Representing the largest organization in the US federal government, the Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for protecting the United States by providing for a national defense. DoD includes all four branches of the armed services - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines - along with multiple sub-agencies that produce everything from weapons and supplies for military units to intelligence on foreign threats. Because of the Bush administration’s Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) campaign, DoD’s budget has ballooned to its highest levels ever. Implementing GWOT also resulted in multiple controversies for the department, which was led for most of this decade by a polarizing Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
After winning its independence from England in the Revolutionary War, the United States government created the US Department of War in 1789, charged with organizing and maintaining the US Army to provide for the defense of the new republic. The Department of War, headed by the Secretary of War, was a cabinet level department under the command of the President that did not manage the Navy, which was transferred in 1798 to the US Department of the Navy.
During the 19th Century, the War Department supervised various military and non-military responsibilities ranging from the distribution of bounty land to pensions to Indian affairs to the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The outbreak of war between the US and Spain in 1898 resulted in an expansion of the War Department’s powers, and following the conflict, the department was reorganized in 1903. The office of the commanding general of the Army was abolished, and the general staff corps was established to coordinate the Army under the direction of the chief of staff, who was charged with supervising the planning of national defense and with the mobilization of the military forces.
During World War I, the War Department was given supervision over the newly created National Guard, and under the National Defense Act of 1916, the officers’ reserve corps was created within the department. This act also established the office of Assistant Secretary of War to coordinate the procurement of munitions.
By 1941 the War Department had grown into a substantial work force in the Washington, DC, area, numbering more than 24,000 civilian and military personnel. Housed in 17 buildings, the department was expected to reach 30,000 by the beginning of 1942. At the same time the Quartermaster Corps’ Construction Division was struggling to cope with the vast mobilization of Army forces to fight in World War II. The federal government considered constructing temporary buildings to accommodate the growing needs of the War Department. Instead, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell, head of the construction division, proposed constructing a single massive building to house all War Department employees. Completed in 1943, the Pentagon was five stories in height and consisted of five concentric pentagons within an outer structure of reinforced concrete walls. Capable of housing 40,000 workers in four million square feet of space, the Pentagon also included a six-acre interior court and parking for 8,000 cars.
Building the Pentagon was just the beginning of the War Department’s challenges. Organizing the Army’s combat duties in the two-front war against Germany and Italy in Europe and Japan in the Pacific required the War Department to coordinate naval efforts with the Department of the Navy, all while mobilizing and training the largest increase is US Army history. Although the US achieved victory against the Axis powers, American policymakers felt the military didn’t always work effectively together in the split capacity between the War and Navy departments.
Believing that better coordination was necessary between the branches of the armed services, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 that created the National Military Establishment (NME). The act combined the Department of War and the Department of Navy into the new NME, headed by the Secretary of Defense. The act also established the Air Force, which until then had been a part of the US Army, as an independent service branch. All three service branches (Army, Navy, Air Force) reported directly to the Secretary of Defense, who was supported initially by three assistants. Today, the office of the Secretary of Defense employs 2,000, out of approximately 600,000 civilian employees who work for DoD.
The NME was renamed the Department of Defense (DoD) in 1949. In the succeeding years of the Cold War, DoD (commonly referred to as the Pentagon) grew into the largest of all US governmental institutions as American military operations became tantamount in US-Soviet jockeying for international dominance. The discovery of nuclear power during WWII resulted in an unprecedented arms build up by the US as American war planners poured billions of dollars into new generations of strategic nuclear weapons.
At first the focus was on long-range bombers. A new generation of jet-powered aircraft took over Air Force squadrons, most importantly the B-52 Stratofortress. Air wings comprised of B-52s, based both in the US and overseas, were set up on round-the-clock aerial missions to fly toward the Soviet Union until reaching a “fail safe” point at which they turned around unless given the “go codes” from Strategic Air Command (SAC), a key national military command under the authority of the Pentagon. The development of America’s nuclear weapons complex, along with maintaining a large standing Army, Navy and Air Force in preparation for World War III against the Soviet Union, resulted in the establishment of the “military industrial complex” during the 1950s. Coined by President Dwight Eisenhower, the military industrial complex represented a first-ever commitment to continual arms manufacturing, or procurement. DoD became the federal arm responsible for overseeing procurement of all conventional and nuclear weapons.
President John F. Kennedy contributed to the Pentagon’s appetite for new weapons when he followed up on his promise during the 1960 presidential campaign to eliminate the “missile gap” that supposedly existed between the US and the USSR. Under the leadership of Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, the US greatly expanded its arsenal of nuclear warheads as it developed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) capable of delivering multiple warheads at targets in the USSR and China. McNamara, an unconventional choice to head the Pentagon, was president of the Ford Motor Company when Kennedy asked him to join his cabinet. Although not a military expert, he immersed himself in defense issues and instituted a number of key changes to US military doctrine, including “ flexible response.”
McNamara also implemented programs in counterinsurgency to combat Communist threats in foreign countries, which included creating the Defense Intelligence Agency and expanding Army commando units, called Special Forces, to conduct unconventional warfare. These counterinsurgency efforts were put to great use in the Vietnam War. US involvement in South Vietnam grew exponentially while McNamara led DoD. Military forces went from a few thousand “advisers” to hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines. McNamara approved controversial strategic bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and the use of chemical defoliants, such as Agent Orange.
Although he loyally supported administration policy, McNamara gradually became skeptical about whether the war could be won by deploying more troops to South Vietnam and intensifying the bombing of North Vietnam. He traveled to Vietnam many times to study the situation firsthand. He became increasingly reluctant to approve the large force increments requested by the military commanders. In 1967 he left the Pentagon to become the head of the World Bank.
