William Waldo Cameron Forum on Public Affairs - 11/2/1999
Robert M. Gates
Robert M. Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 6 November 1991 until 20 January 1993. In this position, he headed all foreign intelligence agencies of the United Sates and directed the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Gates is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to Director and the only intelligence analyst to become Director.
Dr. Gates served as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at The White House from 20 January 1989 until 6 November 1991.
Dr. Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties. From 1982-1986, Dr. Gates served as CIA’s Deputy Director for Intelligence, heading one of the largest research and analysis organizations in the world. President Reagan appointed Dr. Gates Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in 1986 and he served in this capacity until appointed Deputy National Security Adviser by President Bush in 1989.
Dr. Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, has twice received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received CIA’s highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. In 1978, he received the Arthur H. Fleming Award, presented each year to the ten outstanding young men and women in Federal Service. In 1998, his alma mater, the College of William and Mary in Virginia, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Dr. Gates is the author of From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, published in 1996. Dr. Gates is a member of the board of trustees of The Fidelity Funds, and a member of the board of directors of TRW, Inc. and NACCO Industries. He also serves as senior adviser to several major international firms, and is a trustee of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Boston and of the Forum for International Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting vigorous American international leadership. He lectures frequently in the United States and abroad, has published numerous articles on government and foreign policy, and is a frequent contributor to the op-ed page of The New York Times.
Dr. Gates has longstanding, unique ties with American universities. In 1986, when head of CIA’s analytical directorate, he developed a cooperative program between CIA and The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to develop case studies on the role of intelligence in American government decision-making, drawing heavily on newly declassified information and interviews of current and former government officials. Dozens of these case studies have been completed by the Kennedy School and now are available to scholars. Dr. Gates was also instrumental in securing CIA and Department of Defense funding during the 1980s to strengthen Soviet and Russian studies nationwide, in response to a request from the consortium of ten universities led by Harvard. The funds were administered by the consortium and used primarily to help encourage graduate students to remain in the field of Russian studies by financing university-designed research. As head of CIA’s analytical directorate, and then as deputy director and director of CIA, Dr. Gates directed the declassification of many CIA historical records for use by scholars. As one result of his efforts, most United States intelligence estimates on the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War have now been declassified and are available for research.
Subsequent to his retirement from government in 1993, Dr. Gates has served as an evaluator of student theses for the International Studies Program of the University of Washington and has lectured at a number of universities, including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, the College of William and Mary, Georgetown, and others. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma International Programs Center and a trustee of the College of William and Mary Endowment Fund.
Dr. Gates is a member of the national executive board of the Boy Scouts of America and president of the National Eagle Scout Association.
A native of Kansas, Dr. Gates received his BA degree from the College of William and Mary, his Master’s degree in history from Indiana University, and his Doctorate in Russian and Soviet History from Georgetown University.
Dr. Gates is married, and has two adult children.