Brigadier General Herbert McMaster, jr. was born on July 24th 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at about 4 o’clock in the morning, giving him the HS of Cancer 06 “a boxer skipping rope,” a symbol suggesting his dexterity and skill in enlisting his varied experience in the greater service of the self. The downside is an overeager concern about the security of state shown by his Ascendant square Part of Fortune 07 Aries 57 (the news of an eastward storm) in the 10th house.
Read more: C496, Gen Herbert McMaster & dereliction of duty
Our header picture is of the General with his wife, Kathleen Trotter, the eldest daughter of retired Orange County, California Judge John K. Trotter and one of 7 children. She and McMaster met before he graduated from West Point and were married in 1983. They have 3 girls, Katharine, Colleen and Caragh (Gaelic for Cara).
McMaster’s Chart
McMaster’s chart highlights two important things in his life both spotlighted with asteroids. This first is his army career 01 Taurus 55 with asteroid Armor conjunct the Moon 02 Taurus 55. This encompasses both his West Point education and military performance culminating in a brilliant manuever in the first Gulf War, where he earned a Silver Star for gallantry leading a tank assault that destroyed a far larger Iraqi force.
The second event is his book, shown with asteroid Viet 22 Aquarius 49 for Viet Nam titled Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. This 1997 book was based on the then Major McMaster’s Ph.D. thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina in military history. Dereliction supported the Rand Corporation’s David Halberstam’s arguments from 1972 tome The Best and the Brightest (which was really a rehashing of the Pentagon Paper leaker Daniel Ellsberg’s Stalemate Machine), that Lyndon Johnson made Vietnam policy based on domestic-policy implications, and these decisions led to the Viet Nam failure.
What gave McMaster’s tale a new spin in rustling up this shop-worn tale that Johnson’s preoccupation with domestic concerns, Robert McNamara’s arrogance (later head of Desert Storm where McMaster served), was as vetted military commander he gave a studied agreement with his predecessors that the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not make clear it to Congress, and in turn the American people, the force levels needed in Vietnam to win.
Throughout the opus, McMaster insists that the deception of Congress, and hence the public, was at the root of the disaster, but again like his predecessors, he totally ignores the protests in the US (rock and roll music like Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son”, or our favorite from Woodstock — a massive antiWar rally in August 1969 — from Country Joe McDonald and the Fish “I feel like I’m fixing to Die”, Hanoi Jane Fonda, a constant barrage of media covered college sit downs) that showed America was not fully behind this War effort. McMaster instead naïvely posits that the US Military in Nam should have been like USN Admiral Farragut in the Battle of Mobile (Alabama) Bay and said “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” Alas, it was never that simple.
McMaster’s support of Ellsberg- Halberstam, though, made him a cause célèbre of the left, and when he joined the Trump administration, they thought he had jumped ship. Recent intelligence from AG William Barr in his his visit to Italy highlights how whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, an intelligence officer specializing in Russia and Ukraine, and McMaster’s personal aide and during the Obama administration, are both like the FBI’s Jim Comey serving “a higher loyalty,” and so no one had nothing to worry about.
It’s all in the chart
Jupiter conjunct the Midheaven in the 9th suggests his motivation (Jones’s keyword for Jupiter is just that — motivation) at the symbol of 11 Pisces 55 Rx or ” men seeking illumination.” On first blush Jupiter as Lord of Sagittarius should be in good, but in the watery house of Pisces it gets instead the negative meaning of “hypocrisy.”
McMaster’s Jupiter is then conjunct the Viet asteroid and opposite Leo 29 (Regulus) where Uranus is lurking and a translation of light to Venus suggesting that McMaster is a lone ranger concerning the country because he feels he should. That’s an odd idea for an army general sworn to uphold his Commander-in-Chief’s decisions, but with Pluto right night to Uranus in the 3rd and the conjunct to social destruction of Pluto at 08 Virgo 33 — could this be a scorched earth policy of enemies threatening not just the State but his own career and relevance?
Pluto is conjunct in this 3rd house stellium Venus 12 Virgo who finds herself in an airy abode, thus is it is not surprising that her symbol is a “bride’s veil snatched away” with the meaning “contempt” — for who would want that when their special day is nearby some interloper, obviously President Donald Trump because his Mars is nearby at 27 Leo and definitely within Regulus’s orb.
So why would he do this? It is simple, peace is threatening to the Army. Without a constant threat they have no jobs. Without an overseas perpetual base they have no promotions, no free forays to Hong Kong, Paris and Bangkok, no free medicare care, etc. Let us be clear, Congress makes money, big money on war…..and so does the military, there will be no peace in their lifetime if they can help it, and for most of our lives, at least those of use living in the United States, there has not.
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