The secretaries of defense that followed McNamara kept a lower profile. These included Melvin Laird, who served under President Richard Nixon, and Donald Rumsfeld, who served under President Gerald Ford as the youngest Secretary of Defense in departmental history. Unlike his second term as secretary under President George W. Bush, Rumsfeld’s time with Ford was not controversial. Rumsfeld’s tenure at the Pentagon was noted mostly for pushing forward new weapons programs intended to modernize America’s nuclear and conventional arsenals. The 1970s saw research-and-development projects evolve into deployable systems, such as the Navy’s F-14 Tomcat, the Air Force F-15 Eagle and the Army’s M1A Abrams tank.
Procurement programs reached new heights the following decade under President Ronald Reagan. Determined to restore America’s superiority on the world stage, Reagan instructed his defense secretary, Casper Weinberger, to embark on the most expensive arms buildup in the nation’s history, even though Weinberger’s pre-Defense reputation had been that of a budget trimmer. No longer was he “Cap the Knife,” for Weinberger shared the president’s conviction that the Soviet Union posed a serious threat and that the defense establishment needed to be modernized and strengthened. The secretary became a vigorous advocate of Reagan’s plan to increase the DoD budget, which approached $300 million during the 1980s, for everything from new aircraft carriers to controversial programs like the B-1 bomber and the MX missile.
Efforts to strength America’s military also had their embarrassments. The Sergeant York air-defense gun was supposed to give the Army greater protection from Soviet aircraft. Instead, the weapon became “a symbol of a procurement process gone haywire.” After the Pentagon spent $1.8 billion and ten years developing the tank-mounted, radar-guided gun, field tests showed that it had trouble hitting a hovering helicopter. Another program that proved expensive and troublesome was the B-1 bomber. The B-1 was especially costly due to design flaws that forced Air Force commanders to alter the mission of the plane. Originally purchased to replace the aging B-52, the B-1 was supposed to be able to fly at low altitude in order to penetrate Soviet air defenses. Military planners later realized that the high-tech bomber was vulnerable to such defenses, forcing the Air Force to abandon its plan of replacing the B-52, which continues to serve in USAF squadrons to this day.
Weinberger was also swept up in the greatest scandal of the Reagan era: Iran Contra. The Iran-Contra affair involved the secret sale of weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorists, and the diversion of money from that sale to provide support for anti-communist resistance fighters in Nicaragua known as the “Contras.” Weinberger was charged by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh with four counts of lying to congressional Iran-Contra investigators in 1987 and to Walsh’s prosecutors in 1990. His case involved allegations that he had concealed from Congressional investigators his personal notes that detailed events related to Iran-Contra and that reportedly undermined what President Reagan said about the origins and operations of the covert arms-for-hostages dealings. Weinberger pled not guilty and was ultimately pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 just before his case went to trial.
With the end of the Cold War, DoD became less of a priority during the two terms of President Bill Clinton, who placed less importance on defense spending and developing new weapons programs. In fact, the Pentagon’s budget shrunk during the decade as defense secretaries Les Aspin, William Perry and William Cohen spent more time determining what shape and role the US military should take in a post-Cold War world. Big budget programs designed to fight the Soviet military, such as the Seawolf attack submarine, were cut back dramatically. Instead, doctrines emphasizing rapid deployment of conventional forces were further developed to address smaller scale conflicts and threats, including the growing danger from terrorist organizations like al Qaeda.
This military approach to combating terrorism ballooned following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. President Bush’s secretary of defense, Rumsfeld, suddenly became the face of America’s tough new world posture designed to hunt down Osama bin Laden and others like him. A leader of the neocons, Rumsfeld and his chief deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were key architects of the president’s Global War on Terrorism campaign, which included invading Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as planning attacks on Iran and North Korea. Rumsfeld also promoted enormous increases in the DoD budget that eclipsed those of the Reagan years, reaching upwards of half a trillion dollars.
Rumsfeld proved to be a lightning rod for controversy as he unabashedly championed the President’s no-holds-barred approach with terrorist suspects or their supporters. Scandals erupted involving detainment of terrorist suspects in off-shore military installations (Guantánamo Bay) and the torture of enemy combatants in Iraq (Abu Ghraib). Other hot-button issues involved the proper supplying of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and distortions of high-profile military rescues and deaths to conjure popular support for the war on terrorism.
After six stormy years at the Pentagon, President Bush asked Rumsfeld to resign following the 2006 election that saw Republicans lose control of Congress in a sweeping anti-war fervor by voters. Replacing Rumsfeld was former CIA director Robert Gates, who was brought in to devise a new strategy for the war in Iraq. Shortly after taking over, Gates ordered an increase in troop levels in Iraq - a move that had been resisted by the president but called for by some military commanders. The troop surge also went against sentiments expressed by voters and many Democrats in Congress who argued it was time to pull out from Iraq.
Representing the largest organization in the US federal government today, with an annual budget of half a trillion dollars, the Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for maintaining the national defense of the United States. DoD includes all four branches of the armed services - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines - along with multiple sub-agencies that produce everything from weapons and supplies for military units to intelligence on foreign threats.
While DoD operations and offices are located across the country, and the armed services operate in many parts of the world, the Defense Department is primarily centered at the Pentagon, one of the largest building ever constructed. In order to operate effectively (although not necessarily efficiently, critics would argue), DoD maintains a complex organizational structure (PDF) that segments the hundreds of tasks that are performed both on a day-to-day basis and for long-term strategic planning.
