Peter C. Oleson

Peter C. Oleson is an historian, professor, and former senior intelligence

officer. He began his career in the State Department in 1967 before

serving as an intelligence officer in the Air Force. He was the intelligence

briefer for the Chief of Staff and then served in Southeast Asia as the

intelligence analyst for northern Laos assisting CIA’s covert

operations. He worked in industry before being recruited in 1977 onto

the staff of the Secretary of Defense where he was the director for

intelligence and space policy. He later became the assistant director

for plans and policy of the Defense Intelligence Agency and an advisor

to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has taught as an adjunct

professor at the National Intelligence University, CIA University, the University of

Maryland, the Institute of World Politics, and now teaches at the University

of Hawaii’s life-long learning institute. He is the editor and author of many

articles in AFIO’s Guide to the Study of Intelligence and journal,

The Intelligencer.