EX-CIA OFFICIAL SHARES AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER WALTERS SILENT NO LONGER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700070022-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: April 16, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
16 April 1978
dn adventurouscarcer'
Walters silent no longer
By CLAIRE EYRICH
Star Telegram Write '
Gen. Vernon. A. Walters was a silent witness to the
terms of office .of five.-U.S. presidents, from Truman
through Nixon:'
But he is silent no longer. Walters has told the story of
his 35-year Army career and his role as deputy director
of the CIA in a highly readable book, "Silent Missions"
(Doubleday, $12.95).
In Fort Worth to discuss-his book, the affable and
articulate observer of Eisenhower-through-Watergate
talked. about his reasons for writing about his unique
career, more ongoing than anyone's with the possible
exception of Averell Harriman but "above politics" and
party-line distinctions.
"1 had an adventurous career- and I wanted to share
it with people," he says.
"All my life, I've kept diaries ever since the age of
10. They were there waiting for me when I found out that
I wanted to tell people what I believe in." His retirement
in July 1976 as deputy director of the CIA as well as a
member of the highest echelon of the Army, gave him
the time to get it all together in a book that is fast-
moving, persuasive and filled with the personality of a
man who witnessed such highlights of history as Gen.
Mark Clark's advance through Italy in 1944 (he was the
general's aide) to Nixon's departure after Watergate
(Nixon blamed the CIA).
*
BEING " bgLITARY RATHER THAN political,"
Walters had never served with the CIA when he-was
sworn in as its deputy director on May 1, 1972, after.
serving with the Defense Intelligence Agency, which
might be described as "a rival organization." He was
the CIA's staunch defender in the efforts to discredit
that organization in the backlash of Watergate.
Now retired and the owner of a house in Palm Beach,
Fla., he swims, plays tennis and owns a boat. He takes
official shares
flying lessons and has bought a motorcycle -- all things
he wanted to do for years but was unable to, because of
his tremendous work. schedule. Last year, he went to
Europe to revisit all the places he had known as a young
boy, or had visited on military duty but had not had time
to enjoy.
He speaks and travels a lot and has nothing to regret
except that, when he bought his house in Florida, he had
to remember what a group of terrorists could do to it,
"one of the things one has to think of in the world today,
regrettably."
He has been to Fort Worth previously, on a speaking
trip, as deputy director of the C
WATERGATE STILL DISTURBS HIM deeply, "be-
cause of. the numerous cases of poor judgment" dis-
played by principals in that case. He worries, too, about
"the immense Soviet military apparatus out there, and
the invisible battlefield on which wars of the intelligence
agencies must be carried on.
"Intelligence may be silent-- but it's never quiet," he
adds.
" .y society that will not defend its right to its intelli-
gence agencies will not survive," he says.
He adds, with pride, that "not one of the 84,000 who
passed through the CIA as officials and employees since
its founding has ever been indicted for wrong-doing.",
He was fondest of Eisenhower among the five presi-
dents he served because of "the human factor. Eisen-
bower was a president who got all the government agen-
cies to work together.1T1hose were eight golden years,"
he says
"But all five presidents were very considerablemen
including Nixon" he says.
"I was very lucky; there were times when I might
have been at cross purposes. And I was the only person
directly involved in Watergate who was still there in the
federal government three years later," he says. _ .
NOWADAYS, WALTERS IS GIVING his attention to
his writing. He has completed a novel, "Sunset in
Saigon,'.'. which he describes as a story about "the: boat
people.'. 1 -.}
The third book, a collection of true anecdotes, will be
about "the word people, the people wha use words as
their weapons." His title is "The Mighty and the Meek"'
and it will display the leaders he has served through
anecdotal history, including, "their qualities and
defects." He will include both "famous and non-famous
personalities."
Walters is "fortunate in being able to write every-
where or anywhere- the last four chapters of'The Boat
People' were written on the eight- or nine-hour flights
between New York and wherever I happened to be
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
 WALTERS STILL IS SOMEWHAT astonished by his
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
tie says. wnen ne eruisieu az a YkLYaea ILL ~asc ~..., ...
