Wharton Club Of DC

Please join The OSS Society for the first installment in its 2023 "Oh So Social" Conversation Series on June 13, 2023 - the OSS' 81st birthday - at 6 p.m. EDT. Gen. Jim Mattis will interview OSS Society Chairman Dr. Mike Vickers about his forthcoming memoir, By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Special Operations, Intelligence, and Strategy.

In 1984, Michael Vickers took charge of the CIA’s secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. After inheriting a strategy aimed at imposing costs on the Soviets for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Vickers transformed the covert campaign into an all-out effort to help the Afghan resistance win their war. More than any other American, he was responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan that led to the end of the Cold War.

In By All Means Available, Vickers recounts his remarkable career, from his days as a Green Beret to his vision for victory in Afghanistan to his role in waging America’s war with al-Qa’ida at the highest levels of government. In captivating detail, he depicts his years in the Special Forces—including his training to parachute behind enemy lines with a backpack nuclear weapon in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe—and reveals how those experiences directly influenced his approach to shaping policy. Vickers has played a significant role in most of the military and intelligence operations of the past four decades, and he offers a deeply informed analysis of the greatest challenges facing America today, and in the decades ahead.

"A fascinating, must-read book. Mike Vickers shares an insider’s riveting and unsparing account of the efforts to keep America safe in an unsafe time. As a thoughtful, ferocious warrior and policy maker, his unique eyewitness insights reveal the passion and wisdom that gained him trust across all ranks and throughout Washington." 

—General Jim Mattis, USMC (Ret.) and the 26th Secretary of Defense