Another Hoya alumni will be taking a place in the ranks of government when Robert Gates is confirmed by the Senate as the new Secretary of Defense for the Bush Administration.
Gates, who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under former president H. W. Bush, earned his Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet Studies from Georgetown in 1974.
At the time, he was a veteran of Vietnam and was already working for the Central Intelligence Agency. History Professor David Goldfrank remembers Gates as one of many government employees who came to Georgetown for advanced degrees in those years, often in Russian area studies and in Russian history.
From the start, Gates stood out from among his peers, Goldfrank said. Although he was not his professor, he remembers his colleagues speaking highly of the young man.
“He was seen as one of the most intelligent and hardworking students,” Goldfrank said. “Nothing but positive things ever came from his mentors.”
“People really saw him as an up-and-coming person,” he added.
Gates rose steadily through the ranks in the CIA, and has had a distinguished career. He is the only CIA employee to ever rise from an entry-level position to the Directorship, and has received several awards, including the National Security Medal and three Distinguished Intelligence Medals. Like many other senior CIA officals, however, he suffered scrutiny during the Iran-Contra affair, which prevented him from becoming Director when he was first nominated in 1987.
As the current president of Texas A&M University, Gates will replace Donald Rumsfeld. He was part of The Iraq Study Group, a panel that has been studying possible alternatives in Iraq. Shaping a long-term strategy for the war in Iraq promises to be a central focus of his tenure.The question remains whether Gates, who turned down an offer to become Director of National Intelligence from President Bush in 2005, will be able to handle his new job as Secretary of Defense.
Goldfrank is confident. “While Communist Russia has been gone for 15 years and thus the thrust of Mr. Gates’ thesis is no longer relevant except in so far as it may effect the strategic relations between Russia and China, perhaps the long term perspectives of history which he certainly gained here at Georgetown will be able to help him as he tackles his new, most challenging assignment.”
Professor Anthony Arend (SFS ’80) hailed the appointment as a sign of needed changed in Washington.
“The nomination of Robert Gates is a very positive sign. Gates is a respected person with significant foreign policy experience,” Arend said. “I believe the confirmation process will be reasonably smooth and that he will be in place before the beginning of 2007.”
Additional reporting by Michael J. Bruns
