#381 | Michael G. Vickers: Intel, Special, Ops, & Strategy from the CIA's War in Afghanistan to Ukraine

The Realignment

Saager Enjeti, Technology, Policy, News, Marshall Kosloff, International Relations, Politics, News Commentary, Public Policy, U.s. Politics, National Security, Economics

4.8 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael G. Vickers, author of By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy and former Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, joins The Realignment. Michael and Marshall discuss his role in the CIA's secret war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, his time in the Army's Special Forces after the Vietnam War, where the War on Terror went right and wrong, and how his experience as an operator, intelligence officer, and DoD official across four decades informs his view of how the U.S. should approach national security challenges of the 2020s.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Marshall here. Welcome back to the Realignment.
0:08.6	Two weeks ago, a Realignment Supercast subscriber asked me and
0:12.0	Saga for our thoughts on the parallels between today's policy of support for
0:16.2	Ukraine against Russia and America's past support for the Mojahadin in
0:20.7	Afghanistan in the 1980s against the Soviet Union. We gave our own answers on that
0:25.5	episode. But today I'm lucky to speak with Michael G. Bickers, one of the
0:30.5	original and leading architects of the CIA's secret war against the Soviets in
0:36.0	Afghanistan. Michael has a new memoir out by all means available, memoirs of a
0:41.2	life and intelligence, special operations and strategy. Beyond the Afghan
0:46.1	Ukraine parallels, we discuss his career, which spanned his time from a enlisted
0:51.2	Green Berets, trade out of community college, to his final role as an
0:55.4	undersecretary of defense for intelligence in the Obama administration. It's
0:59.4	kind of reddit speak with someone who's been at the tip of the spear from a
1:03.5	special operations perspective while also working in intelligence and the
1:08.1	broader strategic issues he faced as a undersecretary of defense. So I hope
1:12.6	you all enjoy this conversation and I really recommend his book. Another quick
1:17.4	few reminders. Number one, if you'd like to get access to all of our previous
1:20.6	AMA episodes on the supercast, much like one we released last Friday and go to
1:26.1	reallignment.supercast.com and last but not least a huge thank you to the
1:30.3	foundation for American innovation, which is the new name of our previous
1:34.4	sponsor Lincoln Network. All of the great work that Lincoln Network did before
1:40.3	continues with FAAI and I know that there will be money coming on the pipeline
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