"Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy" – with Michael Vickers

Summary

Michael Vickers (Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his remarkable career and memoir. He was formerly the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. 

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

1. His specialized training to wear a “Nuclear Backpack” (yes, literally!)
2. Overseeing a multibillion-dollar CIA covert action program against the Soviets
3. Planning the Osama Bin Laden raid
4. Retooling defense intelligence for the 21^st century

Reflections

1. Finding a narrative that unites the various chapters of your life 
2. Serving a country vs. serving a political party 

And much, much more …

Episode Notes

Michael Vickers has been on a heck of a ride. He started out as a U.S. Army private with no degree and went on to oversee hundreds of thousands of people as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence while holding an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. Along the way he was commissioned as an officer in the Green Berets, joined the CIA, oversaw the longest and largest covert action program in CIA history, and then went on to hold senior leadership positions across the Intelligence Community (IC). 

Michael is the author of By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operation & Strategy. His personal story has been intertwined with that of U.S. foreign policy for half a century – in this interview, Michael reflects on both

And… 

Michael is portrayed as the CIA “whiz kid” in the movie Charlie Wilson’s War, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Charlie Wilson was a Democratic congressperson from East Texas who played a key role in the CIA covert action program in Afghanistan in the 1980s. How? He was on the committee that funded it. He kept giving the program more money than the CIA asked for. I believe that’s called “the power of the purse.”

Quotes of the Week

"That weapon was called the Special Atomic Demolition Munition [i.e., “Nuclear Backpack] ...it was a sporty, uh, you know, it seemed like a good idea when I was 23 years old. So, there you have it." – Michael Vickers.

Resources 

SURFACE SKIM

*SpyCasts*

• “The Nuclear Doomsday Machine” – with Sean Maloney (2022_
• “The Spies Who Came in From the Cold” - Chris Costa and John Quattrocki (2022)
• “The Spymaster’s Prism” – CIA Legend Jack Devine (2021)
• “Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service” – Hank Crumpton (2012)
• “The CIA and the End of the Cold War” – Milt Bearden (2011)

*Beginner Resources*

• Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Homeschool History (2022) [2:25 min video]
• Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023) [3-minute read]
• The Operation That Took Out Osama Bin Laden, Military.com (2023) [3-minute read]
• The Plan to Get Osama, ABC News (2012) [6:44 min video]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

• Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, Mark Lowenthal (CQ Press, 2022)
• Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-1989, Roderic Braithwaite (Profile, 2012) 
• The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan, Gregory Gamble (Harper, 2010)
• The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright (Knopf, 2007)
• Ghost Wars, Steve Coll (Penguin, 2004)

Articles

• “I’d Never Been Involved in Anything as Secret as This,” Garett Graff, Politico (2021)
• A Secret Warrior Leaves the Pentagon as Quietly as He Entered, Thom Shanker, NYT (2015)
• Soldier, Thinker, Hunter, Spy: Drawing a Bead on Al Qaeda, Elisabeth Bumiller, NYT (2011)

Video

• The End of a Superpower - The Collapse of the Soviet Union, DW Documentaries (2022)
• Manhunt: The Search for Osma bin Laden, HBO (2013)
• Afghanistan 1979, the War that Changed the World, Gulya Mirzoeva, Icarus Films (2015)
• Red Star Over Khyber, PBS Frontline (1984)

Primary Sources 

• Excerpt from Record of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Shultz, February 22, 1988. 
• Commander, 500th MI Group, Subj: Guerilla Use of Stinger Missiles and Their Effect on Soviet Tactics in AF, circa 1987.
• Memorandum of Conversation between Vice President Bush and Pakistani President Zia, December 8, 1982
• Conversation between M.S. Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan on Afghanistan (Excerpt), December 8, 1982
• Message to Soviet Ambassadors on the Invasion of Afghanistan, Attachment to CPSU Politburo Decree #177, December 27, 1979

*Wildcard Resource*

• A Distant Plain: Counter-insurgency Afghanistan: Government, Coalition, Taliban and Warlords compete (2013)
• Play this board game developed by former guest and former World Board Game Champion, Volko Ruhnke,