Walter Bedell Smith Walter Bedell " Beetle " Smith ( 5 October 1895 – 9 August 1961 ) was a senior U . S . Army general who served as General Dwight D . Eisenhower ' s chief - of - staff at Allied Forces Headquarters during the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 . Beginning in the next year , he was General Eisenhower ' s chief - of - staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ( SHAEF ) in Western Europe from 1944 through 1945 . Smith enlisted as a private in the Indiana National Guard in 1911 . During World War I he was commissioned as an officer in 1917 , and he was wounded in the Aisne - Marne Offensive in 1918 . After World War I , he was a staff officer and an instructor at the U . S . Army Infantry School . In 1941 , he became the Secretary of the General Staff . Then 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 Allied Forces Headquarters ( AFHQ ) in September 1942 . He acquired a reputation as Eisenhower ' s " hatchet man " for his brusque and demanding manner . However , he was also capable of representing Eisenhower in sensitive missions requiring diplomatic skill . Smith was involved in negotiating the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces , which he signed on behalf of Eisenhower . In 1944 , he became the Chief of Staff of SHAEF , again under Eisenhower . In this position , Smith also negotiated successfully for food and fuel aid to be sent through German lines for the starving and cold Dutch civilian population , and he opened discussions for the peaceful and complete German capitulation to the Canadian Army in the Netherlands . In May 1945 , Smith met with the representatives of the German High Command to negotiate the surrender of the German Armed Forces , and he signed the surrender document on behalf of General Eisenhower . After World War II , he served as the U . S . Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1948 . Then in 1950 , Smith became the Director of Central Intelligence , the head of the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) and other intelligence agencies in the U . S . Smith reorganized the CIA , redefined its structure and its mission , and he gave it a new sense of purpose . He made the CIA the arm of government primarily responsible for covert operations . He left the CIA in 1953 to become the Under Secretary of State . After retiring as the Under Secretary of State in 1954 , Smith continued to serve the Eisenhower Administration in various posts for several years , until his retirement and his death in 1961 . Early life . Walter Bedell Smith was born in Indianapolis , Indiana , on October 5 , 1895 , the eldest 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 . Smith was called Bedell from his boyhood . From an early age he was nicknamed " Beetle " , or occasionally " Beedle " or " Boodle " . 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 . While still 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 university 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 and during a 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 . Personal life . In 1913 , Smith met Mary Eleanor ( Nory ) Cline , and they were married in a traditional Roman Catholic wedding ceremony on July 1 , 1917 . Their marriage was of long duration but the Smiths did not have any children . World War I . 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 , Indiana . Upon his graduation on November 27 , 1917 , he was 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 , then embroiled in World War I , from Hoboken , New Jersey , on 9 May 1918 , reaching Brest , France , on the 23rd of May . After training with the British and French Armies , the 4th Division entered the front lines in June 1918 , joining 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 for service with the U . S . Department of War ' s General Staff , and he was assigned to the Military Intelligence Division . In September 1918 , he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the regular army of the United States . Smith was next sent to the newly formed 379th Infantry Regiment as its intelligence officer . This regiment was part of the 95th Infantry Division , based at Camp Sherman , Ohio . The 95th Infantry Division was disbanded following the signing of the Armistice with Germany on November 11 , 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 . Between the wars . The staff of the 2nd Infantry moved to Fort Sheridan , Illinois , in 1921 . 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 , where 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 . Afterward , he 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 , where he was promoted to major on 1 January 1939 after nine years as a captain . Such slow promotion was common in the Army in the 1920s and 1930s . Officers like Smith who were commissioned between November 1916 and November 1918 made up 55 . 6 percent of the Army ' s officer corps in 1926 . Promotions were usually based on seniority , and the modest objective of promoting officers to major after seventeen years of service could not be met because a shortage of posts for them to fill . World War II . Washington . 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 . Smith was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 4 May 1941 , and then to colonel on 30 August 1941 . On 1 September , the Secretary of the General Staff , Colonel Orlando Ward , was given command of the 1st Armored Division , and Smith became the 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 Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 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 General Marshall thought that an American secretariat was required . He appointed Smith as the secretary of the Combined Chiefs - of - Staff as well as 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 that could coordinate the war efforts of the two allies , along with the Canadians , Australians , French , etc . Smith ' s duties involved taking part in discussions of strategy at the highest level , and he often briefed President Roosevelt on strategic matters . However Smith became frustrated as he watched other officers receive the operational commands that he desired . 