biography
| name: |
Smith, Walter Bedell
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1895–1961)
|
| biography:
| US soldier and diplomat, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. With no college education, he began as a National Guardsman (1910) and rose slowly through the ranks of the regular army until General George Marshall brought him to Washington (1939) to assist in the build-up of the army. By 1942 he was secretary of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, and in 1942–5 he was Eisenhower's chief-of-staff, in which position he helped plan and carry out the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy. President Truman appointed him ambassador to the Soviet Union (1946–9) and then director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1950–3). Under President Eisenhower he served as under-secretary of state (1953–4). |
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