VERNON WALTERS WITH HAIG ON MIDEAST TRIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060083-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: April 4, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901R00070006
ARTICLE A' x';- -?--~j THE WASHINGTON POST
0 PAG 4 April 1981
By Don Oberdorfer
Washtngton Post Staff Wrtter -
In February the 6-foot-3 former-iritelligence offi-
cer was quietly dispatched to Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela. In mid-
March he was spotted in Morocco. A few days ago
he was believed to be in Western Europe. .
America's most experienced secret emissary, re-
tired Lt.Gen. Vernon 'A.' Walters, last night came
out of anonymity by joining Secretary of State Alex-,
ander M Haig Jr.. on his mission to the Middle
East
Since it would be impossible to hide the tall Wal-
ters aboard the secretary of state's airplane,.. it is
acknowledged. for: the fast time that he - has been
selected. as a senior adviser-who will act as roving
ambassador for special missions.
State Department sources denied a waggish report
that Walters,. a phenomenal- linguist who is reputed
to be fluent 'in eight .languages and has been 'an
official transk or i ' French, Spanish, Italian and
German, has been hired to translate "Haigspeak"
into English.
Walters''reIationship with Haig goes back to the
Nixon administration, when Haig was deputy to
Henry A.' Kissinger orr the National Security Coun-
cil staff, and :Walters was Ki,ssinger's designated
secret channel, through Paris, to Chinese and North
Vietnamese ofcials.
..In his memoirs; Silent Missions, Walters referred
to Haig as_-`"Kisainger's NATO conunandei"~" and
one of the. most brilliant and able officers I have
known in 35.years of military service."
Haig is by:' no means the most prominent figure
Walters hag served.: During World War.1I, WaIters
entered Rome:'in.'.1944 as an aide to Gen.. Mark.
Clark. ,Afterward, he interpreted for President Tru-
man in Rio - in 1947, and. accompanied Truman to
his troubled meeting '.tivith_ Gen Douglas Macr'l.rthur.
on Wake Island n 1950.
Walters: interpreted for Averell Harriman 'a'i'd
Iranian' Prime' Minister- Mohammed Mossadegh in
1951, and was. with President Eisenhower at a series
of summit conferences from Geneva to White Sul-
phur Springs.
One of;his`rlosest relationships 'was'with Richard
'lvi. Nixon; whom he accompanied to-Caracas, where .
the then-vice president was besieged by a mob in
1958. In May of 1972 Nixon appointed Walters deputy
director of the. CIA.under Director Richard Helms.
.The Watergate break-in - took place- the following
month, embroiling Walters in one of the most con-
troversial and most publicized episodes of his career.
At the behest of H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, 'Waltersi
visited FBI Director L. Patrick Gray III and told
him that continued investigation of the Watergate
case might expose CIA assets in Mexico, in effect
waving the FBI off the case.
`Walters wrote in his memoirs: that even though
he"'knew of no CIA. assets being compromised, "It
simply did "not Occur 'to me that the chief of staff to
the president might be asking me to do something
hat was illegal or wrong."
A few days later, after looking into the matter,
Walters,told White House counsel John Dean that
there were no CIA assets in Mexico that might be
"endangered by the Watergate investigation.
Walters: resigned from the CIA,and retired from
the Army in July 1976, receiving. his. third Distin-
guished Service Medal and the National Security
Medal at that time. Last year he served on the for-
eign policy advisory' committee of Ronald Reagan's
presidential campaia
When the Reagan administration decided in Feb-
ruary to "draw the line" against. Cuban-backed in-
surgency in El Salvador, Walters was sent to brief'
.the leaders of Latin American countries.
' Waiters went to North Africa - to receive a mes-
sage from King Hassan of Morocco, but the purpose
of his reported travels in Europe is hot: known.
Approved For F~elease'805/07/01: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700060083-7