Silent Missions

by Vernon A. Walters

Vernon A. Walters was a United States Army officer and a diplomat. Most notably, he served from 1972 to 1976 as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, from 1985 to 1989 as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and from 1989 to 1991 as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany during the decisive phase of German Reunification. Walters rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

Walters served as an aide and interpreter for several Presidents. He was at President Harry S. Truman's side as an interpreter in key meetings with America's Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American allies. His language skills helped him win Truman's confidence, and he accompanied the President to the Pacific in the early 1950s, serving as a key aide in Truman's unsuccessful effort to reach a reconciliation with an insubordinate General Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of United Nations forces in Korea.

In Europe in the 1950s, Walters served President Dwight Eisenhower and other top US officials as a translator and aide at a series of NATO summit conferences. He also worked in Paris at Marshall Plan headquarters and helped set up the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe.

He was with then-Vice President Nixon in 1958 when an anti-American crowd stoned their car in Caracas, Venezuela. Walters suffered facial cuts from flying glass. The Vice President avoided injury.

Walters himself reflected on those challenging days in his 1978 autobiography, 'Silent Missions'.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

654 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1978

Reviews

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walters had an interesting career serving as an interpreter and military aide to many famous political leaders, diplomats and others while in the military and as a Military Attache in multiple postings such as Brazil and France. He was an interpreter and witness to important events such as peace conferences and major summits. But his style of writing is so boring and basically gives too many details of every day, every second. And he comes across as a real suck-up when discussing his unending admiration for people like Eisenhower, Harriman, Kissinger, Nixon. He was a useful aide and an effective operator but I think overrates and overstates his importance as people of his ilk are wont to do.

[Emmanuel Nwankwo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, I feel like I learned a lot and found out some missing data about war in the 20th century that I didn’t know existed, was hoping it’d be more of a spy thriller but overall a pretty sumptuous read.