Michael G. Vickers

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (since March 2011)

(Defense Department)

Why He Matters

A former special-forces officer and CIA operative, Vickers is best known for his role arming the Afghan resistance fighters against the Soviet army in 1980s Afghanistan. In the Bush and Obama administrations, he now works to displace the Taliban into which that resistance ironically grew.

But like in 1980s Afghanistan, Vickers, known for his "brains and brawn," will be able to claim one battlefield victory for the history books in the modern war against al-Qaeda: the 10-year manhunt for Osama bin Laden that ended in a top-secret operation that killed the world's most-wanted terrorist in Pakistan in April 2011.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Assistant secretary of Defense for Special Operations /low-intensity conflict & interdependent capabilities (since July 2007-April 2011); Senior vice president, Strategic studies, at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (1997-2007), Washington, D.C.
Deployments: CIA operations officer (1983-1986); Army Special Forces, officer and non-commissioned officer (1973-1983)
Birthday: 1953
Alma Mater: Johns Hopkins University, International Relations/Studies, Ph.D. (slated to receive in May 2011);Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, MBA, 1988; University of Alabama, bachelor's degree, with honors, in New College, an individualized course of study, 1983

Spouse: Melana
Office: 1400 Defense Pentagon, Washington D.C. 20301
Email
Web site

Path to Power

A southern California native, Mike Vickers made a life-defining decision when he walked into a U.S. special forces "direct enlistment" office off the streets of Los Angeles and signed up to become a Green Beret. His rank as an enlistee would not last long, however, as Vickers became a commissioned officer and commander of special-forces units by the end of his ten-year Army career.

Life as a Green Beret

While in the Army, Vickers had "significant operational experience across a wide range of irregular warfare disciplines, encompassing counterterrorism, unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense/counterinsurgency," according to 2007 Senate confirmation testimony. Vickers said he served on both the "black" and "white" sides of the special forces, referring to the distinction between covert, commando-style "direct action" and more indirect, "diplomatic" activities, including foreign force training and community building.

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Not one to waste time, Vickers became fluent in Spanish and Czech as well as an expert in martial arts, parachuting and weapons. The overachiever was also second in his class at officer candidate school, according to a profile on Vickers in The Washington Post.

Vickers obtained his bachelor's degree during this period, graduating in 1983 from the University of Alabama's New College program in which he pursued an individualized course of study.

Also in 1983, Vickers became a CIA paramilitary officer, a career move that would solidify his place in the world of covert war strategy.

The CIA Years and 'Charlie Wilson's War'

Vickers made his mark quickly in the CIA, receiving an agency "Award for Valor" for his role in the 1983 Grenada invasion. In the aftermath of bombings of U.S. targets in Beirut that same year, Vickers joined an operational task force "focused on identifying and retaliating against the perpetrators of the attacks."

During the mid-1980s, Vickers became the principal strategist for what he called the "largest and most successful covert action program in the CIA's history: the successful effort to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan, which contributed significantly to ending the Cold War and facilitating the collapse of the Soviet empire."

Vicker's role is portrayed in the 2007 Tom Hanks' movie "Charlie Wilson's War," where he appears as a young and brilliant CIA strategic-weapons expert played by actor Christopher Denham. In the film, Vickers leads the brainstorming sessions on covert plans to arm the Afghan mujahideen with surface-to-air missiles and other arms to battle the Soviets. At one point he says with a boyish grin, "Let's get some Russians."

The film calls the operation a success, but also highlights U.S. failure to provide stabilizing aid to Afghans for schools and reconstruction in its aftermath, setting the stage for the Taliban's rise.

Upon leaving the CIA, Vickers got an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1988. Since the early 1990s, he has served as an adviser to the Defense Department on force transformation, and written extensively on "the revolution in military affairs, space warfare, information warfare, and the transformation of strategic warfare."

Revolution in Military Affairs

In 1991, Vickers started his doctorate at Johns Hopkins in international relatations, but it took him 20 years to finish.

It was there that he studied the theory called "Revolution in Military Affairs," or RMA, which holds that big technological changes in warfare, such as nuclear weapons or precision ones, can alter warfare and thus the global balance of power. He identified 18 such cases in his studies.

Think Tank

In 1997, he joined the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington, D.C. think tank focused on national security. He worked there until he was nominated in April 2007 by President George W. Bush to serve in the Pentagon.

Vickers was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in July 2007, and continued in the same role after his February 2009 nomination by President Barack Obama.

The Issues

Vickers' current post is a high-intensity one, especially given that the 54,000-strong Special Operations Command he oversees (known as Socom, based in Tampa, Fla.) is the fastest-growing branch of the U.S. military. His job also addresses "the modernization of nuclear forces for deterrence and retaliation, and the retooling of conventional forces to combat terrorism -- a portfolio so expansive that he and some Pentagon officials once jokingly referred to his efforts as the 'take-over-the-world plan,' one official said to The Washington Post.

Global Counterterrorism

Vickers embraces the targeted use of U.S. special forces to fight terrorism wherever it appears. While in the Bush administration, he issued a vision for targeting al-Qaeda affiliated networks around the world and utilizing green berets to work "through foreign partners to uproot and fight terrorist groups." In spring 2009, he again spoke of the "counter network warfare" plan to use a "network to fight a network."

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The Network

As part of the Pentagon's policy leadership reporting to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy and her principal deputy Dr. James N. Miller, Vickers works closely with other assistant secretaries including Alexander Vershbow , for international security affairs; Michael Nacht , for global strategic affairs; and Paul Stockton, for homeland defense and Americas' security affairs.

He was taken under his wing and mentored by Pentagon think tank guru and futurist Andrew Marshall, a proponent of RMA theory who once described Vickers as "imaginative and able."

Campaign Contributions

There is no record of campaign contributions by Vickers in campaign finance databases.

Additional Resources