Who is the national security adviser
The role of the national security adviser
24 days that's how long michael Flynn
was president Trump national security
advisor the shortest tenure ever for
someone in that position but what does
the National Security Advisor actually
do and how important is the job for you
know national security well the office
is in the West Wing and the heart of the
job is monitoring the pulse of the
National Security Council which brings
together the State Department Pentagon
the intelligence community and military
advisors in order to formulate foreign
policy the National Security Council is
sort of the president's friend and
helping him or her figure out what
policy options should be considered and
then making sure overseeing the process
is very implemented until you traipse a
lot of the big decisions in history
especially in the last several decades
the National Security Council has really
been at the center of framing the
choices and then figuring out how
they're going to be implemented critical
decisions like reacting to the Cuban
Missile Crisis escalating the war in
Vietnam responding to 911 invading Iraq
and killing Osama bin Laden there is no
part of the government that's more
important town 4,000 person preferred a
different national security advisers
brings different strengths and
weaknesses to the job Henry Kissinger
was a brilliant academic who was so
simpatico with President Nixon that he
was considered more powerful than the
Secretary of State the big new
Brzezinski had President Carter's ear
but he didn't always get along with his
colleagues which resulted in an
ideological split inside the
administration these are two examples of
those who use this position to push
policy and convince the president they
were right but other national security
advisers were much more like referees
than quarterbacks Prince Tokra who have
the job under presidents board at Bush
41 saw his role as coordinating policy
making sure everyone felt heard and that
the process was fair you can go through
history and each adviser had the
relative strength
this is but I would kind of put out
Brent Scowcroft at Exhibit A for exhale
three national security advisers
Kissinger Colin Powell and Condoleezza
Rice went on to become secretaries of
state meanwhile like his campaign
president Trump's national security
council is anything but conventional
especially after he gave chief
strategist seed Bannon a seat at the
table this is unprecedented its
controversial controversial because
presidents in the past have always
believed that it was important to
separate politics from national security
with that controversy took a backseat to
the explosive news that Trump national
security adviser michael Flynn was
stepping down his resignation took place
following revelations that he had
discussed lifting sanctions with the
Russians and hadn't been forthcoming
about that conversation especially with
vice president Mike Pence the issue
purely simple came down to a matter of
trust and the president concluded that
he no longer had to trust or the
National Security Advisor the question
now not just who president Trump takes
to succeed Flint but what kind of
advisor he hires a Kissinger or a
Scowcroft so when it comes to picking
the National Security Advisor and
understanding what that job entail at
least you can say no to get it
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