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United States general (1895–1961)

General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith (5 October 1895 – 9 August 1961) was a senior officer of the United States Army who served as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief of staff at Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) during the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943, during World War II. He was Eisenhower's chief of staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in the campaign in Western Europe from 1944 to 1945. Smith enlisted as a private in the Indiana Army National Guard in 1911. During World War I, he served with the American Expeditionary Forces and was commissioned to second lieutenant in 1917. He was wounded in the Aisne Marne Offensive in 1918. After the war, he was a staff officer and instructor at the U. S. Army Infantry School. In 1941, he became secretary of the General Staff, and in 1942 he became the secretary to the Combined Chiefs of Staff. His duties involved taking part in discussions of war plans at the highest level, and Smith often briefed President Franklin D. Roosevelt on strategic matters. Smith became chief of staff to Eisenhower at AFHQ in September 1942 and acquired a reputation as Eisenhower's "hatchet man" for his brusque and demanding manner. However, he also successfully represented Eisenhower in sensitive missions requiring diplomatic skill. Smith was involved in negotiating the armistice between Italy and the Allies, which he signed on behalf of Eisenhower. In 1944, he became the chief of staff of SHAEF, again under Eisenhower. In that position, Smith also negotiated successfully for food and fuel aid to be sent through German lines for the cold and starving Dutch civilian population, and he opened discussions for the peaceful and complete German capitulation to the First Canadian Army in the Netherlands. In May 1945, Smith met representatives of the German High Command in Reims, France, to conduct the surrender of the German Armed Forces, and he signed the German Instrument of Surrender on behalf of Eisenhower. After the war, he served as the U. S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1948. In 1950, Smith became the Director of Central Intelligence, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the other intelligence agencies in the United States. Smith reorganized the CIA, redefined its structure and its mission, and gave it a new sense of purpose. He made the CIA the arm of government that is primarily responsible for covert operations. He left the CIA in 1953 to become an Under Secretary of State. After retiring from the State Department in 1954, Smith continued to serve the Eisenhower administration in various posts for several years until he retired shortly before he died in 1961.

Walter Bedell Smith was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 5 October 1895, the elder of two sons of William Long Smith, a silk buyer for the Pettis Dry Goods Company, and his wife, Ida Francis née Bedell, who worked for the same company. He was educated at St. Peter and Paul School, Public Schools #10 and #29, Oliver Perry Morton School, and Emmerich Manual High School, where he studied to be a machinist. There, he took a job at the National Motor Vehicle Company and eventually left high school without graduating. Smith enrolled at Butler University, but his father developed serious health problems, and Smith left to return to his job and support his family. In 1911, at the age of 16, Smith enlisted as a private in Company D of the 2nd Indiana Infantry of the Indiana National Guard. The Indiana National Guard was called out twice in 1913 for the Ohio River flood and during the Indianapolis streetcar strike. Smith was promoted to corporal and then sergeant. During the Pancho Villa Expedition he served on the staff of the Indiana National Guard. In 1913, Smith met Mary Eleanor (Nory) Cline, who was born in 1893 and died in 1963, and they were married in a traditional Roman Catholic wedding ceremony on 1 July 1917. Their marriage was of long duration but was childless.

Smith's work during the Ohio River flood of 1913 led to his nomination for officer training in 1917, and he was sent to the Officer Candidate Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana for officer indoctrination. Upon his graduation on 27 November 1917, he was directly commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was then assigned to the newly formed Company A, 1st Battalion, 39th Infantry, part of the 4th Infantry Division at Camp Greene, North Carolina. The 4th Infantry Division embarked for Europe, which was embroiled in World War I, from Hoboken, New Jersey, on 9 May 1918, and reached Brest, France, on 23 May. After training with the British and French Armies, the 4th Division entered the front lines in June 1918 and joined the Aisne Marne Offensive on 18 July 1918. Smith was wounded by shell fragments during an attack two days later. Because of his wounds, Smith was returned to the United States. He served with the U. S. Department of War's General Staff and was assigned to the Military Intelligence Division. In September 1918, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Regular Army. Smith was next sent to the newly formed 379th Infantry Regiment as its intelligence officer. The regiment was part of the 95th Infantry Division, based at Camp Sherman, Ohio. The 95th Infantry Division was demobilized following the signing of the Armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918. In February 1919, Smith was assigned to Camp Dodge, Iowa, where he was involved with the disposal of surplus equipment and supplies. In March 1919, he was transferred to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, a regular unit based at Camp Dodge, remaining there until November 1919, when it moved to Camp Sherman.

