Anthony Zinni joined the Marine Corps in 1961 and was commissioned an
infantry second lieutenant in 1965 upon graduation from Villanova University.
He has held numerous command and staff assignments that include platoon,
company, battalion, regimental, Marine expeditionary unit, and Marine
expeditionary force command. His staff assignments included service Bin
operations, training, special operations, counter-terrorism and manpower
billets. He has also been a tactics and operations instructor at several Marine
Corps schools and was selected as a fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations
Strategic Studies Group. General Zinni's joint assignments include command of a
joint task force and a unified command. He has had several joint and combined
staff billets at task force and unified command levels.
His military service has taken him to over 70 countries including
deployments to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Western Pacific, Northern
Europe and Korea. He has also served tours in Okinawa and Germany. His
operational experiences include two tours in Vietnam, emergency relief and
security operations in the Philippines, Operation Provide Comfort in Turkey and
northern Iraq, Operation Provide Hope in the former Soviet Union, Operations
Restore Hope, Continue Hope, and United Shield in Somalia, Operations Resolute
Response and Noble Response in. Kenya, Operations Desert Thunder, Desert Fox,
Desert Viper, Desert Spring, Southern Watch and the Maritime Intercept
Operations in the Persian Gulf, and Operation Infinite Reach against terrorist
targets in the Central Region. He was involved in the planning and execution of
Operation Proven Force and Operation Patriot Defender in support of the Gulf
War and noncombatant evacuation operations in Liberia, Zaire, Sierra Leone, and
Eritrea. He has also participated in presidential diplomatic missions to
Somalia, Pakistan, and Ethiopia-Eritrea and State Department missions involving
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and conflicts in Indonesia and the
Philippines.
He has attended numerous military schools and courses including the Army
Special Warfare School, the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, the Marine
Corps Command and Staff College, and National War College. He holds a
bachelor's degree in economics from Villanova University, a master's in
international relations from Salve Regina College, a master's in management and
supervision from Central Michigan University, and honorary doctorates from The
College of William and Mary and the Maine Maritime Academy.
He currently holds positions on several boards of directors and advisors of
major U.S. companies and non-profit organizations. In addition he has held
academic positions that include the Stanley Chair in Ethics at the Virginia
Military Institute, the Nimitz Chair at the University of California erkeley,
the Hofheimer Chair at the Joint Forces Staff College, the Harriman Professor
of Government appointment and membership on the board of the Reves Center for
International Studies at the College of William and Mary, the board of
Villanova University's Center for Responsible Leadership and Governance, and
the Weissberg Chair in International Studies at Beloit College. He has worked
with the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and
Cooperation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Henri Dunant Centre for
Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. He is President of UCLA's Center for Middle
East Development. He is also a Distinguished Advisor at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, an Honorary Fellow at the Foreign Policy
Association, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has also been
appointed by the Governor as a member of the Virginia Commission on Military
Bases.
General Zinni has co-authored a New York Times Best Seller book on his
career with Tom Clancy entitled "Battle Ready".
