Herbert Raymond “H.R.” McMaster has been picked to serve as President DonaldTrump’s new national security adviser. The active duty 3-star Army general is expected to have a relatively easy confirmation process, as he is widely respected in Congress.

Here are some interesting things to

know about the new NSA

1. Herbert Raymond McMaster, known as “H.R.,” graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1984. In the mid-1990s, he worked as an assistant professor of history there.
2. He received a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He turned his thesis into “Dereliction of Duty,” a 1997 book critical of the country’s leadership during the Vietnam War.
3. McMaster is the first active-duty military officer in the national security adviser role since Gen. Colin Powell held the post during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure, and he will remain on active duty.
4. McMaster was among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014.
5. McMaster, served twice in Iraq, is a combat veteran who was awarded a Silver Star in the first Gulf War for his commanding of a tank during the Battle of 73 Easting.
6. He was twice passed over for promotion to general before finally earning the rank; some say his outspokenness and questioning of authority led to the delay in his career advancement.
7. He was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University from 2002 to 2003.
8. McMaster was critical of the Vietnam War and wrote a well-known book in 1997, titled Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. He criticized the U.S. government for the Vietnam War and argued that the Joint Chiefs should have pushed back against President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“We must address the question of responsibility for one of the greatest American foreign policy disasters of the twentieth century,” he wrote in the book.

9. McMaster served as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center before being appointed the national security adviser, the Associated Press reported.

Reactions on the choice

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has been critical of other aspects of Trump’s administration, called McMaster an “outstanding choice” and a “man of genuine intellect, character, and ability.”

“I could not imagine a better, more capable national security team than the one we have right now,” said McCain, a veteran who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

“H.R. is the most bull-headed, nicest, smartest, most ego-free person I think I have ever met,” says retired Army Col. John Nagl, who has known and worked with McMaster for more than 20 years.

“He is absolutely dedicated to taking care of America’s national interests,” adds Nagl. “Razor-sharp, and actually every once in a while even a little bit funny.”

As a soldier, Nagl says McMaster is the most demanding trainer of forces, and “the best implementer of both tactics and strategy, and the best military leader, I think, of his generation.”

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes congratulated McMaster on his appointment.

“With his history of questioning the status quo and infusing fresh thinking and new approaches into military affairs, Lt Gen McMaster will make a

additionfine  to the Trump Administration‘s national security team,” Nunes said.