Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton is "brilliant and very tough" Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Thursday — and "he will be a valuable part of the president's national security team."
"His views are consistent with the president's," Dershowitz told Newsmax in an exclusive interview. "He is hawkish and smart."
President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Bolton, 69, who served as United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush, would replace H.R. McMaster on April 9.
McMaster, 55, a three-star Army lieutenant general, said he would retire from the military and "leave public service" this summer.
At the United Nations, Bolton "really shook the place up," Dershowitz told Newsmax. "He speaks out of a sense of purpose.
"He will engender some disagreements because of his hawkish views," the retired professor cautioned. "He will give the president options — and the president will make his decision.
"He'll represent one extreme advice that the president will get," Dershowitz explained. "He'll get other views from the rest of his staff.
"Then, it's up to the president to make the decision."
Bolton has long argued for regime change in North Korea to quash dictator Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions — and "that's a message to Iran," Dershowitz told Newsmax.
"It is a sound position legally," he added. "I don't know if it's a sound policy decision, but he is legally on solid ground."
Dershowitz also beat back attacks from pundits that Bolton would plunge the United States into World War III.
"That's a way exaggeration," he said. "I think it's talk."
However, Bolton "may, in fact ensure the deterrent position of the United States because of his willingness to go to war as a last resort," Dershowitz said.
"The best way to deter war is to make your opponent believe that you're ready to go to war — and you have to be ready."
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