DoD is led by the Secretary of Defense, a cabinet-level position appointed by the President and subject to confirmation by the US Senate. The Secretary of Defense is assisted by a variety of under secretaries and assistant secretaries who manage specific functions. These include:
o Director of Defense Research and Engineering
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Logistics and Materiel Readiness)
o Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs)
o Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition Reform)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Advanced Systems and Concepts)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Industrial Affairs)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Science and Technology)
o Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
o Director for Program Analysis and Evaluation
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (Force Management Policy)
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reserve Affairs)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Readiness)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Program Integration)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Planning)
o Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy)
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs)
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (Strategy and Threat Reduction)
o Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy Support)
o Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Technology Security Policy)
o Defense Advisor, U.S. Mission NATO
Thanks to the Bush administration’s Global War on Terrorism campaign, which includes ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, DoD’s budget has ballooned this decade to its highest levels ever. However, it must be noted that the annual budget appropriation for DoD often does not include emergency spending bills (called supplementals) approved by Congress after the regular budget has been approved. It is estimated that the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have cost $500 billion since 2001, much of which has been authorized through supplementals.
The budget for DoD in FY 2008 was $480 billion. Some of the key defense activities to receive a portion of this money are:
Fighting Forces
Department of the Army
The United States Army’s mission is to provide ground forces for American military operations and wars. Combat forces generally consist of foot soldiers, or infantry, or soldiers who man tanks and artillery that make up armored units. Other Army personnel provide a variety of support duties, from engineering to medical care to fuel and food. The Army employs a vast array of weapons and equipment as part of its military operations. Examples of its military hardware include aircraft, air defense artillery, anti-armor weapons, indirect fire systems, individual & crew-served weapons & equipment, nuclear, biological, chemical defense equipment, tracked vehicles and wheeled vehicles. Army forces deployed overseas currently number about 256,000.
Department of the Navy
The Navy Department oversees both the US Navy and the Marine Corps. The Navy represents the seagoing branch of the armed services, maintaining fleets of ocean-going surface vessels and submarines capable of extending American sea and air power anywhere in the world. Naval vessels fall into one of seven classes: aircraft carriers; amphibious assault ships; battleships; cruisers; destroyers; frigates; and submarines. Battleships, cruisers and destroyers have an assortment of guns and missile systems, while aircraft carriers carry both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
US Marine Corps
Located under the authority of the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps serves as a land and air “force in readiness” capable of supporting US military operations and executing national political objectives. Since the late 19th Century, Marines have been used by the US government to execute foreign policy objectives and protect American interests overseas. USMC forces have been at the center of major wars and key military operations, garnering them a reputation as an elite fighting force.
Department of the Air Force
The US Air Force (USAF) constitutes the aviation component of the Armed Services, providing tactical, strategic and logistical air support for US military operations. USAF also is charged with operational command of US nuclear forces. Some of the most advanced weapons systems in the US military have been developed for the Air Force, often at great costs and involving much controversy.
US Special Operations Command
Located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL, the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) oversees all Special Operations Forces (SOF) in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Special Operations soldiers are specially trained, equipped and organized to carry out strategic or tactical missions during periods of war and peace. The units continually train to conduct unconventional warfare in any of its forms, such as guerrilla warfare, special reconnaissance, evasion and escape, subversion and sabotage. During the Bush administration, SOF missions have expanded in size and importance as part of the Global War on Terrorism campaign.
National Guard
Administered by the National Guard Bureau (a joint bureau of the departments of the Army and Air Force), the National Guard consists of both the Army National Guard (ARNG) and the Air National Guard (ANG). The National Guard has both a federal and state mission involving combat and non-combat army and air force units. Throughout its long history, Guard army units have been deployed overseas to fight in America’s wars, including the recent Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) campaign waged by the Bush administration. The National Guard is also charged with assisting state governments during times of natural disasters. However, some state National Guards have reportedly found themselves stretched too thin from overseas deployments of men and equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan, which has prevented Guard units from adequately responding to state emergences.
Spying and Intelligence Gathering
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is both a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the Department of Defense. Approximately 11,000 men and women work for DIA worldwide (about 30% military personnel and 70% civilian personnel). The exact numbers and specific budget information are not publicly released due to security considerations.
National Reconnaissance Office
One of the most secretive agencies in the federal government, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launches the nation’s military spy satellites. NRO takes orders from both the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence and is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program. The agency shares its top secret data not only with military planners, but also members of the Intelligence Community. At one time, NRO’s technical sophistication was highly regarded, but after a series of blunders in recent years, the agency’s reputation has plummeted.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) collects, processes and dispenses satellite imagery for national security purposes. This imagery is used to depict the planet’s physical features or activities that are being monitored by the intelligence community. The agency also supports combat troops with tactical data, such as targeting information for precision bombing.
Counterintelligence Field Activity
A highly secret office located within DoD, the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is charged with protecting US military personnel and facilities against spying and acts of terrorism. Information regarding CIFA’s budget and number of personnel is classified. CIFA’s primary mission is to identify and track down suspected terrorists. In 2005 news reports revealed that CIFA had been spying on peace activists and Iraq war protesters and was implicated in the bribery scandal of former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
Weapons Development and Sales
Missile Defense Agency
The purpose of the Missile Defense Agency is to develop and field a Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) to defend the United States, its military forces, friends and allies against ballistic missile attacks. For five decades, engineers have been developing and testing variations of a missile defense to protect US cities from nuclear combat. Current programs being researched and tested include Ground-Based Interceptors, Theater High Altitude Area Defense, Kinetic Energy Interceptor and Multiple Kill Vehicle Program.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a unique research organization established to maintain the US military’s technological preeminence. Essentially, it’s the intellectual sandbox of the Defense Department, freed from many of the constraints imposed on other agencies so it can pursue riskier, more innovative research. Over the years, DARPA has helped develop technologies that have also worked their way into the civilian world, including the forerunner of the Internet. Some of its efforts have also been controversial.
