Vernon A. Walters
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Vernon A. Walters | |
|---|---|
United States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office May 22, 1985 – March 15, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Jeane Kirkpatrick |
| Succeeded by | Thomas R. Pickering |
| Acting Director of Central Intelligence | |
| In office July 2, 1973 – September 4, 1973 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | James R. Schlesinger |
| Succeeded by | William Colby |
| 10th Deputy Director of Central Intelligence | |
| In office May 2, 1972 – July 2, 1976 | |
| President | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
| Director | Richard Helms James R. Schlesinger William Colby George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Robert E. Cushman Jr. |
| Succeeded by | E. Henry Knoche |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 3, 1917 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 10, 2002 (aged 85) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
Vernon Anthony Walters (January 3, 1917
Background
Walters was born in
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 in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese as well as his native English. He also spoke German fluently, but, as he joked, inaccurately, and knew the basics of several other languages. His simultaneous translation of a speech by United States President Richard Nixon in France prompted French President Charles de Gaulle to say to Nixon, "You gave a magnificent speech, but your interpreter was eloquent."[2]
Military career
1940s and 50s
Walters joined the Army in 1941 and was one of the over 12,000
He served as an aide and interpreter for several Presidents. He was at President Harry S. Truman's side as an interpreter in key meetings with America's Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin 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 General Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of United Nations forces in Korea.
In
1960s
In the 1960s, Walters served as a U.S. military attaché in France, Italy, and Brazil. In 1961, he proposed an American military intervention in Italy if the Socialist 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 with
1970s
Nixon had favored Walters since together surviving the 1958 Caracas attack.
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 autobiography Silent 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.
Diplomatic career
During the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Walters worked as a business consultant. The election of Ronald Reagan ended Walter's first retirement from public life. He served as ambassador-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 then
Retirement and death
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 the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George 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 in Arlington National Cemetery.[12]
In popular culture
Walters was portrayed by Garrick Hagon in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play.
Works
Articles
- "1988: A Year of Success at the UN." JSTOR 43648954.
- "El Acuerdo Sobre Las Bases Entre España y Estados Unidos Cuarenta Años Después." JSTOR 20643388.
Books
- ISBN 0385135009.
- ISBN 1903608031.
Contributions
- Foreword to Jungle Warriors: Defenders of the Amazon, with text and photographs by Carlos Lorch. Action Editora (1992). ISBN 978-0943231488.
Documentaries
- Operation Condor. London: SW Pictures (2011). via Alexander Street Press.
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0313291951– via Google Books.
- ^ Henry R. Appelbaum: Vernon Walters – Renaissance Man In Memoriam, Central Intelligence Agency, April 14, 2007
- ^ "The importance of foreign language studies [sound recording] / [lecture by] Vernon A. Walters :: West Point Distinguished Lecture Series". digital-library.usma.edu.
- ^ Guido Crainz, Autobiografia di una Repubblica. Le radici dell'Italia attuale (Donzelli, 2009), p. 54
- ^ a b c d "Vernon Walters, Back in His World". The Washington Post. December 16, 1985. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ Bono, Agostino (November 17, 2004), Officials say pope, Reagan shared Cold War data, but lacked alliance, Catholic News Service, archived from the original on January 18, 2013
- ^ Kelley, Tina (February 15, 2002), "Vernon Walters, Ex-Envoy And Deputy C.I.A. Chief, 85", The New York Times
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ Speech by William Bodde Jr. at the Pacific Islands Luncheon, Kahala Hilton Hotel, Hawaii, February 10, 1982, cited in the 1989 paper by Owen Wilkes, editor of Peacelink and Wellington Pacific Report
- ISBN 184277221X.
- ^ The Mighty and the Meek on Amazon
- ^ Burial Detail: Walters, Vernon A – ANC Explorer
- A tribute by Henry R. Appelbaum (This work is in the public domain)
- Book: Silent Missions. Autobiography, Publisher, Doubleday 1978; ISBN 978-0385135009
- George Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Further reading
- de Oliveira, Frank Márcio. Attaché Extraordinaire: Vernon A. Walters and Brazil. Washington, D.C.: National Defense Intelligence College(Mar. 2006)
External links
Media related to Vernon A. Walters at Wikimedia Commons
- Finding aid for the Vernon A. Walters Oral History at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
- Alan Goodman discuses the role of the United States at the UN and the UN's contributions to American foreign policy with Vernon Walters, on American Interests (1987)
- New York Times obituary
- Interview on Central American Crisis of 1984 at the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
- Full testimony (video) before the Senate Watergate Committee via YouTube
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Vernon Walters at IMDb
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