Army leader expected to be named to head Joint Chiefs

If confirmed by the Senate, Dempsey, currently the Army chief, would become the president’s senior military adviser, working alongside Leon E. Panetta, the CIA director, who is in line to become defense secretary when Robert M. Gates retires in late June, and General David H. Petraeus, who will take over from Panetta at the CIA.

Officials said the high esteem Gates holds for Dempsey — a view shared by the departing chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen — was a significant factor in shaping Obama’s decision. The president initially favored General James E. Cartwright, the current vice chairman, before questions of personnel management and command style pushed him out of the running.

Dempsey carries no visible political baggage and has no vocal critics across the armed forces. The only sour notes sounded at word of his nomination came from those who regret his departure from the post of Army chief.

Of the senior commanders to emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dempsey is known as among the least self-aggrandizing.

That, too, was said to have been an attractive trait to a White House that is seeking to avoid public drama, and that has felt cornered at times by strong egos within the war cabinet during policy battles, in particular over Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A West Point graduate of 1974, Dempsey, 59, earned a master’s degree from Duke University — in English, a subject he later taught West Point cadets.

As a one-star brigadier general, he was sent to Baghdad in 2003 to stabilize the Iraqi capital region in command of an Army division, usually a task reserved for a two-star major general.

Dempsey returned to Baghdad to oversee the training of Iraq security forces before being given a third star and the number two job at Central Command. His responsibilities also entailed keeping an eye on Iran and managing a complex set of regional alliances.

When Central Command’s four-star boss, Admiral William J. Fallon, was forced into retirement for some bold comments in a magazine profile, Dempsey again was called to step up to a higher post without a formal promotion to the job.

For more than a year, he was acting commander of US forces across the Middle East, impressing senior Pentagon leaders to the point that he was named Army chief earlier this year.