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
The goal of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency is to reduce the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to the United States by either eliminating foreign stockpiles or mitigating their risk to the US and its allies. Much of its work is done cooperatively with foreign nations, such as the mutual examination of nuclear stockpiles, and the dismantling of weapons and equipment of formerly hostile nations in accordance with treaties like START I. The agency also develops countermeasures against novel threats, both for domestic use and for combat support.
Defense Security Cooperation Agency
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) facilitates the sale of US weapons to other countries. Working with agencies in DoD and the State Department, DSCA provides financing, resources and/or contractors for the sale of arms, defense technologies, training and other services overseas. The agency’s work has contributed to the controversial proliferation of arms and military training to non-democratic, oppressive governments.
Technical Support Working Group
Partly run by the Department of Defense, the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) is a low-profile multi-federal-agency program with a highly important mission. Working with a vast array of US government departments and agencies, TSWG helps to rapidly develop the latest in technological solutions to combat terrorism. “Rapid” is a key word in TSWG’s mission, as it is expected to fund projects that can be ready for use by law enforcement, military and other government personnel in two years or less from time of first approval.
Training
US Army Combined Arms Center
Referred to as the “intellectual center of the army,” the US Army Combined Arms Center oversees the operation of 33 schools and training centers, each of which is responsible for teaching specific skills to Army personnel and members of other armed services. The US Army has a long history of providing specialized training to its soldiers, going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. In recent times some elements of the CAC have drawn public attention for reports and internal debates over the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war.
US Army Command and General Staff College
The Command and General Staff College is a graduate school for US military and foreign military leaders at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It is the Army’s senior tactical school and introduces officers to operational and strategic warfare. The college has five subordinate schools. Its main purpose is to synchronize Army leader development and education systems but works as a joint, interagency, multinational school.
International Military Education & Training
The International Military Education and Training (IMET) program provides funding to train military and civilian leaders of foreign countries, primarily at schools and facilities in the US. IMET is implemented by the Department of Defense’ Defense Security Cooperation Agency, but funded by the State Department through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. IMET has grown considerably during the administration of George W. Bush, from a budget of $50 million in FY 2000 to $85 million in FY 2008, a 70% increase. IMET has a long, controversial history of helping to train foreign military personnel who went on to commit human rights abuses in their home countries. Another, more recent controversial decision involving IMET stems from a Bush administration policy change to provide military training to one of America’s most notorious enemies: the dictator of Libya, Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
Formerly known as the School of the Americas, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation has long been the most controversial training center run by the US military. Throughout the Cold War, the school helped train thousands of military personnel from Latin American countries. Some of these graduates went on to commit human rights abuses and other atrocities in their home countries.
Logistics
Defense Logistics Agency
The largest agency within the Department of Defense, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) provides support as well as technical and logistic services to the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and several federal agencies. DLA has supported every war in the past four decades, from the Vietnam War to the Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is in charge of almost every consumable item, everything from combat readiness, emergency preparedness and day-to-day operations inside DOD.
Army Corps of Engineers
More than just a wing of the US Army, the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been a leading designer and builder of water projects across the United States since the early 20th Century. Corps engineers have been responsible for key flood control systems, including numerous dams, in the Western US and other regions. Known for its skill and expertise, the USACE’s reputation took a hit following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans after investigations showed faulty work by Corps engineers on key levies protecting the city.
Defense Information Systems Agency
Providing global information and technology assistance through online services, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) helps US military forces communicate with one another, pull information needed for their missions and receive accurate and protected information on any threats they may face. DISA focuses on delivery of information speed, operational effectiveness and efficiency, and sharing information. Its primary aim is to provide secure and reliable communications networks, computers, software, databases, applications and other products needed for the processing and transport needs of DoD.
Money Management
Defense Contract Management Agency
One of DoD’s most critical offices, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) oversees the purchase of high-priced weapons systems. DCMA is responsible for hundreds of thousands of contracts that have a collective value of $1.812 trillion. DCMA is the Pentagon’s contract manager, responsible for ensuring that federal acquisition programs (systems, supplies, and services) are delivered on time, within projected cost or price, and meet performance requirements.
Defense Contract Audit Agency
The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) independently investigates Pentagon contracts to determine the fairness, accuracy and completeness of financial records and reports, as well as the effectiveness of any transactions DoD has made. In other words, the DCAA reviews business deals to make sure everything is aboveboard and acceptably efficient. The agency also provides financial advice to the Department of Defense at every step of the contracting or subcontracting process, from negotiation to final resolution.
Defense Finance and Accounting Services
The world’s largest finance and accounting operation, the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) supports the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for budgetary and fiscal matters. The agency is responsible for coordination and collaboration with all civilian defense agencies, military services and combatant commands. The agency provides services primarily for military men and women, including processing military, civilian, retiree, travel and contract/vendor pay and managing military health care and benefits.
Office of Economic Adjustment
The Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) is responsible for managing and directing efforts to assist communities impacted by Defense program changes, including base closures, base expansions and contract or program cancellations, and for coordinating involvement of other federal agencies in the process.
Criminal Investigation
Office of Inspector General
DoD’s Office of Inspector General (DoDIG) serves as a watchdog for the department. The DoDIG is supposed to operate independently of the department to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse through audits and investigations. The Inspector General is in charge of keeping the Secretary of Defense and Congress informed about agency problems and deficiencies.
Defense Criminal Investigative Service
The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) functions as the criminal investigative arm of the DoD Inspector General. DCIS investigates criminal activities involving terrorism, procurement fraud, computer crimes, illegal technology transfers and public corruption within the Department of Defense.
Other
American Forces Information Service
The American Forces Information Service serves as DoD’s public relations and information provider. It creates press releases through a news service and sets policy for internal publications, visual information and audiovisual programs. The AFIS also produces media aimed at service members and their families. Some critics have accused AFIS of deception by, for example, releasing press releases that mimic the style of actual news reports.