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 . " North African Theater . 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 this 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 . AFHQ was a balanced binational organization , in which the chief of each section was paired with a deputy of the other nationality . Its structure was generally American , but with some British aspects . For example , Gale as CAO controlled both personnel and supply functions , which under the American system would have reported directly to Smith . Initially AFHQ was located in London , but itwas moved to Algiers during November and December 1942 , with Smith arriving on December 11 . 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 . He acquired a reputation as a tough and brusque manager , and he 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 clashing 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 mosaic s , oriental rugs , and art treasures . Like Eisenhower , Smith had a female companion , a nurse , Captain Ethel Westerman . Following 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 was operating at will over its sector because of an absence of Allied air cover . This elicited a scathing response from British Air Marshal Arthur Coningham on the competence of American troops . General 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 General 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 that convinced the airmen that General Patton had a point . Coningham withdrew his written criticisms and he apologized . For the Allied invasion of Sicily , the Combined Chiefs of Staff designated Eisenhower as the overall commander but they ordered the three component commanders , Alexander , Tedder , and Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham of the Royal Navy , to " cooperate " . To Eisenhower , this command arrangement meant a reversion to the old British " committee system " . He drafted a cable to the Combined Chiefs - of - Staff demanding a unified command structure , but Smith persuaded him to tear it up . 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 this aspect of the plan , since it exposed the Allied forces to defeat in detail . Montgomery put forward an alternate plan that involved the American and British forces landing side by side . He convinced Smith that his alternate plan was sound , and the two men then 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 , where they met with " Generale di Brigata " Giuseppe Castellano at the British embassy . While 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 he was unable to negotiate political matters . On September 3 , 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 President Roosevelt at Hyde Park , New York , on 10 October . European Theater . In December 1943 , Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord , the invasion of Normandy . Eisenhower wished to take Smith and other key members of his AFHQ staff with him to his new assignment , but Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to retain Smith at AFHQ as Deputy Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean . Churchill reluctantly gave way at Eisenhower ' s insistence . On New Year ' s Eve , Smith met with General Sir Alan Brooke to discuss the transfer of key British staff members from AFHQ to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ( SHAEF ) . Brooke released Gale only after a strong appeal from Smith , and he refused to transfer Strong . A heated exchange resulted , and Brooke later complained to Eisenhower about Smith ' s behavior . This was the only time that a senior British officer ever complained openly about Smith . Whiteley became Chief of Intelligence ( G - 2 ) at SHAEF instead of Strong , but Eisenhower and Smith had their way in the long run , and Strong assumed the post on 25 May 1944 , with Brigadier General Thomas J . Betts as his deputy . Smith was promoted to lieutenant general and also made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in January 1944 . On 18 January , he set out for London with two and a half tons of personal baggage loaded onto a pair of B - 17 s . The staff of the Chief - of - Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander ( COSSAC ) was already active , and he had been planning the Overlord operation for some time . This staff was absorbed into SHAEF , with COSSAC , with Major General Frederick Morgan , becoming Smith ' s Deputy Chief of Staff at SHAEF . Gale also held the title of Deputy Chief of Staff , as well as being Chief Administrative Officer , and there was also a Deputy Chief of Staff ( Air ) , Air Vice Marshal James Robb . The heads of the other staff divisions were Major General Ray W . Barker ( G - 1 ) , Major General Harold R . Bull ( G - 3 ) , Major General Robert W . Crawford ( G - 4 ) and Major General Sir Roger Lumley ( G - 5 ) . Morgan had located his COSSAC headquarters in Norfolk House at 31 St . James ' s Square , London , but Smith moved it to Bushy Park on the outskirts of London . This was according to Eisenhower ' s expressed desire not to have his headquarters inside of a major city . A hutted camp was built with of floor space . By the time Overlord began , accommodations had been provided for 750 officers and 6 , 000 enlisted men and women . Eisenhower and Smith ' s offices were in a subterranean complex . Smith ' s office was spartan , dominated by a large portrait of Marshall . An advanced command post codenamed Sharpener was established near Portsmouth , where Montgomery ' s 21st Army Group and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay ' s Allied Naval Expeditionary Force headquarters were located . Ground operations in Normandy were controlled by Montgomery at first , but SHAEF Forward headquarters moved to Jullouville in August , and on 1 September Eisenhower assumed control of Bradley ' s 12th Army Group and Montgomery ' s 21st Army Group . Smith soon realized that he had made a mistake . The forward headquarters was remote and inaccessible , and it lacked