Patrick M. Hughes (September 19, 1942 – October 5, 2024) is a retired United States Army officer who served as the 12th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

He earned a Master of Arts in Business Management from Central Michigan University concurrent with his graduation from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1978.

During this period the U.S. Army was plagued by post-Vietnam problems, including post traumatic stress disorder, chronic illness, drug use, and organizational disruption.

[4] In August 1977, Hughes began a series of stateside tours as a student at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he acted as the illustrator and one of the designers for the Bell Yearbook for the 1977–78 class.

During this period Hughes was able to travel widely in connection with his duties, including time in Israel and Egypt, and he participated in activities associated with the Camp David Accords."

At the end of this assignment he was recruited for reassignment to the 9th Infantry Division and the Army's High Technology Test Bed (HTTB) which was just forming up at Fort Lewis, Washington.

After completing the first year of the fellowship[5] – including travel all over the world and being part of one of the first U.S. military groups to visit the People's Republic of China – he remained at the school as a strategic studies research professor until April 1988.

During Hughes's tenure, the Defense Intelligence Community faced an explosion of technology, changing international and institutional relationships, and resource challenges.

A product he conceived while he was the J-2, the "Purple Book" provided DIA's perspective of the future threat and was designed to stimulate discussion on the challenges facing U.S. interests.

In October 1996, DIA celebrated its 35th anniversary of providing integrated and unified military intelligence to war fighters, policy makers, and force planners and modernizers.

DIA started the year 1997 with the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Missile and Space Intelligence Command facility on January 26 at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

Saddam Hussein's efforts to block UN inspection teams from presidential sites in October 1997 led to a buildup of U.S. and allied forces in the Persian Gulf.

On March 13, 1997, U.S. military forces were used to evacuate certain U.S. Government employees and private American citizens from Tirana, Albania (Operation Silver Wake).

In July 1997, in an effort to ensure the security of American citizens in Cambodia during a period of domestic conflict there, a Task Force of about 550 U.S. military personnel were deployed at Utapao Air Base in Thailand for possible evacuations.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan went to Baghdad in February 1998 and reached an agreement that opened all sites suspected of being related to weapons of mass destruction.

Other crises existed in the Balkans, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Ecuador, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.

In an historic event, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization took in three new members from the former Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1998: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

In 1998 DIA donated the original works of art associated with the landmark 1988 edition of Soviet Military Power to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

During this period (1998–1999) DIA began work in the cyber intelligence realm, blazing a trail through what was at that time an unknown "wilderness of electronic mirrors.

"[7] DIA's work was led by and performed by true "technical pioneers, one of whom stands out against the ambient background of this complex area of intelligence and security concern – Mr. Don Lewis.

[citation needed] Hughes began a successful private consulting effort after his retirement from the U.S. Army, in the areas of intelligence, security and international relations.

He also was employed as a consultant for the Central Intelligence Agency examining some of the CIA's efforts in countering terrorists and in developing capabilities that could be applied in asymmetric and asynchronous conditions.

In November 2003, Hughes was asked to assume duties as the Assistant Secretary for Information (Intelligence) Analysis (IA) at the newly formed Department of Homeland Security (DHS).