Arlington National Cemetery
The nation’s most prestigious military cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery is also one of the oldest national cemeteries in the US. More than 310,000 people, including military casualties and veterans from every single U.S. war - from the American Revolution through US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq - are buried at Arlington. The cemetery is also the final resting place of many notable civilian, historical, literary and minority figures, including former President John F. Kennedy.
The Department of Defense would not be the costly operation it is today without private defense contractors. Covering army-, navy- and air force-related industries, defense contractors provide everything from combat boots to some of the most advanced, sophisticated technology on the planet. Large weapons systems have price tags that run into the tens of billions of dollars, making the arms trade extremely lucrative for certain companies.
According USAspending.gov, in FY 2007 79,087 different companies received Department of Defense contracts totaling $312 billion. However, the top six companies - Lockheed Martin ($28 billion), Boeing ($22 billion), Northrop Grumman ($15 billion), General Dynamics ($13 billion), Raytheon ($11 billion) and BAE Systems ($9 billion) - received almost one third of that money.
Other top contractors include KBR, Inc. ($5 billion), a subsidiary of Halliburton until 2007, General Electric ($2.5 billion), Royal Dutch Shell ($2 billion), Electronic Data Systems ($2 billion), Honeywell International ($1.6 billion) and Bechtel ($1.3 billion).
Some examples of the equipment that this money bought are as follows:
Lockheed Martin
F-22 fighter (shared with Boeing)
Boeing
F-22 fighter (shared with Lockheed Martin)
F-15 fighter (Boeing, from McDonnell Douglas)
Northrop Grumman
B-2 bomber (along with Boeing, Hughes Radar Systems Group, General Electric Aircraft Engine Group and Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc.)
General Dynamics
BAE Systems
Raytheon
United Technologies
Bell Helicopter Textron
In March 2008 the Marine Corps announced contracts with several different companies for a new type of armored vehicle capable of withstanding attacks involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The IED has been the most lethal weapon used by guerilla fighters in Iraq, accounting for almost 70% of all casualties suffered by American military forces. Instead of relying on Humvees, the Marine Corps will deploy Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, designed to withstand small arms fire, IEDs and other explosive threats. (see Controversies)
The Army also utilizes contractors to provide a variety of logistics and other services. A one-time subsidiary of Halliburton, long known as an oil services provider with strong ties to the Bush administration, was until 2006 providing soldiers with food, shelter and communications with friends and family back home through a billion-dollar exclusive-rights contract (see Department of the Army, Controversies).
The company that the Air Force chooses to build a new plane can be quite controversial. Take for example the task of midair refueling. For decades the Air Force used Boeing’s KC-135 (a rendition of the old 707 commercial jet) to refuel Air Force fighter and bombers on long missions. But with the aircraft reaching its service limits due to age, the Air Force tried to lease a modified version of Boeing’s 767 to replace the KC-135. The deal fell apart after accusations arose over costs and ethical violations (see Department of the Air Force, Controversies).
Benefits
Managed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Military Retirement Fund (PDF) is part of DoD’s Military Retirement System. The fund receives approximately $40 billion annually. Also part of the retirement system is the Retiree Health Care fund ($22 billion+,) which pays for Medicare benefits for military-eligible members. The Defense Department provides funding as well for educational benefits (about $327 million) for eligible DoD employees.
Weapons Procurement Waste and Corruption
In March 2008 the Government Accountability Office released a scathing report on the status of numerous weapons projects being developed for the Pentagon. Government auditors found programs for new ships, aircraft and satellites were billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.
Among the major programs reviewed was Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a stealthy tactical fighter intended for the Air Force and Navy. Cost projections put the price tag at almost $100 million per plane, up 40% since 2001. In a statement, Lockheed said that the Joint Strike Fighter was “performing solidly, making outstanding technical progress in the context of the most complex aircraft ever built” and that “the bedrock and the cornerstone” of the F-35 program have been “affordability and cost containment.”
Another project singled out was the Navy’s $5.2 billion Littoral Combat Ship, which experienced so many cost overruns that the service expected the price of its first two ships to exceed their combined budget of $472 million by more than 100%. The Navy canceled construction of the planned third and fourth ships by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, the prime contractors on the project.
In another case, the initial contract target price of Boeing’s program to modernize avionics in the C-130 cargo plane was expected to skyrocket 323%, to $2 billion.
The GAO report said the reasons for the cost overruns and delays were threefold: Too many programs chasing too few dollars; technologies not mature enough to go into production; too long to design, develop and produce a system.
“They’re asking for something that they’re not sure can be built, given existing technologies, and that’s risky,” said a GAO official.
Torture at Abu Ghraib
Once US military forces toppled the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Army took control of one of the legendary dictator’s infamous prisons: Abu Ghraib. The prison occupied 280 acres with over 4 kilometers of security perimeter and 24 guard towers, making it a virtual city within a city. Abu Ghraib was where Saddam Kamal (head of the Special Security Organization) oversaw the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners during the reign of Saddam Hussein. As many as 4,000 prisoners were executed by Iraqi security personnel at Abu Ghraib Prison in 1984 alone.
In late April 2004, with the prison under the control of the US military, photographs surfaced that depicted abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners held at the prison. Some of the pictures depicted US soldiers, both men and women in military uniforms, laughing and giving thumbs-up signs while posing with naked Iraqi prisoners made to stand, stacked in a pyramid or positioned to perform sex acts.
It turned out that a criminal investigation by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command had already been underway since 2003 to look into allegations of prisoner abuse by the 320th MP Battalion. The findings of that investigation were revealed in the Taguba Report, which found that between October and December 2003, there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. The systematic and illegal abuse of detainees was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th MP Battalion).