the necessary communications equipment . On 6 September , Eisenhower ordered both SHAEF Forward and SHAEF Main to move to Versailles as soon as possible . SHAEF Forward began its move on 15 September and it opened in Versailles on 20 September . SHAEF Main followed , moving from Bushy Park by air . This move was completed by October , and SHAEF remained there until 17 February 1945 , when SHAEF Forward moved to Reims . By this time , SHAEF had grown in size to 16 , 000 officers and enlisted men , of whom 10 , 000 were American and 6 , 000 British . By November 1944 , Strong was reporting that there was a possibility of a German counteroffensive in the Ardennes or the Vosges . Smith sent Strong to personally warn Bradley , who was preparing an offensive of his own . The magnitude and ferocity of the German Ardennes Offensive came as a shock , and Smith had to defend Strong against criticism for failing to sound the alarm . He felt Strong had been given ample warning . Once battle was joined , Eisenhower acted decisively , committing the two armored divisions in the 12th Army Group ' s reserve over Bradley ' s objection , along with his own meager reserves , two airborne divisions . Whiteley and Betts visited the U . S . First Army headquarters and they were unimpressed with the way its commanders were handling the situation . Strong , Whiteley , and Betts recommended that command of the armies north of the Ardennes be transferred from Bradley to Montgomery . Smith ' s immediate reaction was to dismiss the suggestion out of hand . He told Strong and Whiteley that they were fired and should pack their bags and return to the United Kingdom . On the next morning , Smith apologized . He had had second thoughts , and he informed them that he would present their recommendation to Eisenhower as his own . He realized the military and political implications of this , and knew that such a recommendation had to come from an American officer . On December 20 , he recommended it to Eisenhower , who telephoned both General Bradley and Montgomery , and Eisenhower ordered it . This decision was greatly resented by many Americans , particularly in 12th Army Group , who felt that the action discredited the U . S . Army ' s command structure . Heavy casualties since the start of Operation Overlord resulted in a critical shortage of infantry replacements even before the crisis situation created by the Ardennes Offensive . Steps were taken to divert men from Communications Zone units . The commander of the Communication Zone , Lieutenant General John C . H . Lee , persuaded Eisenhower to allow soldiers to volunteer for service " without regard to color or race to the units where assistance is most needed , and give you the opportunity of fighting shoulder to shoulder to bring about victory " . Smith immediately grasped the political implications of this . He put his position to Eisenhower in writing : The policy was revised , with Negro soldiers serving in provisional platoon s . In the 12th Army Group these were attached to regiments , while in the 6th Army Group the platoons were grouped into whole companies attached to the division . The former arrangement were generally better rated by the units they were attached to , because the Negro platoons had no company - level unit training . On 15 April 1945 , the Nazi governor ( " Reichskommissar " ) of the Netherlands , Arthur Seyss - Inquart , offered to open up Amsterdam to food and coal shipments to ease the suffering of the civilian population . Smith and Strong , representing SHAEF , along with Major General Ivan Susloparov representing the Soviet Union , Prince Bernhard of Lippe - Biesterfeld representing the Dutch government , and Major General Sir Francis de Guingand from 21st Army Group , met with Seyss - Inquart in the Dutch village of Achterveld on 30 April . After threatening Seyss - Inquart with prosecution for war crimes , Smith successfully negotiated for the provision of food to the suffering Dutch civilian population in the cities in the west of the country , and he opened discussions for the peaceful and complete German capitulation in the Netherlands , to the Canadian Army , that did follow on the 5th of May . Smith had to conduct another set of surrender negotiations , that of the German armed forces , in May 1945 . Smith met with the representatives of the German High Command ( the " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " ) , Colonel General Alfred Jodl and General - Admiral Hans - Georg von Friedeburg . Once again , Strong acted as an interpretor . Smith took a hard line , threatening that unless terms were accepted , the Allies would seal the front , thus forcing the remaining Germans into the hands of the Red Army , but he made some concessions regarding a ceasefire before the surrender came into effect . On May 7 , Smith signed the surrender document , along with the French representative , Major General François Sevez , and the Soviet Susloparov . After the war . Ambassador to the Soviet Union . Smith briefly returned to the United States in June 1945 . In August , Eisenhower nominated Smith as his successor as commander of " U . S . Forces , European Theater " , as ETOUSA was redesignated on July 1 , 1945 . Smith was passed over in favor of General Lucius D . Clay . When Eisenhower took over as Chief of Staff of the U . S . Army in November 1945 , he summoned Smith to become his Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations and Planning . 