Gates, Robert

▪ 2007

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush in November 2006 appointed former director of central intelligence Robert Gates as his new secretary of defense. Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned after heavy Republican losses in midterm elections were interpreted as a national referendum on the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq. On the surface, the appointment of Gates appeared to signal a significant shift in the administration's approach to the war. Gates was the anti-Rumsfeld. Where his predecessor was seen as an ideologue bent on making the Pentagon do his bidding, Gates carried the reputation of a pragmatist who could assess a situation and respond accordingly. He had spent most of his career working his way up through the ranks of the CIA and had an invaluable perspective on spying and intelligence. Some observers, however, characterized Gates as more of a “chameleon,” a loyal, hard-working analyst whose primary goal was to please his superiors but who also espoused occasionally extreme opinions on matters of U.S. security and defense. In the 1980s he advocated air strikes against Nicaragua, and in 1994 he wrote an article promoting similar action against North Korea.

      Robert Michael Gates was born on Sept. 25, 1943, in Wichita, Kan. He studied European history at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., receiving a bachelor's degree in 1965. While earning a master's degree (1966) from Indiana University, he was recruited by the CIA, and he joined the agency full time as a Soviet analyst after a two-year stint in the air force. Gates received a Ph.D. (1974) in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He then joined the staff of the National Security Council, serving under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter until 1979, when he returned to the CIA. He rose to the post of deputy director of the agency in 1982, and Pres. Ronald Reagan nominated him to be director in 1987, but Gates withdrew because of questions about how much he knew about the Iran–Contra scandal that rocked the Reagan White House. He later served as deputy national security adviser (1989–91) to Pres. George H.W. Bush, and Bush nominated Gates for the CIA director's post again in 1991. This time Gates had to defend himself against accusations that he had deliberately distorted intelligence information about the Soviet Union that he had presented to the Reagan administration. The Senate confirmed him in a 61–31 vote, making him the youngest director in the agency's history. His tenure ended little more than a year later, after Bill Clinton defeated Bush in the 1992 presidential election.

      Gates published his memoirs in From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (1996). In 1999 he was named dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, and three years later he became president of the university.

Anthony G. Craine

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