Some of the wrongdoing included breaking chemical lights and pouring phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack.
The report also contained information about private contractors who were supervising interrogations in the prison. One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but was not charged because military law had no jurisdiction over him. The investigation named CACI International Inc. and the Titan Corporation in the scandal.
A year later, more disturbing revelations surfaced about Army doctors and the medical care system at Abu Ghraib. Some military doctors helped inflict distress on prisoners, while amputations were performed by non-doctors and chest tubes recycled from the dead to the living.
The fallout from the scandal resulted in the removal of 17 soldiers and officers from duty, and seven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery. Between May 2004 and September 2005, the seven soldiers were convicted in courts martial, sentenced to federal prison, and dishonorably discharged from service. Two soldiers, Specialist Charles Graner, and his former fiancée, Specialist Lynndie England, were sentenced to 10 years and three years in prison, respectively. The commanding officer at the prison, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, was demoted to the rank of colonel, all the while claiming that superiors in the chain of command knew and approved of the illegal behavior.
Pat Tillman Cover Up
Following the 9/11 attacks, NFL star Pat Tillman did the unheard of. He walked away from a million-dollar career playing pro football in order to enlist in the Army. Wanting to fight al Qaeda and capture its leader, Osama Bin Laden, Pat wound up serving in the Army Rangers along with his brother, Kevin.
Pat Tillman’s enlistment grabbed the attention of the nation - and the highest levels of the Bush administration. A personal letter from Secretary Rumsfeld thanked Tillman for serving his country. Instead of going to Afghanistan, as the brothers expected, their Ranger battalion was sent to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The Tillmans saw combat several times on their way to Baghdad. In early 2004, they finally were assigned to Afghanistan.
On April 22, 2004, the Tillmans’ Ranger company was searching for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in a village called Manah when one of their Humvees became disabled. The unit proceeded to split up, and during an ensuing firefight with Taliban fighters, Pat Tillman was killed. Tillman’s death came at a sensitive time for the Bush administration - just a week before the Army’s abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq became public and sparked a huge scandal. The Pentagon immediately announced that Tillman had died heroically in combat with the enemy, and President Bush hailed him as “an inspiration on and off the football field, as with all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror.”
His killing was widely reported by the media, including conservative commentators such as Ann Coulter, who called him “an American original - virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be.” His May 3, 2004, memorial in San Jose drew 3,500 people and was nationally televised.
Not until five weeks later, as Tillman’s battalion was returning home, did officials inform the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed accidentally by his fellow soldiers in a case of “friendly fire.” The Tillman family was outraged and sought the help of US Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to find out why they had not been told the truth sooner about Pat’s death. A House committee investigated the matter, and eventually the Army censured a three-star general, Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., for failing to follow procedures requiring him to notify the Tillman family and top officials about the investigation into the possibility of friendly fire. Some critics contended Kensinger was merely a scapegoat to avoid those higher up in the chain of command from being implicated in the scandal, including Rumsfeld.
Unprepared to Protect Soldiers and Humvees from IEDs
Once US forces had defeated the Iraqi military and assumed control of Iraq in 2003, the Pentagon believed the worst of its troubles were over. Little did military planners realize that American casualties not only would continue to mount, but that they would increase at an even higher pace than when soldiers were fighting a full-scale war.
Shortly after President Bush declared an end to the fighting, Iraqi guerilla fighters began attacking US combat troops with homemade bombs, or IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The IEDs proved to be especially dangerous to troops riding in Humvees, a vehicle widely used to transport troops. Lacking an armored body, the vehicle became a coffin for American soldiers caught inside when an IED exploded beneath or next to the Humvee.
Soon stories began appearing in American papers about the vulnerability of the Humvee, and how American troops were scavenging parts from other vehicles to fortify their Humvees with “hillbilly armor” because the Pentagon was slow to respond to the problem. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld claimed his department was doing everything it could to address the problem, but that the manufacturers of the Humvee couldn’t produce modified versions of the vehicle any faster. Not true, said the company, AM General, pointing out that they could increase production if the Pentagon wanted them to.
Even when reinforced Humvees arrived in Iraq, another problem arose. The heavily-armored vehicles couldn’t maneuver effectively and were prone to tipping over at certain speeds. In addition, its heavier doors trapped soldiers inside after an attack or accident.
The Pentagon then decided to scrap the Humvee altogether and purchase a brand new vehicle designed to withstand mines and other small explosives. All services have ordered a total of 7,700 MRAPs (short for “mine resistant ambush protected”) at a cost of $8 billion.
The rescue of Jessica Lynch
In 2003, as US forces continued to battle Iraqi military for control of Iraq, an Army private, Jessica Lynch, wound up being captured after her convoy was ambushed. Suffering numerous broken bones, Lynch was taken to a hospital still controlled by the enemy. A tip from an Iraqi source led to a daring rescue of Lynch by Special Operations soldiers. The story made front-page news as media sources around the country gobbled up the exciting tale, which turned out to be full of fantasy, thanks to Pentagon spin doctors.
It was true that Lynch had been severely injured when her Humvee crashed during an ambush outside Nasiriyah and that she was taken by captors to a hospital. But it was not true, as the Washington Post reported on April 1, 2003, that Lynch had killed several Iraqis in a gun battle and sustained many gunshot wounds herself. The Post’s erroneous account was seconded by the New York Times and other reputable media outlets. It wasn’t until early May that the story began to fall apart after the Toronto Star reported that Lynch had been well cared for at the hospital, that her captors had left up to two days before the raid and that fire from US forces had prevented hospital staffers from loading her in an ambulance. The BBC confirmed the Star’s account, and later the Post ran a 5,000-word story correcting what had previously been reported.
