Vincent R. Stewart, a Jamaican immigrant who rose to become a Marine Corps lieutenant general and served under presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump as the first Black director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, died April 28 at his home in Aldie, Va. He was 64.
His wife, Phyllis Stewart, confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.
Gen. Stewart recalled that when he joined the Marines in 1981, he hoped to be “part of something bigger” after working as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman and studying history at Western Illinois University. He figured he would serve in the military for just a few years, but instead remained in the Marine Corps for nearly four decades, rising from a position as a tank-unit platoon leader to become the nation’s highest-ranking military intelligence officer.
As head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from January 2015 to October 2017, he advised the president, lawmakers and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on global threats and national security issues, including the strength of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the impact of Russian troops on the Syrian civil war, and the progress of North Korea’s nuclear weapon and advanced missile programs.
“Let’s focus on understanding the adversary’s military capabilities so that we can prevent war,” he told the national security website Cipher Brief in 2016, outlining his priorities. “And if we can’t prevent war, let’s beat the stuffings out of anyone who comes against us.”
The agency’s current director, Army Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, said in a phone interview that Gen. Stewart was “a larger-than-life presence at DIA,” known for initiating “sweeping changes and modernization efforts” that continue to benefit the nation’s intelligence-gathering.
Those included shifting the DIA’s focus from counterterrorism to what Gen. Stewart characterized as “long-term existential threats,” including from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. He also worked to deepen partnerships with U.S. allies, notably by creating a new position – deputy director for commonwealth integration – held on a rotating basis by officials from America’s intelligence partners in the “Five Eyes” alliance, which includes Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
Internally, Gen. Stewart sought to strengthen workplace culture by creating a DIA Museum and establishing fitness and worship centers at the agency’s headquarters, part of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Southeast Washington.
“He gave this persona of a battle-hardened Marine,” Berrier said, “but when you got inside Vince Stewart, there was a bit of a softer approach there.”
That view was echoed by retired Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., a former Marine Corps commandant and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a phone interview, he said he first gained an appreciation for Gen. Stewart during the Iraq War, when Gen. Stewart served for a time as the head of military intelligence efforts in the western Anbar province.
“People wanted to be on his team,” Dunford recalled. “He was one of those people where when he asked how you were doing, if you were a subordinate, he was waiting for an answer.”
Gen. Stewart went on to serve as director of Marine Corps intelligence as a one-star general, and was the commander of Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command before being named to lead the DIA.
“Everywhere he’s gone,” Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said upon his appointment, “he’s perfected the basics of intelligence work.”
When Gen. Stewart took over at DIA, becoming the first Marine Corps officer to serve as director, a U.S.-led coalition was fighting to beat back an Islamic State insurgency that had swept across Syria and Iraq. He predicted accurately in 2016 that the militant group wanted to establish branches in Afghanistan, Yemen and several African nations. He was later credited with playing a key role in developing U.S. Cyber Command, where he concluded his career as deputy commander before retiring in 2019 and starting his own consulting firm.
While some other senior military officers settled quietly into retirement, Gen. Stewart made occasional headlines, including when he criticized Trump for inciting rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gen. Stewart told the website Task & Purpose that after years in which he had “encouraged other countries to follow our lead” in abiding by democratic principles, “it will be extremely difficult delivering that message now.”
“When China cracks down on dissidents,” he said, “how can we offer ‘rule of law’ as the best approach?”
Gen. Stewart also spoke out against racial injustice, both in and out of the military. In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, he wrote an impassioned op-ed published by Task & Purpose and the Cipher Brief, titled “Please, take your knee off our necks so we can breathe.”
“It’s difficult to put into words how the nonchalant killing of a black man at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has personally impacted me and saddened me for our country,” he began, adding that the image of an officer putting his knee on Floyd’s neck “has convinced me that I can no longer be silent.”
Gen. Stewart recalled the pain he felt after immigrating at 13 to the United States, where as a young Black man in Chicago “I felt I had no future beyond manual, low-skilled labor, and any dream of being a leader or owning a business were out of the question.”
He was stopped by police “nearly every time” he left his home, was intimidated by a local sheriff and said he faced additional discrimination after joining the Marine Corps, where he was passed over for prominent assignments and was described as the unit’s “best Black officer” rather than its “best officer.”
As he told it, he found success in part through the mentorship of trailblazing Black officers such as Gen. Colin L. Powell. He was also helped along by White officers such as Dunford, whom he cited as part of a trio of generals who “lifted and carried me to the top of my profession.”
Dunford, asked about the barriers that Gen. Stewart faced, said that his friend and colleague “knew it might be harder for him than others,” and believed that he could overcome obstacles by outworking others.
Among those close with Gen. Stewart was Gen. David H. Berger, the current commandant of the Marine Corps. In a statement, he described Gen. Stewart as “a trailblazer, a selfless leader, and a mentor and dear personal friend to me,” adding that “his impact as a leader of Marines and the broader intelligence community cannot be understated.”
Gen. Stewart, in his 2020 opinion piece, said that he “will always believe in the promise of America, because if the dream is not possible here, it’s not possible anywhere.”
“As a person who has had incredible success in this country,” he wrote, “I am directly appealing to those in positions of power and privilege to recognize the experiences of your fellow Americans who do not look like you, learn from them, and take meaningful actions to lift them up.
“And I want you to imagine what our country would look like then.”
Vincent Raymond Stewart was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 11, 1958. According to his wife, he was raised mainly by his mother, a domestic worker who spent two years in Bermuda, working and saving money, so that she could afford to move Gen. Stewart and his older sister to the United States in 1971.
The family settled on the North Side of Chicago, where Gen. Stewart played football and won an athletic scholarship to Western Illinois. Coincidentally, the school took its nickname, the Fighting Leathernecks, from the U.S. Marine Corps, which Gen. Stewart joined after graduation.
He later attended the U.S. Naval War College, where he received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies in 1995, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defense University, where he completed a master’s in national resource strategy in 2002.
In addition to his wife, survivors include five children, Vincent, Robert, Nicole, Jennifer and Patrick; three sisters; a brother; and 15 grandchildren.
Gen. Stewart received military honors including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, two decorations of the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. But he downplayed his achievements in interviews, as when the Cipher Brief asked him his “secret to success.”
“I showed up, most of the time, on time and occasionally in the right uniform,” he said, “and I didn’t implode.”
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