WALTERS QUITS AS ENVOY TO GERMANY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100390004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 25, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/14: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100390004-6
Walters Quits
As Envoy
To Germany
.Emissary Served
Nine Presidents
By Marc Fisher
Wakmita Pat Fore pi Serrnce
BONN, June 24-Vernon Wal-
ters, the veteran U.S. emissary who
has served nine presidents, an-
nounced tonight that he is quitting
as ambassador to Germany.
Walters, 74, in a written state-
ment to the German press, said:
"All great things must end some-
time. Now is the time to give this
job over to someone else." He came
here just over two years ago.
Ina career stretching from the
defeat of the Nazis to the reunifi-
alters rose to
the rank of lieutenant general in t
Army and served as deputy director
-of the CIA.-ambassador-at-large for
-the Reagan an administration and chief
U.S. Udelegate to the United a-
flQn
Walters, a linguist, took notes for
Harry Truman, delivered a key let-
.tgr to Marshal Tito, translated for
Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de
Gaulle, sat in vice president Richard
Nixon's car as it was pelted with
stones in Caracas and made a secret
thission to Havana for secretary of
state Alexander Haig in 1982.
Arriving here only six months
before the fait of the Berlin Wall,
Walters found himself embraced by
a West Germany grateful to see an
ambassador who knew the country
.and its language. That fondness
only grew as Walters became one of
the strongest defenders of a quick
unification of the two Germanys.
One German newspaper dubbed the
burly envoy a "U.S. grizzly." Anoth-
er printed a glowing profile head-
lined "Diplomat for Freedom."
A teetotaler who lives alone, Wal-
ters played only a limited role in
U.S.-German relations through the
crucial two years of his posting
here, State Department sources
said. While he spent much of his
time doing the ceremonial tasks
that made him appreciated by the
Germans, his relations with the
State Department were sometimes
strained, embassy sources said.
In December 1989, only a few
weeks after the Berlin Wall opened,
Walters predicted that the two Ger-
manys would reunite within five
years. As obvious as that seems in
retrospect, it brought Walters a
sharp rebuke from Secretary of
State James A. Baker III.
Limits Placed by Baker on ambas-
sadors' responses to journalists of-
ten left Walters reduced to repeat-
ing old war stories-with his staff
sometimes mouthing the words as
he spoke them. Walters-who once
said "Diplomacy is about making
friends, not losing them"-was far
from oblivious of his staff's friendly
'teasing. "It's been said that I'm a
,guy who speaks a half-dozen lan-
xuages and thinks in none," Walters
ence told a reporter.
= Walters, who already has written
an autobiography, "Silent Missions,"
is expected to write another book.
lie said he told President Bush of
his plans two months ago and will
stay on until a replacement is found.
The Washington 0031
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wail Strut Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Osiy Newt
USA Today
The Chlt:app Trlpur,
Date .ZS uu.t. ( 1
Page /7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/14 _ CIA-RDP99-00418R000100390004-6