Once the truth was out, critics blasted the Pentagon for manipulating the truth about the rescue in order to gain sympathy for the US operation that was chewing up the country.
9/11 and the Fake Link with Iraq
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense has been at the center of numerous controversies and scandals stemming from the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks. When the decision was made to invade Afghanistan shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Center, few Americans disagreed with the decision, as the president and Secretary Rumsfeld made compelling arguments that it was necessary to go after al Qaeda terrorists hiding in that country.
Two years later, however, the Bush administration had a more difficult time gaining the same kind of consensus about invading Iraq. While claiming the existence of links between al Qaeda and Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein, Rumsfeld argued repeatedly that Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction, making it a serious threat to American security. Evidence supporting this claim was limited at best before the attack on March 2003, and even after US forces took over the country, no physical evidence was ever produced to show that Hussein’s government had been hiding nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or had been conspiring with the likes of Osama bin Laden.
This lack of evidence not only was embarrassing for Rumsfeld and other administration officials, but also opened them up to accusations that they had lied to the country. Critics wondered if the invasion was really about gaining control of Iraq’s oil reserves or had more to do with cleaning up after the president’s father, President George H.W. Bush, who was criticized at the end of the Gulf War in 1991 for not taking out Saddam Hussein. There was also the theory that President George W. Bush wanted to get even for the attempted plot to assassinate his father in Kuwait in 1993. Whatever the real reason(s) for the war, the lack of WMDs in Iraq forced Rumsfeld and other top administration officials to try and spin their way out of trouble by claiming that WMDs had never really been the main reason for the invasion and that all along the US simply wanted to free the Iraqi people from a ruthless dictator.
Detention without Trial at Guantánamo Bay
In the wake of the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, the US government found itself with hundreds of prisoners who were suspected of being members of al Qaeda or accomplices in some way. But instead of bringing the “enemy combatants,” as the Bush administration labeled them, to the US, military officials shipped them to an obscure American naval base in Cuba: Guantánamo Bay. “Gitmo,” as it came to be known, soon represented one of the most controversial legal maneuvers ever attempted by the federal government.
The Bush administration argued that it was safer to house the detainees at Gitmo, located hundreds of miles off shore from the US, while investigations could be conducted to determine which prisoners should be tried by US military tribunals. The decision to prepare military tribunals sparked opposition from civil libertarians, human rights advocates and even some military lawyers. Legal scholars wondered what the effort would mean for the legal doctrine of due process in the American judicial system.
Legal challenges were brought against the Bush administration, resulting in a US Supreme Court ruling in June 2006 that found the President had over-stepped his legal authority in ordering the military tribunals without Congressional approval. Although a Republican-led Congress subsequently adopted legislation giving the president authority to conduct military tribunals of terrorism suspects, the legal challenges have continued.
Meanwhile, approximately 300 detainees were still being held at Gitmo as of 2008. Originally, more than 700 were held at the prison, but many were let go following investigations by the military or extradited to their home countries where they faced more questionable human rights conditions. Of those who have remained at Gitmo, many have participated in hunger strikes to protest their indefinite confinement. Others have been subject to harassment by US military guards, including incidents of religious intolerance involving copies of the Koran that only further alienated the US in the eyes of the Muslim world.
Terrorism Futures Market
On the heels of the Total Information Awareness controversy, DARPA came under attack for trying to create a market-based system for predicting future terrorist attacks. The Policy Analysis Market (PAM) was intended to be a kind of “turmoil exchange” in which investors would place bets on possible events and collect real money if they happened. Democrats on Capitol Hill were outraged, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who said, “The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it’s grotesque.” DARPA shut down PAM two days later.
Total Information Awareness
As part of DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Information Awareness Office (IAO) was created in 2002, with the goal of applying advances in communications technology against transnational threats to the country, such as the terrorist network that organized the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States. The Total Information Awareness Program (later renamed the Terrorism Information Awareness Program) was one of the most controversial being handled by the IAO. Critics became concerned that the program was attempting to develop a surveillance system that could be used against anyone, including everyday citizens of the United States. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that the man chosen to direct the IAO was John Poindexter, a retired admiral, a former national security advisor and a figure in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. Congress cut the IAO’s funding in 2003.
For more information, see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Controversies.
diakite mamadou b - 8/5/2009 8:17:45 AM
thank AllGov department of your tch science work
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Founded: 1947
Annual Budget: http://www.defenselink.mil/
Employees: 2,086,701
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Department of Defense
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Leon E. Panetta has been many things during his long career. Congressman. President’s right-hand man. Think tank founder. Professor. But none of his roles has ever taken him deep into the realm of intelligence work, which is why many inside and outside of Washington, DC, questioned his ability to take over the embattled Central Intelligence Agency. Nonetheless, he served as director of the CIA from February 13, 2009, until June 30, 2011. President Barack Obama then appointed him Secretary of Defense, a position he took over on July 1, 2011.
Born June 28, 1938, in Monterey, CA, Panetta was raised by his Italian immigrant parents, Carmelo and Carmelina, who owned a restaurant. In 1947 they purchased a walnut farm and moved their family there. Panetta attended two Catholic schools (St. Carlos Grammar School and Carmel Mission School) before attending a public high school (Monterey High School), where he became involved in student politics (student body vice president as a junior; president as a senior).
In 1956, Panetta enrolled in Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, magna cum laude, in 1960. He remained at Santa Clara for law school, serving as an editor of the Law Review, and receiving his JD in 1963.
Following college, Panetta joined the US Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He attended Army Inteloigence School and was chief of operations and planning for intelligence at Ford Ord in California. He left the service as a first lieutenant in 1966.
