for the country's benefit.
INSKEEP: Andrew Exum, thanks very much for coming by.
EXUM: Sure thing.
INSKEEP: He's now a contributing editor at The Atlantic magazine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.