U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UN NOMINEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301590004-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/01/14: CIA-RDP88-01070R000301590004-8
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
PRAm Morning Edition STATION WAMU-FM
NPR Network
February 11, 1985 9:25'A.M.
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nominee
GENERAL VERNON WALTERS: If this nomination is approved
by the Senate, I will do my best to continue the superb work that
Ambassador Kirkpatrick has done in the United Nations to restore
and enhance the position and the interests of the United States.
BOB EDWARDS: Vernon Walters, President Reagan's choice
to succeed Jeane Kirkpatrick as Ambassador to the United Nations.
Walters has been serving as Reagan's ambassador-at-large,
carrying out numerous low-visibility missions as a global
troubleshooter. By his own count, he's traveled to more than a
hundred countries and logged over a million miles during the past
four years.
Walters is a gifted linguist who has translated for five
U.S. Presidents. He is said to have good contacts with foreign
military leaders, especially in Latin America and Africa.
Walters is a retired Army General and a former Deputy
Director of the CIA.
Associated Press State Department correspondent George
Getta told NPR's Dan Morris that the length of Walters' career is
particularly impressive.
GEORGE GETTA: He was translating or interpreting for
President Truman back when Truman was a rookie President, back in
1947. This is before David Stockman was born. And he has known
de Gaulle and Churchill and Eisenhower and every major leader
since World War II.
DAN MORRIS: And as a roving ambassador for President
Reagan, what exactly has he been up to?
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GETTA: Well, he claims that he is very often the bearer
of bad news. For example, when the United States, because of
budgetary constraints, has to cut back on the foreign aid of
Country X, Walters is usually assigned to deliver the bad news.
He had to break the news to the Argentines that the
United States had no choice but to oppose Argentina's invasion of
the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. He claims that territorial
disputes are rampant throughout Latin America, and if the United
States advocated the use of force in the Argentine case, chaos
would have been rampant elsewhere in the hemisphere if that
principle had been established in the Argentine case.
MORRIS: Where else has he been over the past four
years?
GETTA: He's spent, apparently, most of his time in
Africa. Having said that, three out of every four of his
missions have been unknown outside the State Department. And the
identity of these hundred countries is largely a secret, although
I suppose I could name 25 or 30 of them. But the other 70, I
don't know. And he has said that if the identities of those
countries were disclosed, a lot of eyebrows would be raised.
MORRIS: Do you think that it may evolve that he could
become a major figure in the Administration?
GETTA: I don't think he would try to assert himself as
much as Mrs. Kirkpatrick has done. He indicated while he did not
plan on being, in effect, a deaf mute, he didn't plan to be too
assertive. I think he will try to make his views known, to press
for his point of view in Cabinet meetings and with the President
and with the Secretary, but probably less intensively than Mrs.
Kirkpatrick has.
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