Pungent footnote of the week, plus a bizarre footnote that I just can't figure out

I saw this on page 389 of Jean Edward Smith's new
biography of Eisenhower: "Army Group
B had three wartime commanders: Rommel, von Kluge, and Model. All three
committed suicide." (In the photo, that's von Kluge with Vichy
France troops in Russia.) That's quite a track record.

But on page 568, though, Smith has a footnote I just don't
understand. He writes that "President Obama initially chose Marine Corps
general James L. Jones [as national security adviser], the first nonacademic to
hold the post since the Eisenhower years." What?
How could the following people be considered "academics"? Brent Scowcroft,
Richard Allen, William Clark, Robert McFarlane, John Poindexter, Frank
Carlucci, Colin Powell, Sandy Berger, and Stephen Hadley. In fact, by my count,
the majority
of national security advisors have not been academics.