William Odom
| William Eldridge Odom | |
|---|---|
William Eldridge Odom as a Major General
|
|
| Born |
June 23, 1932 Cookeville, Tennessee |
| Died | May 30, 2008 (aged 75) Lincoln, Vermont |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1954–1988 |
| Rank |
 Lieutenant General
|
| Commands held | Director, National Security Agency |
| Battles/wars |
Cold War Vietnam War |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit |
| Other work |
|
William Eldridge Odom (June 23, 1932 – May 30, 2008) was a retired U.S. Army 3-star general, and former Director of the NSA under President Ronald Reagan, which culminated a 31-year career in military intelligence, mainly specializing in matters relating to the Soviet Union. After his retirement from the military, he became a think tank policy expert and a university professor and became known for his outspoken criticism of the Iraq War and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. He died of an apparent heart attack at his vacation home in Lincoln, Vermont.
Early in his military career, he observed Soviet military activities while serving as a military liaison in Potsdam, Germany. Later, he taught courses in Russian history at West Point, New York, and while serving at the United States embassy in Moscow in the early 1970s, he visited all of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Although constantly trailed by KGB, he nonetheless managed to smuggle out a large portion of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's archive, including the author's membership card for the Writers' Union and Second World War military citations; Solzhenitsyn subsequently paid tribute to Odom's role in his memoir "Invisible Allies" (1995). [1]
Upon returning to the United States, he resumed his career at West Point where he taught courses in Soviet politics. Odom regularly stressed the importance of education for military officers.
In 1977, he was appointed as the military assistant to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish assistant for national security affairs to President Jimmy Carter. Among the primary issues he focused on were American-Soviet relations, including the SALT nuclear weapons talks, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran hostage crisis, presidential directives on the situation in the Persian Gulf, terrorism and , and the executive order on telecommunications policy.
...
Wikipedia