Deutch, John Mark

▪ 1996

      In 1995 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton appointed John Deutch the new director of central intelligence. Although once considered one of the prime jobs in government, this directorship was now viewed as such a difficult and unrewarding position that Deutch had originally turned it down; a personal plea from the president persuaded him to accept the post. Deutch's foremost task was to rebuild the morale and efficiency of what many viewed as an agency in serious trouble.

      The years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War had not been kind to the CIA. Some critics questioned its purpose in the 1990s; others assailed the agency for its intelligence failures. Meanwhile, the CIA was shaken by internal dissension, which was reflected in a growing rate of resignations among younger officers and in the uncomfortable publicity of a sexual discrimination suit. This followed the scandal that ensued early in 1994 when it was revealed that Aldrich Ames, a career counterintelligence officer, had been a Soviet mole, passing along information that resulted in the deaths of at least 10 agents working on behalf of the U.S.

      Deutch was born in Brussels, Belgium, on July 27, 1938, and was naturalized in 1945. He received bachelor's degrees from Amherst (Mass.) College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961 and a doctorate in chemistry from MIT in 1965. Deutch worked at the Department of Defense and taught at Princeton University before returning to MIT as a faculty member in 1970. He became chairman of the chemistry department in 1976 and was appointed provost of the university in 1982. He left MIT in 1993 to return to the Department of Defense, and in 1994 he was appointed deputy secretary of defense. Deutch gained praise and political support for his handling of the touchy issue of military base closings while at the Pentagon.

      One of Deutch's first official actions as director of central intelligence was to begin a thorough overhaul of the CIA's upper ranks, replacing most top officials with candidates from outside. He also responded swiftly to allegations of human rights abuses by a Guatemalan army colonel who was also a CIA agent. Deutch fired the former head of Latin-American covert operations and the station chief at the time of the abuses and demoted and reprimanded eight other CIA officers. While Deutch's first steps were popular with many politicians, including members of the influential Senate and House intelligence oversight committees, some veteran CIA officers were disturbed by what they perceived as the sacrifice of their fellow agents for political gain and by the influx of outsiders who were now largely responsible for the direction the agency was taking.

      (JOHN H. MATHEWS)

* * *