David Petraeus

Petraeus was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, the son of Miriam Sweet (née Howell; 1912–1991), a librarian, and Sixtus Petraeus (1915–2008), a sea captain.

His father was a Dutch merchant mariner who emigrated to the United States at the start of World War II, from Franeker, the Netherlands, and his mother was American, a resident of Brooklyn, New York.

They met at the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey and married.

Sixtus Petraeus commanded a Liberty ship for the U.S. for the duration of World War II.

His son went on to serve as an officer in Afghanistan as a member of 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

Petraeus's official residence in the United States is a small property in the small town of Springfield, New Hampshire, which his wife inherited from her family.

Petraeus once told a friend that he was a Rockefeller Republican.

David Howell Petraeus (born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official.

The family moved after the war, settling in Cornwall-on-Hudson, where David Petraeus grew up and graduated from Cornwall Central High School in 1970.

Petraeus went on to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Petraeus was on the intercollegiate soccer and ski teams, was a cadet captain on the brigade staff, and was a "distinguished cadet" academically, graduating in the top 5% of the Class of 1974 (ranked 40th overall).

In the class yearbook, Petraeus was remembered as "always going for it in sports, academics, leadership, and even his social life."

While a cadet, Petraeus started dating the daughter of Army General William A. Knowlton (the West Point superintendent at the time), Holly.

Two months after Petraeus graduated, they married.

Holly, who is multi-lingual, was a National Merit Scholar in high school, and graduated summa cum laude from Dickinson College.

They have a daughter and son, Anne and Stephen.

Petraeus graduated from West Point in 1974, receiving a B.S. degree in Military Science.

Petraeus was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983.

He later served as assistant professor of international relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.

Since 2022, he has taught courses in international relations at Yale University as a Kissinger Senior Fellow of the university's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Petraeus has repeatedly stated that he has no plans to run for elected political office.

He earned the General George C. Marshall Award as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

He subsequently earned an M.P.A. degree in 1985 and a Ph.D. in international relations in 1987 from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he was mentored by Richard H. Ullman.

At that time, he also served as an assistant professor of international relations at the U.S. Military Academy from 1985 to 1987.

His doctoral dissertation was titled "The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam: A Study of Military Influence and the Use of Force in the Post-Vietnam Era".

He completed a military fellowship at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1994–1995, although he was called away early to serve in Haiti as the Chief of Operations for NATO there in early 1995.

From late 2005 through February 2007, Petraeus served as commanding general of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) located there.

His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as commanding general, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008.

As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.

Petraeus administered the oath of office at his son's 2009 commissioning into the Army after his son's graduation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010, to July 18, 2011.

On June 23, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Petraeus to succeed General Stanley McChrystal as commanding general of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, technically a step down from his position as Commander of United States Central Command, which oversees the military efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt.

He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012.

Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 37 years in the United States Army.

On June 30, 2011, Petraeus was unanimously confirmed as the Director of the CIA by the U.S. Senate 94–0.

Petraeus relinquished command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on July 18, 2011, and retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011.

On November 9, 2012, he resigned from his position as director of the CIA, citing his extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, which was reportedly discovered in the course of an FBI investigation.

In January 2015, officials reported the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors had recommended bringing felony charges against Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to Broadwell while serving as director of the CIA.

Eventually, Petraeus pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.

He was later sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000 for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified material he gave to Broadwell.