Well, I think McMasters, perhaps less capably than Mattis--but still-commendably, did the best he could as NSA in what we all know now was a 100% hopeless situation. Ring-knocker? I guess. Find me any general--or any high-level leader at all--who doesn't have an ego...but I never heard HR talk about the academy either. Anyway, I actuall…
Well, I think McMasters, perhaps less capably than Mattis--but still-commendably, did the best he could as NSA in what we all know now was a 100% hopeless situation. Ring-knocker? I guess. Find me any general--or any high-level leader at all--who doesn't have an ego...but I never heard HR talk about the academy either. Anyway, I actually agree on the Vietnam analysis...but that's not the thing that got him notoriety. What did were the in-house critiques and assessments that were far more specific, and forward-looking ideas for the force. His assessments 14 years ago of where the Russians were going turned out to be spot-on when they invaded Crimea. My uncle--the second-most well-read human I've ever known (to Mattis. Mattis has 11k books and has read them all. I'm not kidding), worked with HR for about 2 years before he left to the White House and had only good things to say about him--and my uncle is notoriously critical of almost everyone. So...I guess my point is, it's almost universally-easy to take shots at these guys once they reach public status. Is H.R. McMaster a "genius?" No, I don't believe so. But within the incredibly conservative, intransigent bureaucracy known as the U.S. Army, he was able to find a balance between between outspoken maverick...and rising high enough to actually MAKE a difference (I believe he did)--and yes, I had a friend in 1998 who got into a full-out email FEUD with him about "selling out," (part of an anti-Boomer op-ed I'm writing right now AMAF)--so it's not a "pure" thing either. Yet, I still think he did more good than harm, by a lot. And he certainly never disgraced himself like MacGregor has.
That's interesting about the rest of HR's C.V. Thanks for pointing out. Glad to know we agree about the Vietnam analysis. You might find "The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club: Naval Aviation in the Vietnam War" of interest. It even includes how the "North Vietnamese torpedo boats" at Tonkin Gulf were actually the reflections of the moon and the lightning flashes off an enormous school of flying fish that annually transit the Gulf at that time of year; LBJ was actually the only guy who got it right when he said - on being first informed of the "incident" - that "... Those poor dumb sailors were probably shooting at flying fish."
Mattis and your dad had a close competitor - Dick Best, the guy who sank the Akagi at Midway. The living room of his house here in L.A. was two stories high, and lined with book shelves to the ceiling on all four walls. And he'd read them all.
Well, I think McMasters, perhaps less capably than Mattis--but still-commendably, did the best he could as NSA in what we all know now was a 100% hopeless situation. Ring-knocker? I guess. Find me any general--or any high-level leader at all--who doesn't have an ego...but I never heard HR talk about the academy either. Anyway, I actually agree on the Vietnam analysis...but that's not the thing that got him notoriety. What did were the in-house critiques and assessments that were far more specific, and forward-looking ideas for the force. His assessments 14 years ago of where the Russians were going turned out to be spot-on when they invaded Crimea. My uncle--the second-most well-read human I've ever known (to Mattis. Mattis has 11k books and has read them all. I'm not kidding), worked with HR for about 2 years before he left to the White House and had only good things to say about him--and my uncle is notoriously critical of almost everyone. So...I guess my point is, it's almost universally-easy to take shots at these guys once they reach public status. Is H.R. McMaster a "genius?" No, I don't believe so. But within the incredibly conservative, intransigent bureaucracy known as the U.S. Army, he was able to find a balance between between outspoken maverick...and rising high enough to actually MAKE a difference (I believe he did)--and yes, I had a friend in 1998 who got into a full-out email FEUD with him about "selling out," (part of an anti-Boomer op-ed I'm writing right now AMAF)--so it's not a "pure" thing either. Yet, I still think he did more good than harm, by a lot. And he certainly never disgraced himself like MacGregor has.
That's interesting about the rest of HR's C.V. Thanks for pointing out. Glad to know we agree about the Vietnam analysis. You might find "The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club: Naval Aviation in the Vietnam War" of interest. It even includes how the "North Vietnamese torpedo boats" at Tonkin Gulf were actually the reflections of the moon and the lightning flashes off an enormous school of flying fish that annually transit the Gulf at that time of year; LBJ was actually the only guy who got it right when he said - on being first informed of the "incident" - that "... Those poor dumb sailors were probably shooting at flying fish."
Mattis and your dad had a close competitor - Dick Best, the guy who sank the Akagi at Midway. The living room of his house here in L.A. was two stories high, and lined with book shelves to the ceiling on all four walls. And he'd read them all.