Published 13 Nov 06

Beyond the DropZone

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Eagle Scout, Intel Guru picked to head Defense
A profile of Defense Secretary nominee Dr. Robert M. "Bob" Gates

Bob Gates is a Boy Scout. Literally, and that's not a condescending statement. He's a merit-badge earning, good-deed-doing All-American Boy Scout: An Eagle Scout, in fact, who would later earn a Distinguished Eagle Scout Award; and who – years after being a Boy Scout – would say, "Earning my Eagle gave me the confidence, for the first time in my life, that I could achieve whatever I set out to do."

That he has, as the only career officer in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to rise from an entry-level employee to the post of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), the head of CIA and, at that time, the overseer of the entire U.S. Intelligence Community.

Gates' being a Boy Scout, does not suggest he's an over-refined do-gooder. Nor does it suggest he has never had his hand in some less-than-desirable circumstances over the span of his career and life's work. It does however suggest he's the kind of perhaps moral man one would want to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with in less-than-desirable times. And that surely factored into why politically embattled President George W. Bush tapped Gates to replace current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (also an Eagle Scout), last week.

So who really is Dr. Robert Michael "Bob" Gates, the man who if confirmed by the Senate will become a wartime Defense Secretary inheriting – and tasked with prosecuting – an unpopular subordinate war in the extremely dangerous Global War on Terror?

Born, September 25, 1943, in Wichita, Kansas, young Gates became a Boy Scout in the 1950's, earning numerous badges and leadership awards including a God and Country Award in 1957, and he earned his Eagle the following year.

In the early to mid 1960's, Gates attended William and Mary, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Omega and the Young Republicans. He also worked part-time as a school bus driver, a dormitory manager, the business manager of the William and Mary Review, and he served with the college-level Boy Scouts affiliate. He majored in history, earning a bachelors degree from William and Mary (1965), and a masters in history from Indiana University (1966).

Gates' first post-college employment was as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Force, specifically a Minuteman Missile Wing within the Strategic Air Command. He then accepted a position as an analyst with CIA, which had tried to recruit him prior to his service in the Air Force.

In 1974, Gates earned a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet History from Georgetown, and was soon thereafter posted to the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) from CIA. In 1979, he returned to CIA and for the next two years held several Agency posts, including national intelligence officer for the Soviet Union.

In 1982, Gates was appointed Deputy Director for Intelligence. And in 1983, he became chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the group responsible for producing National Intelligence Estimates.

Throughout the 1980's, Gates was key in securing CIA and Defense Department funding for a 10-university consortium project led by Harvard University and aimed at strengthening Soviet and Russian studies in the United States. In 1986, he developed a collaborative research initiative between CIA and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government to develop case studies on the role of intelligence in American government decision-making.

On April 18, 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed Gates Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI), the second-in-command position at the CIA he would hold until March 20, 1989. During his tenure as DDCI, he also held the post of acting director (December 18, 1986 - May 26, 1987) during the illness and subsequent death of Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey.

In February 1987, Gates became Reagan's DCI nominee. But the appointment was not to be. Gates' knowledge of the Iran-Contra Affair prompted Congress to delve deeper into his CIA background before confirmation (The Iran-Contra affair was a secret U.S. government project in which American weapons were illegally sold to Iran in exchange for hostages, with the profits from those sales being secretly used to fund the Contra rebels fighting in Nicaragua). Congress was also chafing over the fact that the White House had failed to inform them of Gates knowledge of Iran-Contra.

Though confident of his eventual confirmation, Gates chose to spare the U.S. Intelligence Community, which, no doubt, would have been degraded under the political scrutiny of such a debate. He, consequently, withdrew the nomination.

According to the FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERS by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, "Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. The evidence developed by Independent Counsel did not warrant indictment of Gates for his Iran/contra activities or his responses to official inquiries."

Gates left CIA in 1989 to serve as assistant to the President and White House Deputy National Security Advisor. He served in that capacity from January 20, 1989 until November 6, 1991.

President George H.W. Bush (himself a former DCI) nominated Gates to the post of DCI, and, this time, Gates was confirmed. He served as DCI from November 6, 1991 until January 20, 1993. As such, he was the first CIA director to come up through the ranks of the Agency, the first former analyst to attain the post, and the only person nominated by two U.S. Presidents to direct CIA.

Gates assumed the directorship during a watershed period in the history of American foreign policy. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and with it came the end of the Cold War. With its primary foe partially eliminated, the CIA found itself redefining its role. This, combined with a public and Congressional demand to downsize the American military and the U.S. Intelligence Community, created myriad challenges for the new DCI.

Gates was quick to assess future intelligence needs and priorities. He identified available resources, initiated organizational changes, and recommended new budgetary and legislative proposals. He also established a number of new Agency-overseen task forces. And he replaced the office of Soviet Analysis with an Office of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis. Additionally, he created a sense of greater openness with Congress and the American public by allowing more liberal media accessibility and declassification standards for historical research.

Following his retirement in 1993, Gates entered the private sector and the lecture circuit. Three years later, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How they Won the Cold War, a memoir of Gates' service in the U.S. Intelligence Community, was published.

In 1999, Gates became the interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, and was named president of the University (the position he currently holds) in 2002.

Gates has served as a member of various boards of trustees and directors for several large American corporations, as well as in an advisory capacity to several major international firms. Additionally, he has served on the board of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and as president of the National Eagle Scout Association. He is the recipient of the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Arthur S. Fleming Award, the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal (three awards), and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal (three awards).

In 2004, Gates was offered the newly created post of Director of National Intelligence, a position responsible for overseeing the entire 16-member U.S. Intelligence Community (previously a responsibility of the DCI), but he declined the post.

In the spring of 2006, Gates became a member of the Iraq Study Group (also known as the ISG, the Baker-Hamilton Commission – for its co-chairs, former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton - or simply the Baker Commission). The ISG is a bipartisan group tasked with making an independent assessment of the situation on the ground in Iraq, and making recommendations to the Bush White House in the coming weeks. In fact, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are scheduled to meet with the ISG, today (November 13).

On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, the day following huge Republican Party losses in the midterm elections – which many political analysts have said was a referendum on the war in Iraq (a war which many voters apparently felt was progressing too slowly and at too great a cost) – President Bush announced the pending resignation of Rumsfeld and the nomination of Gates.

In his Veterans Day (November 11) radio address, Bush said, "[Gates] has experience leading large and complex organizations, and he has shown that he is an agent of change. ... he will provide a fresh outlook on our strategy in Iraq, and what we need to do to prevail."

The Senate confirmation process is tentatively slated to begin the first week in December.

— W. Thomas Smith Jr., a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor, writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans and on the West Bank. He is an award-winning author of four books, the co-author of two, and his articles have appeared in USA Today, George, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, National Review Online, CBS News, The Washington Times, and many others.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. can be reached at wthomassmithjr@yahoo.com.

© 2006 W. Thomas Smith Jr.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. story archive