Petraeus, David Howell (1952-…), a retired United States Army general, served as director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2011 and 2012. Prior to his appointment as CIA director, Petraeus had served as the commanding general of U.S. and multinational forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Petraeus was born on Nov. 7, 1952, in Cornwall, New York. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1974. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry. Petraeus served in Europe and the Middle East, and at Army posts in the United States. In 1983, Petraeus was the top graduate at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He later earned master’s and doctorate degrees in international relations from Princeton University.
In 1995, Petraeus, then a colonel, commanded the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 1997, he became the executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Petraeus was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 2000. In 2001, he became the assistant chief of staff for operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Stabilization Force in Bosnia. From 2002 to 2004, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. As a major general, he led his division in combat operations in the opening stage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. government’s term for the Iraq War (2003-2011).
As a lieutenant (three-star) general, Petraeus commanded the Combined Arms Center (CAC) at Fort Leavenworth. At CAC, he was responsible for the development of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency doctrine that was later deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency is military action against guerrillas or other insurgents. In 2007, Petraeus was promoted to the rank of four-star general. He took command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. Petraeus was the architect of 2007’s so-called troop surge. That strategy, which included an increase in troop numbers, was credited with reducing violence in Iraq.
Petraeus’s success in Iraq earned him command of the U.S. Central Command and responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In July 2010, he took command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and of the NATO International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan. He retired from the Army in August 2011. The following month, Petraeus took office as CIA director. In November 2012, Petraeus resigned from the post, acknowledging that he had had an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. In April 2015, a federal judge sentenced Petraeus to two years’ probation and fined him $100,000 for providing classified information to Broadwell while he was CIA director.
In 2013, Petraeus became chairman of a private equity firm. He also lectures on national defense issues.
