Ep. 1: H.R. McMaster on the Gulf War

Biography H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. He is the author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam.  Times 03:10 - Introduction 04:02 - Biography 06:35 - Leading Eagle Troop 08:16 - Post Cold War preparation for Desert Shield and Desert Storm 15:17 - The Battle of the 73 Easting 23:17 - Advantages of the American military 26:12 - Overconfidence in American military dominance 29:16 - China's reaction to the Gulf War and technological development 32:30 - China's tactics 35:04 - The Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan Recorded August 31, 2021

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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history. Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and former China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras. The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.   Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Visit our Substack for episode transcripts Follow along on Instagram