In 1921, the staff of the 2nd Infantry moved to Fort Sheridan, Illinois. In 1922, Smith became aide de camp to Brigadier General George Van Horn Moseley, the commander of the 12th Infantry Brigade at Fort Sheridan. From 1925 to 1929 Smith worked as an assistant in the Bureau of the Budget. He then served a two year tour of duty overseas on the staff of the 45th Infantry at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines. After nine years as a first lieutenant, he was promoted to captain in September 1929. Returning to the United States, Smith reported to the U. S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in March 1931. Upon graduation in June 1932, he stayed on as an instructor in the Weapons Section in which he was responsible for demonstrating weapons like the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. In 1933, he was sent to the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He later returned to the Infantry School but was detached again to attend the U. S. Army War College from which he graduated in 1937. He returned to the Infantry School once more and he was promoted to major on 1 January 1939 after nine years as a captain. The slow promotion was common in the Army in the 1920s and the 1930s. Officers like Smith, commissioned between November 1916 and November 1918, made up 55.6% of the Army's officer corps in 1926. Promotions were usually based on seniority, and the modest objective of promoting officers to major after 17 years of service could not be met because of a shortage of posts for them to fill.

When General George C. Marshall became the Army's Chief of Staff in September 1939, he brought Smith to Washington, D. C., to be the assistant to the secretary of the General Staff. The Secretary of the General Staff was primarily concerned with records, paperwork, and the collection of statistics, but he also performed a great deal of analysis, liaison, and administration. One of Smith's duties was liaison with Major General Edwin "Pa" Watson, the senior military aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 1 September, the Secretary of the General Staff, Colonel Orlando Ward, was given command of the 1st Armored Division, and Smith became secretary of the General Staff. The Arcadia Conference, which was held in Washington, D. C., December 1941 and January 1942, mandated the creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a counterpart to the British Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Smith was named as its secretary on 23 January 1942. The same conference also brought about the creation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, which consisted of the (American) Joint Chiefs of Staff and the (British) Chiefs of Staff Committee meeting as a single body. Brigadier Vivian Dykes of the British Joint Staff Mission provided the secretarial arrangements for the new organization at first, but Marshall thought that an American secretariat was required. He appointed Smith as the secretary of the Combined Chiefs of Staff and of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since Dykes was senior in service time to Smith, and Marshall wanted Smith to be in charge, Smith was promoted to brigadier general on 2 February 1942. He assumed the new post a week later, with Dykes as his deputy. The two men worked in partnership to create and organize the secretariat and to build the organization of the Combined Chiefs of Staff into one which could co ordinate the war efforts of both allies, along with the Canadians, Australians, French and others. He later remarked: "That year I spent working as secretary of the general staff for George Marshall was one of the most rewarding of my entire career, and the unhappiest year of my life."

When Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed as the commander of the European Theater of Operations in June 1942, he requested that Smith be sent from Washington as his chief of staff. Smith's record as a staff officer and his proven ability to work harmoniously with the British made him a natural choice for the post. Reluctantly, Marshall acceded to the request, and Smith took over as the chief of staff at Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) on 15 September 1942. Reporting to him were two deputy chiefs of staff, Brigadier General Alfred Gruenther and Brigadier John Whiteley, and also the chief administrative officer (CAO), Major General Humfrey Gale. Initially, AFHQ was located in London, but it moved to Algiers in November and December 1942, with Smith arriving on 11 December. Although AFHQ had an authorized strength of only 700, Smith aggressively expanded it. By January 1943 its American component alone was 1,406 and its strength eventually topped 4,000 men and women. As the chief of staff, Smith zealously guarded access to Eisenhower, acquired a reputation as a tough and brusque manager, and was often referred to as Eisenhower's "hatchet man." Pending the organization of the North African Theater of Operations, U. S. Army (NATOUSA), Smith also acted as its chief of staff until 15 February, when Brigadier General Everett S. Hughes became the Deputy Theater commander and the commanding general of the Communications Zone. The relationship between Smith and Hughes, an old friend of Eisenhower, was tense. Smith later accused Hughes of "empire building," and the two clashed over trivial issues. In Algiers, Smith and Eisenhower seldom socialized together. Smith conducted formal dinners at his villa, an estate surrounded by gardens and terraces, with two large drawing rooms decorated with mosaics, oriental rugs, and art treasures. Like Eisenhower, Smith had a female companion, a nurse, Captain Ethel Westerman. After the disastrous Battle of the Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower sent Smith forward to report on the state of affairs at the American II Corps. Smith recommended the relief of its commander, Major General Lloyd Fredendall, as did General Harold Alexander and Major Generals Omar Bradley and Lucian Truscott. On their advice, Eisenhower replaced Fredendall with Major General George S. Patton Jr. Eisenhower also relieved his Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence (G 2), Brigadier Eric Mockler Ferryman, pinpointing faulty intelligence at AFHQ as a contributing factor in the defeat at Kasserine. Mockler Ferryman was replaced by Brigadier Kenneth Strong. The debacle at Kasserine Pass strained relations between the Allies, and another crisis developed when II Corps reported that enemy aviation operated at will over its sector because of an absence of Allied air cover. That elicited a scathing response from British Air Marshal Arthur Coningham on the competence of American troops. Eisenhower drafted a letter to Marshall suggesting that Coningham should be relieved of his command since he could not control the acrimony between senior Allied commanders, but Smith persuaded him not to send it. Instead, Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder, Major General Carl Spaatz, and Brigadier General Laurence S. Kuter paid Patton a visit at his headquarters. Their meeting was interrupted by a German air raid, which convinced the airmen that Patton had a point. Coningham withdrew his written criticisms and apologized. Disagreements arose between Allied commanders over the operational plan, which called for a series of dispersed landings based on the desire of the air, naval, and logistical planners concerning the early capture of ports and airfields. General Bernard Montgomery, the commander of the British Eighth Army, objected to that aspect of the plan since it exposed the Allied forces to defeat in detail. Montgomery put forward an alternate plan that involved American and British forces landing side by side. He convinced Smith that his alternate plan was sound, and the two men persuaded most of the other Allied commanders. Montgomery's plan provided for the early seizure of airfields, which satisfied Tedder and Cunningham. The fears of logisticians like Major General Thomas B. Larkin that supply would not be practical without a port were resolved by the use of amphibious trucks. In August 1943, Smith and Strong flew to Lisbon via Gibraltar in civilian clothes and met with Generale di Brigata Giuseppe Castellano at the British embassy. Castellano had hoped to arrange terms for Italy to join the United Nations against Nazi Germany, Smith was empowered to draw up an armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces but was unable to negotiate political matters. On 3 September, Smith and Castellano signed the agreed upon text on behalf of Eisenhower and Pietro Badoglio, respectively, in a simple ceremony beneath an olive tree at Cassibile, Sicily. In October, Smith traveled to Washington for two weeks to represent Eisenhower in a series of meetings, including one with Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York, on 10 October.

Smith briefly returned to the United States in late June 1945, after spending several days resting at the 108th General Hospital in Clichy, France. In August, Eisenhower nominated Smith as his successor as commander of U. S. Forces, European Theater, as ETOUSA was redesignated on 1 July 1945. Smith was passed over in favor of General Joseph McNarney. However, soon after his arrival back in Washington he was asked by President Harry S. Truman and U. S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes to become the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Smith's service as the American ambassador was eventful. Although it was not Smith's fault, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union during his tenure deteriorated rapidly as the Cold War set in. Smith's tenacity of purpose was in line with the policy of containment that replaced about 1947 the conciliant stance that had for some years tried to find common ground with Moscow. He became convinced that no understanding was possible in dealings with the Soviets short of acquiescence to their expansionism, and that their intransigence and delaying tactics precluded the reconstruction and economic recovery of Europe. He saw the Soviet Union as a secretive, totalitarian, and antagonistic state. Smith returned to the United States in March 1949. Truman offered him the post of Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, but Smith declined the appointment and preferred to return to military duty. He was appointed as the commander of the First Army at Fort Jay in New York, his first command since 1918. Throughout the war, Smith had been troubled by a recurring stomach ulcer. The problem became severe in 1949. He was no longer able eat a normal diet, and he suffered from malnutrition. Smith was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Hospital, whose surgeons decided to remove most of his stomach. That did cure his ulcer, but Smith remained malnourished and thin.