Panetta began his political career as a Republican, taking a job in 1966 as a legislative assistant to US Senator Thomas H. Kuchel, a moderate Republican from California who was Senate Minority Whip. Three years later, Panetta moved to the Nixon administration, serving as a special assistant to Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Robert Finch, and then as director of the US Office for Civil Rights, where he was responsible for enforcement of equal education laws. There, he butted heads with Nixon officials who wanted to put the brakes on civil rights enforcement.
Having worn out his welcome in the administration, Panetta went to New York City in 1970 to serve as executive assistant to Republican Mayor John Lindsay, overseeing the city’s relations with the state and federal governments. The following year, he returned to California, and he began practicing law in the Monterey firm of Panetta, Thompson & Panetta. He also published his first book in 1971 ( Bring Us Together: The Nixon Team and the Civil Rights Retreat) about his frustrating experience heading up the Office of Civil Rights. He also switched his party affiliation to Democrat in 1971.
Panetta practiced law until 1976, when he was first elected to Congress from the 16th (now 17th) district from California, covering Monterey, Salinas and parts of the central coast. As a member of the House until 1993, he was a vocal opponent of the Reagan administration’s support for the Contra rebels, and he voted against authorizing US military action during the Gulf War in 1991.
His committee assignments included serving as the chair of the House Committee on the Budget (1989-1993); the Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations and Nutrition; the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Personnel and Police; and the Select Committee on Hunger’s Task Force on Domestic Hunger. He also served as vice chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam Era Veterans in Congress and as a member of the President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.
Panetta left Congress in 1993 to become President Bill Clinton’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. A year later, Clinton chose Panetta to become his White House chief of staff after the president’s first choice, Thomas “Mack” McLarty, proved unable to provide the structure needed to keep the Clinton Oval Office on track. Panetta reportedly brought more structure and curtailed the long, meandering meetings Clinton tended to have, and limited access to the President so he could focus on key issues and not get distracted. Panetta was also credited with helping negotiate the 1996 budget compromise with Congressional Republican leaders.
Panetta left Washington in 1997 and returned to California, taking up residence on his parents’ family farm with his wife, Sylvia. He began formulating a run for California governor in November 1998, but ultimately never launched his bid for the Democratic nomination. Panetta faced numerous obstacles that included a better known Democrat (US Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who also chose not to run, ultimately) and wealthy airline executive, Al Checchi, who lost the primary to Gray Davis.
Having decided his days as a politician were over, Panetta set out to create a think tank on the newly-established campus of California State University, Monterey Bay (where the army base Fort Ord once stood). The Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy was created in 1997 as a nonpartisan, not-for-profit study center for the advancement of public policy. That same year, Panetta was appointed Presidential Professor at Santa Clara University, and he began a six-year term on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. He was chairman of the NYSE’s Committee for Review and was co-chair of the Corporate Governance and Listing Standards Committee.
Panetta has served in numerous community and national public policy organizations throughout his career. In November 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him co-chair of the Council on Base Support and Retention. Since 2005 he has served as a member of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, and in March 2006, he was chosen to serve on the Iraq Study Group.
Upon Panetta’s announcement as Obama’s pick for director of the CIA, some key Senate Democrats expressed concern about Panetta’s lack of intelligence experience. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time,” said Feinstein, who will oversee Panetta’s confirmation as chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Those who came to Panetta’s defense included former Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-IN), who chaired foreign affairs and intelligence committees while serving in the House and later co-chaired the Iraq Study Group. Hamilton insisted that while Panetta wasn’t from the traditional world of intelligence, he dealt with the issue on a daily basis as Clinton’s chief of staff and as a member of the Iraq Study Group.
Panetta has been quoted as saying, “Torture is illegal, immoral, dangerous and counterproductive,” leading some intelligence experts to predict that the CIA will take a new direction in dealing with suspected terrorists, if Panetta is in charge.
Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, have been married since 1962. They have three sons and five grandchildren.
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Gates, Robert
Previous Secretary
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A native of Kansas, Robert M. Gates served as the Secretary of Defense from December 18, 2006 until July 1, 2011.
Gates received his bachelor’s degree in 1965 from the College of William and Mary, his master’s degree in history in 1966 from Indiana University and later his doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University in 1974.
In 1967 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Air Force and served for a year as an intelligence officer at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. In 1969 he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an intelligence analyst. Gates left the CIA in 1974 to serve on staff of the National Security Council. He returned to the CIA in late 1979, serving briefly as the director of the Strategic Evaluation Center, Office of Strategic Research. He was named the director of the DCI/DDCI Executive Staff in 1981 and Deputy Director for Intelligence in 1982. From 1986 to 1989, he served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
In 1987 Gates was nominated to become director of the CIA, but withdrew his name after it became clear the Senate would reject the nomination due to his role in the Iran-Contra controversy. From 1989 to 1991, he served as assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for President George H.W. Bush. Despite the earlier concerns about his role in Iran Contra, Gates did become director of CIA in 1991, making him the only career officer in CIA history to rise from entry-level employee to director. He headed the CIA until 1993. That same year the final report on the Iran-Contra investigation was issued. It said Gates was “close to many figures” who played significant roles in the scandal, and that he was “in a position to have known of their activities.” But there was not enough evidence to warrant an indictment against Gates.
Gates was President George W. Bush’s first choice to serve as secretary of the newly established Department of Homeland Security, but Gates chose instead to remain at Texas A&M University. It was also rumored that Gates was President Bush’s pick to become the first director of National Intelligence.
Until becoming Secretary of Defense, Gates served as chairman of the Independent Trustees of The Fidelity Funds, the nation’s largest mutual fund company, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc. He also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton examining the war in Iraq. The final report of the group recommended a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the gradual turning over of security responsibilities to Iraqi military forces. Instead of following this recommendation, Gates oversaw the troop surge ordered by President Bush that added another 20,000 soldiers in Iraq.
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