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 U . S . Ambassador to the Soviet Union . In putting Smith ' s nomination for the post before the U . S . Congress , Truman asked for and received special legislation permitting Smith to retain his permanent military rank of major general . Smith ' s service as the American ambassador was not a success . Although no fault of Smith ' s , during his tenure the relationship between the U . S . and the Soviet Union deteriorated rapidly as the Cold War set in . Smith ' s tenacity of purpose came across as a lack of flexibility , and it did nothing to allay Soviet fears about American intentions . He became thoroughly disillusioned and turned into a hardened cold warrior who saw the Soviet Union as a secretive , totalitarian and antagonistic state . In " My Three Years in Moscow " ( 1950 ) , Smith ' s account of his time as ambassador , he wrote : Smith returned to the U . S . in March 1949 . Truman offered him the post of Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs but General Smith declined the appointment , preferring to return to military duty . He was appointed as the commander of U . S . First Army at Fort Jay , New York , his first command since 1918 . Throughout the war , Smith had been troubled by a recurring stomach ulcer . It became acute in 1949 . He was no longer able eat a normal diet , and he was suffering from malnutrition . Smith was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Hospital , where the surgeons decided to remove most of his stomach . This did cure his ulcer , but Smith remained malnourished and thin . Director of Central Intelligence . In 1950 , 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 job . 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 , President 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 it raised fears of a third world war . Since Smith knew little about the Agency , he asked for a deputy who did . 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 for gathering and disseminating intelligence . On 10 October , Smith was asked to prepare estimates for the Wake Island Conference between the President and General Douglas MacArthur . Smith insisted that the estimates be simple , readable , conclusive , and useful rather that mere background . They reflected the best information available , but unfortunately , one estimate concluded that the Chinese would not intervene in Korea , another major intelligence failure . Four months after the outbreak of the Korean War , the Agency had produced no coordinated 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 December 1 , Smith had formed a Directorate for Administration . The Agency would ultimately be divided by function into three directorates : Administration , Plans , and Intelligence . Smith is remembered in the CIA as its first successful Director of Central Intelligence , and one of its most effective , who redefined its structure and mission . The CIA ' s expansive covert action program remained the responsibility of Frank Wisner ' s quasi - independent Office of Policy Coordination ( OPC ) , but Smith began to bring OPC under the DCI ' s control . In early January 1951 he made Allen Dulles the first Deputy Director for Plans ( DDP ) , to supervise both OPC and the CIA ' s separate espionage organization , the Office of Special Operations ( OSO ) . Not until January 1952 were all intelligence functions consolidated under a Deputy Director for Intelligence ( DDI ) . Wisner succeeded Dulles as DDP in August 1951 , and it took until August 1952 to merge the OSO and the OPC , each of which had its own culture , methods , and pay scales , into an effective , single directorate . By consolidating responsibility for covert operations , Smith made the CIA the arm of government primarily responsible for them . 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 military attaché s . 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 , 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 General Smith should be promoted also . However , Smith ' s name was omitted from the promotion list . Truman then announced that no one would be promoted until Smith was , which occurred on 1 August 1951 . Smith retired from the Army upon leaving the CIA on 9 February 1953 . Under Secretary of State . On 11 January 1953 , Eisenhower , now president - elect , announced that Smith would become 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 this failed , he reached an agreement with the Soviet Foreign Minister , Vyacheslav Molotov , to partition Vietnam into two separate states . In 1953 , the President of Guatemala , 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 . After retiring as Under Secretary of State in 1954 , Smith continued to serve the Eisenhower administration in various posts . He was a member of the National Security Training Commission from 1955 to 1957 , the National War College board of consultants from 1956 to 1959 , the Office of Defense Mobilization Special Stockpile Advisory Committee from 1957 to 1958 , the President ' s Citizen Advisors on the Mutual Security Program from 1956 to 1957 , and the President ' s Committee on Disarmament in 1958 . Smith was a consultant at the Special Projects Office ( Disarmament ) in the Executive Office of the President from 1955 to 1956 . He also served as Chairman of the Advisory Council of the President ' s Committee on Fund Raising , and as a member - at - large from 1958 to 1961 . In recognition of his other former boss , he was a member of the George C . Marshall Foundation Advisory Committee from 1960 to 1961 . Death and legacy . In 1955 , Smith was approached to perform the voice - over and opening scene for the movie " To Hell And Back " ( 1955 ) , which was based on the autobiography of Audie Murphy . He accepted , and had small parts in the movie , most notably in the beginning , where he was dressed in his old service uniform . He narrated several parts of the movie , referring constantly to " the foot soldier " . Smith was portrayed on screen by Alexander Knox in " The Longest Day " ( 1962 ) , Edward Binns in " Patton " ( 1970 ) and Timothy Bottoms in " " ( 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 August 9 , 1961 , at his home in Washington , D . C . , and he died in the ambulance on the way to Walter Reed Army Hospital . Although entitled to a Special Full Honor Funeral , at the request of his widow , Mary Eleanor Smith , a simple joint service funeral was held , patterned after the one given to General Marshall in 1959 . She selected a grave site for her husband in Section 7 of Arlington National Cemetery close to Marshall ' s grave . Mrs . Smith was buried next to him after her death in 1963 . Smith ' s papers are in the Eisenhower Presidential Center in Abilene , Kansas .