Truman selected Smith as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Since the post had been established in 1946, there had been three directors, none of whom had wanted the position. Smith became the director on 7 October 1950. The 1949 Intelligence Survey Group had produced the Dulles Jackson Correa Report, which found that the CIA had failed in its responsibilities in both the coordination and production of intelligence. In response, the U. S. National Security Council accepted the conclusions and recommendations of the report. It remained to implement them. In May 1950, Truman decided that Smith was the man he needed for the CIA. Before Smith could assume the post on 7 October, there was a major intelligence failure. The North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950, which started the Korean War, took the administration entirely by surprise and raised fears of World War III. Since Smith knew little about the CIA, he asked for a deputy who knew a lot. Sidney Souers, the executive secretary of the National Security Council, recommended William Harding Jackson, one of the authors of the Dulles Jackson Correa Report, to Smith. Jackson accepted the post of deputy director on three conditions, one of which was "no bawlings out." Smith and Jackson moved to reorganize the agency in line with the recommendations of the Dulles Jackson Correa Report. They streamlined procedures to gather and disseminate intelligence. On 10 October, Smith was asked to prepare estimates for the Wake Island Conference between the president and General Douglas MacArthur. Smith insisted for the estimates to be simple, readable, conclusive, and useful, rather than mere background. They reflected the best information available, but unfortunately, one estimate concluded that the Chinese would not intervene in Korea, which was another major intelligence failure. Four months after the outbreak of the Korean War, the CIA had produced no co ordinated estimate of the situation in Korea. Smith created a new Office of National Estimates (ONE) under the direction of William L. Langer, the Harvard historian who had led the Research and Analysis branch of the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Langer's staff created procedures that were followed for the next two decades. Smith stepped up efforts to obtain economic, psychological, and photographic intelligence. By 1 December, Smith had formed a Directorate for Administration. The agency would ultimately be divided by function into three directorates: Administration, Plans, and Intelligence. Smith wanted the CIA to become a career service. Before the war, the so called "Manchu Law" limited the duration of an officer's temporary assignments, which effectively prevented anyone from making a career as a general staff officer. There were no schools for intelligence training, and the staffs had little to do in peacetime. Career officers therefore tended to avoid such work unless they aspired to be a military attaché. Smith consolidated training under a director of training and developed a career service program. When Eisenhower was appointed as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1951, he asked for Smith to serve as his chief of staff again. Truman turned down the request by stating that the DCI was a more important post. Eisenhower therefore took Lieutenant General Alfred Gruenther with him as his chief of staff. When Eisenhower later recommended Gruenther's elevation to four star rank, Truman decided that Smith should be promoted as well. However, Smith's name was omitted from the promotion list. Truman then announced that no one would be promoted before Smith, which occurred on 1 August 1951.

On 11 January 1953, Eisenhower, now president elect, announced that Smith would become an Under Secretary of State. Smith's appointment was confirmed by the U. S. Senate on 6 February and he resigned as the DCI three days later. In May 1954, Smith traveled to Europe in an attempt to convince the British to participate in an intervention to avert French defeat in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. When that failed, he reached an agreement with the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov to partition Vietnam into two separate states. In 1953, Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán threatened to nationalize land belonging to the United Fruit Company. Smith ordered the American ambassador in Guatemala to put a CIA plan for a Guatemalan coup into effect, which was accomplished by the following year. Smith left the State Department on 1 October 1954 and took up a position with the United Fruit Company. He also served as president and chairman of the board of the Associated Missile Products Company and AMF Atomics Incorporated, vice chairman of American Machine and Foundry (AMF) and a director of RCA and Corning Incorporated. Smith was portrayed on screen by Alexander Knox in The Longest Day (1962), Edward Binns in Patton (1970) and Timothy Bottoms in Ike: Countdown to D Day (2004). On television he has been portrayed by John Guerrasio in Cambridge Spies (2003), Charles Napier in War and Remembrance (1989), Don Fellows in The Last Days of Patton (1986) and J. D. Cannon in Ike: The War Years (1979).

Smith suffered a heart attack on 9 August 1961 at his home in Washington, D. C., and he died in the ambulance on the way to Walter Reed Army Hospital. He was entitled to a Special Full Honor Funeral, but his widow requested that a simple joint service funeral be held, which was patterned after the one given to Marshall in 1959. She selected a grave site for her husband in Section 7 of Arlington National Cemetery, near Marshall's grave. She was buried next to him after her death in 1963. Smith's papers are in the Eisenhower Presidential Center in Abilene, Kansas.