McMaster writes of his White House time with surprising detachment.

He is clearly not a man who suffers fools gladly and Battlegrounds, his assessment of the US’s strategic imperatives, does not shy away from exposing the many weaknesses in the country’s foreign policy.

Without question, Battlegrounds emanates from noble sentiments. The former national security advisor is concerned for our nation’s future and takes readers on a global tour evaluating the threats from Russian disinformation campaigns to Chinese authoritarianism and Iranian efforts to become a nuclear power. The world is a dangerous place, yet in McMaster’s view, self-satisfied American policymakers have placed the nation at risk because they somehow 'forgot that they had to compete.'.

In it, we learn almost nothing about his interactions with Trump or his personal opinion of the man. McMaster holds up this decision as a virtue, prefacing his book with a brushback statement that amounts to a pox on both houses.

Those who were hoping Battlegrounds would be a vehicle for settling scores with the president will be disappointed. McMaster is not John Bolton. Rather, he endeavors to call balls and strikes in assessing foreign policy.

... McMaster’s criticisms of his former boss are more nuanced than one might expect.