What was it like to work with President Donald Trump? Day in, day out, in the White House, down at

Maralago, traveling around the world? What was that like?

General HR McMaster on Uncommon Knowledge. I'm Peter Robinson, a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army and a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

H.R. McMaster served from 2017 to 2018 as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump.

General McMaster graduated from West Point,

earned a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

and played important roles in the Gulf War,

the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.

During the Gulf War, the Tank Unit he commanded engaged in perhaps the most decisive tank battle

since the Second World War. The outcome, 28 Iraqi tanks destroyed.

American casualties? Zero. A warrior, but also a historian.

In 1997, General McMaster published dereliction of duty, Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara,

the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the lies that led to Vietnam.

A book that remains essential reading in much of the officer corps today.

In 2020, General McMaster published Battlegrounds,

The Fight to Defend the Free World.

Which brings us to General McMaster's new book

published just this summer

at war with ourselves,

my tour of duty in the Trump White House.

HR, welcome.

Peter, it's great to be with you.

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