Writer, general met at Harvard
WASHINGTON— Paula Broadwell first met fellow West Point graduate David Petraeus in the spring of 2006, when she was a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
He was a lieutenant general working on a counterinsurgency manual that would be tested during his command in Iraq. The university had invited him to give a speech.
Broadwell was in the Army Reserve after being recalled three times to active duty since the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks to work on counterterrorism issues and intended to return to active duty or get into the policy world, according to the preface of the Petraeus biography she would later write with a Washington Post editor.
Petraeus, who held much- praised military commands in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned Friday after admitting he had an extramarital affair, a disclosure that ended the retired four- star general’s civilian career as director of the CIA.
Gave her his card
He carried on the affair with Broadwell, now 40, according to several U. S. officials with knowledge of the situation. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss publicly the investigation that led to the resignation.
The FBI discovered the relationship by monitoring Petraeus’ emails, after investigators were alerted that Broad well may have had access to his personal email account, two of the officials said.
Broadwell wrote in the preface to “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” published by Penguin in January, that while at Harvard, Petraeus passed along his card and offered to help her academic work on leadership.
The book’s ranking on Amazon. com jumped from 76,792 on Friday to 111 by midday Saturday.
Married, 2 sons
“I later discovered that he was famous for this type of mentoring and networking, especially with aspiring soldier scholars,” Broadwell wrote, adding that “I took full advantage of his open door policy to seek insight and share perspectives.”
Broadwell is a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph. D. candidate in the Department ofWar Studies at King’s College London, according to her biography on Penguin’s website.
According to The Bismarck ( N. D.) Tribune, she grewup in North Dakota and moved to Charlotte, N. C., more than three years ago with her husband and their two young sons.
The book began as research for her dissertation, a case study of Petraeus’ leadership. It evolved into an authorized biography written with Washington Post editor Vernon Loeb after President Barack Obama put Petraeus in charge of Afghanistan in 2010.
In the Army Reserve, she specialized in military intelligence, spending time at the U. S. Special Operations Command and the FBI Counterterrorism Task Forces before pursuing an academic career.