Deutch was born in Brussels, Belgium, the son of Rachel Felicia and Michael Joseph Deutch. He is of Russian Jewish heritage, and became a United States citizen in 1945. He graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. and earned a bachelor's degree in History and Economics from Amherst College. In 1961, he earned a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and, in 1966, he earned a PhD in Chemistry, both from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Northeastern University. From 1977 to 1980, he served in several positions for the United States Department of Energy : as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department. In 1978, Deutch published two physical-chemistry papers on modeling the mechanism of the Fuel/Air mixture. He served as the provost of MIT from 1985 - 1990. As MIT Dean of Science and Provost, Deutch oversaw the disbanding of the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, including its toxicology faculty.
CIA Director tenure
In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed him Director of Central Intelligence. As Deutch was initially reluctant to accept the appointment, the position was conferred with Cabinet rank, a perquisite ultimately retained by successor George Tenet through the end of the Clinton administration. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Deutch continued the policy of his predecessor R. James Woolsey to declassify records pertaining to U.S. covert operations during the Cold War. Deutch fell out of favor with the Clinton administration because of public testimony he gave to Congress on Iraq. Specifically Deutch testified that Saddam Hussein was stronger than he was four years ago and the CIA might never be able to remedy the issue. Clinton replaced Deutch after he had won re-election. Deutch left the CIA on December 15, 1996, and soon after it was revealed that several of his laptop computers contained classified information wrongfully labeled as unclassified. In January 1997, the CIA began a formal security investigation of the matter. Senior management at CIA declined to fully pursue the security breach. Over two years after his departure, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice, where Attorney GeneralJanet Reno declined prosecution. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance. Deutch had agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for mishandling government secrets on January 19, 2001, but President Clinton pardoned him in his last day in office, two days before the Justice Department could file the case against him. In 1995, when Deutch became head of the CIA, The New York Times quoted long-time critical scholar and social activist Noam Chomsky as saying, "He has more honesty and integrity than anyone I've ever met in academic life, or any other life... If somebody's got to be running the C.I.A., I'm glad it's him."
