Michael G. Vickers

Michael George Vickers (born April 27, 1953) is an American defense official who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD-I). As USD-I, Vickers, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010, was the Defense Department's top civilian military intelligence official. Before becoming USD-I, Vickers served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict.

Prior to joining the Defense Department, Vickers served in the U.S. Army Special Forces as both a non-commissioned officer and commissioned officer, as well as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) paramilitary operations officer from the elite Special Activities Division. While in the CIA, he played a key role in the arming of the Islamic mujahideen against the communist government in the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Some of the mujahideen groups armed by Vickers became the Taliban and Al-Queda/Afganistan while other parts became their opposition, the Northern Alliance.

Early life Vickers was born in Burbank, California, and attended Hollywood High School.

He has acknowledged earning C's in high school and scraping through junior college before finding purpose in the Army.

Before he served in Special Forces, his original intention was to play professional football or baseball. He was beaten out of a starting position at Pierce College by future NCIS star Mark Harmon, who went on to play for UCLA. After completing Czech language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in January 1978, Vickers was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, Special Forces Detachment Europe (Airborne). He completed the British Special Air Service Counterterrorism Close Battle Course in June 1978.

Vickers served in the Latin America Division, the International Activities Division (Special Operations Group) and the Near East and South Asia Division. He deployed to Grenada, established the CIA station and performed operational missions. For this, he received an award for heroism under fire from the Director of Central Intelligence. After the October 1983 Marine Barracks bombing, Vickers was selected for a special counter-terrorism assignment in Lebanon.

Later, Vickers was Senior Vice President, Strategic Studies, at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), during which he provided advice on Iraq strategy to US President George H. W. Bush and his war cabinet.

In July 2007, he was confirmed by the United States Senate as Assistant Secretary of Defense, where he was the senior civilian advisor to the US Secretary of Defense on such matters as "counter-terrorism" strategy and operational employment of special operations forces, strategic forces, and conventional forces. This role saw Vickers hunting many of the former anti-Soviet fighters that he assisted during the Afghan-Soviet war.

He retired from government service in April 2015. As of December 2015, it was announced that he had been appointed to the BAE Systems board of directors.

In 2020, Vickers, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."

In October 2020, Vickers signed a letter that stated the Biden laptop story "has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". In May 2023, The New York Times reported that no evidence has emerged the laptop contained Russian disinformation, and portions of its contents have been verified as authentic, prompting House Republicans to term the signers of the letter, including Vickers, as "spies who lie".

Education Vickers originally began attending the University of Alabama in 1980, and undertook additional remote coursework through Florida State University and the University of Oklahoma. He earned credits from nine universities and colleges before graduating cum laude from UA in 1983, writing his honors thesis on U.S. intelligence policy. He earned a Ph.D. in 2011 in International Relations/Strategic Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University under Professor Eliot A. Cohen.

Personal life Vickers was previously married to Phebe Novakovic, a former intelligence officer, General Dynamics CEO, and director at JP Morgan.

He later married Melana Zyla Vickers and has five daughters: Alexandra, Natasha, Sophia, Oksana and Kalyna.

Publications

In popular culture

Vickers' role at the Central Intelligence Agency during the Soviet–Afghan War was featured in George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War, and in the 2007 movie adaptation in which he is played by actor Christopher Denham.