Vernon A. Walters

Vernon A. Walters (died in 2002) wiki

Biographical Details
"A linguist, he spoke French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Russian. He translated for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and French President Charles de Gaulle as the two sat in their bathrobes in front of a fire at Rambouillet Palace outside Paris and for Vice President Richard M. Nixon when his limousine was attacked by a mob in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958.

In the 1960s, Gen. Walters had successive assignments as U.S. military attaché to Italy, Brazil and France. He also served in Vietnam and regarded the U.S. effort there a "battlefield of freedom" and "one of our noblest fights."

"He was deputy director of the CIA from 1972 to 1976. For a period in 1973, he was acting director of the agency. During that time, he successfully resisted efforts by John Dean, the White House counsel, to involve the CIA in efforts to cover up the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation.

"From 1981 to 1985, Gen. Walters was ambassador at large in the Reagan administration, a job in which he visited more than 100 countries. He was ambassador to the United Nations from 1985 to 1988 and then ambassador to Germany until 1991...

"In the immediate postwar years, he was an aide to Gen. Mark Clark, the U.S. commander in Austria. At Clark's recommendation, Gen. George Marshall, the Army chief of staff, moved him onto his personal staff. This led to his going to White House under President Harry S. Truman and, later, under Eisenhower...

"He was in Tehran in 1953 when the CIA staged a coup in support of the shah of Iran and in Brazil when a group of generals staged a coup in 1964...

"During the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981, Gen. Walters was a private consultant to Environmental Energy Systems Inc., an Alexandria firm. In 1981, he was paid $300,000 for putting the company in contact with the right people in the Moroccan government for a $190 million tank-modernization deal. The deal eventually fell through.

"Gen. Walters also worked as a $1,000-a-day consultant for Basic Resources Services Inc., a Luxembourg-based consortium, on an oil deal in Guatemala."

From April 1989 until August 1991, during German Reunification, he was Ambassador to West Germany.

In the 1980s "Walters has played a key role in organizing CIA-backed Nicaraguan exile groups based in Honduras who are seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government by force."

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