Vernon Anthony Walters (January 3, 1917[1] – February 10, 2002) was aUnited States Army officer and adiplomat. Most notably, he served from 1972 to 1976 asDeputy Director of Central Intelligence, from 1985 to 1989 as theUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations and from 1989 to 1991 asAmbassador to theFederal Republic of Germany during the decisive phase ofGerman Reunification. Walters rose to the rank oflieutenant general in the U.S. Army and is a member of theMilitary Intelligence Hall of Fame.
Walters was born inNew York City, his father being aBritish immigrant andinsurance salesman. From age 6 he lived in Britain andFrance with his family. His formal education beyond elementary school consisted only of boarding school instruction atStonyhurst College, aJesuit school inLancashire, England, and he did not attend university. At the age of sixteen he left school and returned to the United States to work for his father as an insuranceclaims adjuster and investigator.
In later years he seemed to enjoy reflecting on the fact that he had risen high and accomplished much despite an almost total lack of formal education.
He was fluent inFrench,Italian,Spanish, andPortuguese as well as his native English. He also spokeGerman fluently, but, as he joked, inaccurately, and knew the basics of several other languages. His simultaneous translation of a speech byUnited States PresidentRichard Nixon in France promptedFrench PresidentCharles de Gaulle to say to Nixon, "You gave a magnificent speech, but your interpreter was eloquent."[2]
Walters joined the Army in 1941 and was one of the over 12,000Ritchie Boys serving at Camp Ritchie. Soon after he was commissioned. He served inAfrica andItaly duringWorld War II. He served as a link between the commands of theBrazilian Expeditionary Force andU.S. Fifth Army, earning medals for distinguished military and intelligence achievements.[3]
He served as an aide and interpreter for several Presidents. He was at PresidentHarry S. Truman's side as an interpreter in key meetings with America'sSpanish- andPortuguese-speakingLatin American allies. His language skills helped him win Truman's confidence, and he accompanied the President to the Pacific in the early 1950s, serving as a key aide in Truman's unsuccessful effort to reach a reconciliation with an insubordinate GeneralDouglas MacArthur, the Commander ofUnited Nations forces inKorea.
InEurope in the 1950s, Walters served PresidentDwight Eisenhower and other top US officials as a translator and aide at a series ofNATO summit conferences. During this period he participated in the famous visit of Eisenhower toGeneral Franco. He also worked inParis atMarshall Plan headquarters and helped set up theSupreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe. He was withVice PresidentRichard Nixon in 1958 when an anti-American crowdstoned their car inCaracas, Venezuela. Walters suffered facial cuts from flying glass. The Vice President escaped injury.
In the 1960s, Walters served as a U.S.military attaché inFrance,Italy, andBrazil. In 1961, he proposed an American military intervention in Italy if theSocialist Party had participated in the Government.[4]
While serving as a military attaché in Paris from 1967 to 1972, Walters played a role in secret peace talks withNorth Vietnam. He arranged to smuggleNational Security AdvisorHenry Kissinger into France for secret meetings with a senior North Vietnamese official, and then smuggle him out again. He accomplished this by borrowing a private airplane from an old friend, French PresidentGeorges Pompidou. He had previously been chosen by Richard Nixon to be their translator/interpreter during Pompidou's 1970 trip to the United States.
Nixon had favored Walters since together surviving the 1958 Caracas attack.[5] As president, Nixon appointed Walters as deputy director for Central Intelligence (DDCI) in 1972. (Following the abbreviated incumbency ofJames R. Schlesinger, Walters also served as Acting DCI for two months in the summer of 1973.) During his four years as DDCI he worked closely with four successive Directors as the Agency and the nation confronted such major international developments as the1973 Arab-Israeli war, the subsequent oil crisis, the turbulent end of theVietnam War, theChileanmilitary coup against theAllende government and theLetelier assassination. According to a close colleague, Walters also averted "a looming catastrophe" for the CIA in connection with theWatergate scandal:
Despite numerous importunings from on high, [Walters] flatly refused to ... cast a cloak of national security over the guilty parties. At the critical moment he ... refused to involve the Agency and bluntly informed the highest levels of the executive [branch] that further insistence from that quarter would result in his immediate resignation.
Walters himself reflected on those challenging days in his 1978 autobiographySilent Missions:
I told [President Nixon's White House counsel] that on the day I went to work at the CIA I had hung on the wall of my office a color photograph showing the view through the window of my home in Florida. When people asked me what it was, I told them [this] was what was waiting [for me] if anyone squeezed me too hard.
During the presidency ofJimmy Carter, Walters worked as a business consultant. The election ofRonald Reagan ended Walter's first retirement from public life. He served asambassador-at-large, visiting 108 countries.[5] Reagan used prominent Catholics in his government such as Walters to brief the pope during the Cold War.[6]Walters was thenUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1985 to 1989 and ambassador to theFederal Republic of Germany from 1989 to 1991,[7] being responsible on behalf of the United States for the preparations of theTreaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. In 1986, he received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[8] In 1987 he visitedFiji, two weeks afterTimoci Bavadra came to office. Bavadra wanted to create a nuclear-free zone in Fiji.William Bodde Jr. had said previously about this: "a nuclear free zone would be unacceptable to the US given our strategic needs (...) the US must do everything possible to counter this movement".[9] Walters spoke with Bavadra andSitiveni Rabuka. Two weeks later Bavadra was overthrown by Rabuka.[10]
The Washington Post wrote in 1985 that despite being unknown to the public, "no one has been closer to this country's foreign affairs since World War II".CIA directorRichard Helms said "I can't think of anyone who has had a more extraordinary career. Who's been to all the places that Dick Walters has been to?" Walters said "I think I tell a lot" in his autobiography, but believe me, I couldn't tell the half of it".[5]
During the 1990s, after he had again retired from public life, Walters worked as a business consultant and was active on the lecture circuit. On November 18, 1991, he was presented with thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. He wrote another book,The Mighty and the Meek[11] (published in 2001), which profiled famous people with whom he had worked during his life.
Walters was a bachelor, stating that he "married the U.S. government a long time ago".[5] Upon his death in 2002 he was buried inArlington National Cemetery.[12]
Walters was portrayed byGarrick Hagon in the 2002BBC production ofIan Curteis's controversialThe Falklands Play.
Articles
Books
Contributions
Documentaries
Media related toVernon A. Walters at Wikimedia Commons
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Deputy Director of Central Intelligence 1972–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ActingDirector of Central Intelligence 1973 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1985–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to West Germany 1989–1990 | Succeeded by Himself asUnited States Ambassador to Germany |
| Preceded byasUnited States Ambassador to East Germany | United States Ambassador to Germany 1990–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Himself asUnited States Ambassador to West Germany | ||
| Minister Plenipotentiary |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
 | | ||
Italics indicates acting | |||
