Dr. Robert Michael Gates is, thus far, the only career offi- cer in the history of the CIA to rise from the entry-level
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ranks to become the DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLI- GENCE(DCI). It almost didn’t happen.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, on September 25, 1943, young Gates was the proverbial all-American boy. As a Boy Scout in the 1950s, he earned numerous badges and leadership awards, including a God and Country Award in 1957 and Eagle Scout rank in 1958. Decades later, he 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 did.
In the early 1960s, Gates attended the College of William and Mary. In addition to his studies, he worked part-time as a school-bus driver and a dormitory man- ager. He also worked with the college-level Boy Scouts organization. In 1965, he earned a B.A. degree from William and Mary, and in 1966 he graduated from Indi- ana University with a master’s degree in history.
Gates’ first professional employment was as an ANA- LYST with the CIA, which he joined almost immediately after finishing his studies at IU. In 1974, he earned a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University, and he was soon thereafter posted to the staff of the NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC). He served in this capacity until 1980. For the next two years, he held several administrative positions, including as national intelligence officer for the Soviet Union.
In 1982, Gates was appointed DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR INTELLIGENCE(DDI). In September of the following year, he was assigned the additional post of chairman of the NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL (NIC), the entity responsible for producing NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTI- MATES(NIE).
During the early 1980s, Gates was a key player in securing CIA and U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE funding for a 10-university consortium project aimed at strength- ening Soviet and Russian studies nationwide. The project was led by Harvard University. In 1986, Gates developed a collaborative research project involving the CIA and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to develop case studies on the role of intelligence in Ameri- can government decision making.
On April 18, 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed Gates DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE (DDCI), a post he would hold until March 20, 1989. Dur- ing his tenure as DDCI, he also held the post of acting director (December 18, 1986–May 26, 1987) during the terminal illness of DCI WILLIAM JOSEPH CASEY.
In February 1987, Gates was Reagan’s nominee as Casey’s successor. But the appointment was not to be. Gates’s 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 contra rebels fighting in Nicaragua.) Congress was also chafing at the fact that the White House had failed to inform it of Gates’s knowledge of Iran-contra. Though confident of eventual confirmation, Gates chose to spare the U.S. intel- ligence community, which would have, no doubt, been embarrassed by the political scrutiny of such a debate. He consequently withdrew his nomination. Gates was, in fact, close to many key players in the Iran-contra affair and could have easily been privy to many activities that would have implicated him. However, the evidence devel- oped by the independent counsel for Iran-contra matters in 1991 did not warrant an indictment of Gates.
Gates served as assistant to the president and deputy NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR at the White House from January 20, 1989, until November 6, 1991. President GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSHappointed him to the post of DCI; he was confirmed, and he served in that capacity from November 6, 1991, until January 20, 1993. He was the first DCI to come up through the ranks of the Agency, the first former analyst to attain the post, and the only per- son nominated by two U.S. presidents to direct the 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 thus eliminated, the CIA found itself redefining its role. This, combined with a public and congressional demand to downsize the Ameri- can military and the U.S. intelligence community, created an unexpected challenge for the new DCI.
Gates was quick to assess future intelligence needs and priorities. He identified available resources, initiated organizational changes, and recommended new bud- getary and legislative proposals. He also established a number of new Agency-overseen task forces. 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 declassi- fication standards for historical research.
Following his retirement in 1993, Gates entered the private sector and the lecture circuit. He is currently the dean of the George Bush School of Government and Pub- lic Service at Texas A&M University. He is a member of various boards of trustees and directors for several large American corporations. He serves in an advisory capacity to several major international firms. Additionally, he serves as a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and as president of the National Eagle Scout Association.
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Gates 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).
Gates authored From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, a 1996 memoir of his service in the U.S. intelli- gence community.