As I have noted in an earlier post on another thread, "What I find curious is why Wilson retired with only 22 years service, especially at a time when he was in his peak earning years and his career should have been in its ascendency. I suspect that his career was at a dead end either due to the role he played in the April Glaspie affair or his subsequent performance on the NSC. There must have been a cloud over his head, which "forced" him to get out. With his colossal ego, I doubt if finishing his career out as a bureaucrat stuffed into some cubicle was not acceptable.
I might have to revise that estimate somewhat about Wilson's early departure from the State Department at age 50 and 22 years of service. It may be a case of following the money.
Thank you. I did mention CPS briefly in the part of the text corresponding to Footnote 21 above, but didn't dig into it as much I wanted. As I recall I had difficulty tracking down information on some of the individuals listed with their board, and being on a bit of a time crunch I didn't follow up exhaustively. It is probably worth a deeper investigation to discern some of the interlocking personnel and financial channels linking these various companies and consulting agencies.
Your thoughts on the reason for his early retirement are interesting. It does seem like he should've been poised for a higher position in the State Department and there must've been a reason he didn't pursue that. My first thought is that perhaps after arranging Clinton's Africa trip he saw an opportunity to capitalize on that and didn't want to let it slip by. But as I ponder that line of thought, it seems like he could've still managed to make some money from his African contacts without retiring from State if he'd done so discreetly through a silent partnership, so I'm not sure that would explain everything. I need to think more about that. The other major event from that point in his life that occurs to me as a possible reason is that at that time he was going through his divorce from his second wife and remarriage to Plame; perhaps there was something involved there which affected his career. It was also about that time that Plame was pulled off undercover work, so both of them seem to have been going through a major transition.
Lets be fair about Wilson and early retirement. In the federal employment racket, you simply aren't going to get rich or make the big cash you desire. You simply reach a point where you have the points for retirement purposes and can collect a check and simply move onto the "cash cows". In the state department game, you go to the old contacts and get consulting positions and quickly pick up the $300k to $1 million deals that you dreamed of as a state department guy. Thats precisely what Wilson has done.
What does make this a bit interesting is that his focus in life is Africa and corrupt regimes. So he has sleep in their bed at the end of the day...he has no choice. He will milk this book and interview deal as much as possible....but eventually...he has no choice but climb right back into the bed of corrupt African businessmen. Thats the tail end of this entire episode...yet to come.