American Failures News Today

Robert Gates served eight presidents during his 27 years as an intelligence professional.

As part of Homecoming & Reunion Weekend, W&M President Katherine A. Rowe hosted W&M Chancellor and former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 and former Navy SEAL Team 2 Commander Mike Hayes for a special conversation.


The 2021 recipient of the Roy M. Huffington Award for Contributions to International Understanding is Dr. Robert Gates for his legacy in public service, education, and international relations.

(AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) Robert Gates, former Secretary Of Defense and author of “Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World“, spoke with Brian Kilmeade about the challenges China and Russia pose for American security. Gates says Russia and China are more aggressive because they believe the United States is weak. Gates explained that Russia and China see weakness and opportunity in our political paralysis, including, how our economy re...

Over 100 days into the Biden administration, how is the president dealing with national security issues? Judy Woodruff explores the question with former Defense Secretary, and former CIA Director, Robert Gates. He served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and authored "Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World." Read the Full Transcript Its been over 100 days since President Biden was sworn in. In addition to combating t...

Say “labor” and “Akron” and the likely response will be “rubber.”  That’s as it should be, but in “Labor in Akron, 1825-1945” the historian John Tully reaches back far earlier, even as far back as the founding of the city. The laborers who dug the Ohio & Erie Canal, mostly Irish immigrants seeking opportunity after a famine and cholera epidemic, were paid a pittance and vulnerable to rattlesnakes and diseases like malaria. There were a few unorganized strikes, but conditions ...

Email Address Robert M. Gates. Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post–Cold War World. Knopf, 2020. Robert M. Gates was born in 1943 in Wichita, Kansas and joined the Central Intelligence Agency twenty-three years later. He became a lieutenant in the US Air Force in 1967; served for nine years on the National Security Council; and served as deputy national security adviser, as deputy director and director of central intelligence, and as secretary o...