in vietnam all the way back to the 1950s. they started fighting full bore in vietnam in 1965, the war raged through the late 60s until the 70s up until late 1973 when u.s. military involvement in vietnam ended. it was the west point class of 1974, the first class of young officers to have lived their whole adult lives, training for combat and army leadership at west point in the context of this big deadly long war, but upon graduating in 1974, they knew they did not have to go to that war, because u.s. involvement there was over. and in that one class, that one class of 1974 at west point, that one year there was the man who is now the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general martin dempsey and general david petraeus, was head of the cia and commander of the iraq war and afghanistan war and general keith alexander, who runs the nsa, he heads up the largest intelligence agency of any kind
about it in 1974, when governments accumulate the power and use the surveillance engines to keep the power going. i think that is the problem we have here. look at keith alexander, been there nine years, the largest intelligence agencies are under him, and when i interviewed people for this article all the cia they said we referred to keith alexander as emperor alexander, because whatever keith wants, keith gets. it is impressive research, as always, that you always bring to this topic, but it is great to have you here and help to understand it, thank you very much. james bamford, also the author of the puzzle palace. on line at wired.com, we ll be right back. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs.
keith alexander, who runs the nsa, he heads up the largest intelligence agency of any kind in the entire world, and he simultaneously runs the fastest growing part of the united states armed services. cyber command. petraeus, chairman of the joint chiefs and alexander. head of the nsa and cyber command all in the same class from west point which was the first class to graduate once the vietnam war was really and truly over. the new leaks about how much the nsa is spying on us, despite their agreement to only spy on people in other countries. the huge amount of attention that these new revelations is obscured a little bit. these are just the latest in a long series of revelations of how the nsa is spying on us. you can go all the way to the church committee hearings from the time martin dempsey and alexander petraeus were just getting out of west point. the big revelations then from
of the nsa. his newest book about general keith went on line at wired.com at the top of the show. thanks for being here. great to be here again. in silent war, this article you published at wired. it seems like you are trying to convey the immense power that keith alexander has that is underappreciated. why do we not understand how powerful he is in the agencies he runs? he s the most powerful figure in the history of the united states. there s never been an official with this much power. in addition to that, he s head of the cyber command. the cyber command under that, he s got an army he s got the second army under him, 24th air force. he s got an army, navy and air force under him.