The Honorable Robert M. Gates capped a distinguished career of public service with his five year term as Secretary of Defense, an unprecedented tenure that spanned the administration of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. An Eagle Scout and honors student form Kansas, Robert Gates attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "I started with American history and moved east," he says. He studied Western European history as an undergrad, earned an M.A. in Eastern European history at Indiana University. In 1965 he answered a recruiter's invitation to a job interview with...