1941, his most far-fetched ambition was to be a major
some day. . ._ ; .r. -
"I got more than I bargained for -- from private to
lieutenant general in 35 years," he says. "Furthermore,
I enjoyed the things that happened on the way."
He did not set out with an Army career.-he went into
his father's insurance business, handling claimants, but
he knew it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.
"Adolf Hitler got me out of that," he explains.
"bly mother kept all my letters from overseas. When I
got home, I read them all over again, and that's when I
decided I wanted to remain in the Army," he says.
He served as interpreter to many a head of state. "I
learned five languages, in Europe, by the age of five,"
.he says.
"I've used all five of them consistently, and added
three more.
"In the struggle for freedom, we've got to be able toil
communicate with other people who want to be free:
. "We've depended on our immigrants and their chil-
dren for too long, In the American education system, we
see less and less emphasis on languages, yet we need
these skills more than ever before.
"Once when the U.S. government sent me to talk to a
group of terrorists, I saw them alone and unarmed in a
hostile world. I studied their hopes, their poetry, their
past. There were no further acts of bloodshed between
us.,,
HIS FIRMEST BELIEF IS expressed in the words,
"A nation that won't defend itself will lose its freedom."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
JOHN A. B %KER R.
Pre, idcn
STANLES \ ZLR
Vice Pre:!drn'
ROBERT -\. ER,KI`E
Vice Pre siden?
HAROLD B. E TES
Secretar.
NICHOLAS 10cU~\ti1EL
BOARD MEMBERS
JOHN A. BAKER, JR.
ROBERT A. ERSKINE
HAROLD B. ESTES
FLAVE GEORGE
ALVIN R. COULD
FRANK GREGORY
PAUL E. HECKENLIVELY
WARRE' a `IrK. t_ KE NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES THOMAS K. K. LUKE
ARREN K. K. LUKAsst. Trca'u.Ir DONALD W. MacKAY
ROBERT G. DODGE HONOLULU COUNCIL GEORGE C. MASON
Judge A6uca.,,
JOHN F. MITCHELL
FRED \V. ROHLF;\G JAMES V. WHEELESS
Asst. Judge Ad: acaie April 16, 1976 DONALD WOODRUM
NATIONAL OFFICERS
E. A. 0 NEILL
National Vice Presdent
JOHN A. BAKER. JR.
National Direc-or
HAROLD B, ESTES
National Director
Vernon A. Walters
Lieutenant General, USA
Deputy Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
REGIONAL OFFICERS
JOHN H. McAULIFFE, JR.
Fourteenth Region President
PAUL L. LACY, JR.
Personal Representative of the
National President for Pacific Area
Your letter of March 26, 1976 was presented to our _
Board of Directors at their last meeting and the Board
unanimously. voted in favor of your being our guest speaker
at our October 14, 1976 meeting. We definitely are interested.
in the man not the position.
We are looking forward to having you here and if there is
any way in which we may be of service to you prior to your
arrival please let us know.
JAB:ak John A. Baker,Jr.
'UJ{E 204 1177 KAPIOLANI BOULEVARD HONOLL.JLU, HAWAII 96814 PHONE (808) 574-4T?7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3
26 March 1976
Mr. John A. Baker, Jr.
President, Honolulu Council
Navy League of the United States
Box 4530
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Dear Mr. Baker:
Thank you for your letter and your kind words regarding
wary talk to the Navy League. I am most grateful for your kind
invitation to speak in Honolulu on October 14. - 1976.
It is possible, however, that I may retire before that date
and you might wish to have someone who would be in active
government service at that time. If this is the case, I fully
understand. If, however, you do wish me to speak under those
conditions, I would be honored to do so. I hope that you will
feel quite free to make the decision that seems best to you.
With every good wish,
Faithfully,
`T" Blf6t'
Vernon A. Walters
Lieutenant General. USA
Deputy Director
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
I - Asst/DCI
1 -ER
2 - DDCI files
Eb'
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/23: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070022-3