Scowcroft was appointed Military Assistant to the President in February 1972 and in January 1973 was reassigned as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He was promoted to lieutenant general on August 16, 1974 and retired from active duty at that rank on December 1, 1975. He had, just a month earlier, during the Halloween Massacre, become the United States National Security Advisor (for him, the first time), replacing Henry Kissinger. Scowcroft's continued service in the Air Force would have been contingent on reconfirmation of his rank by the Senate, a distinction that National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster elected to pursue in 2018.