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| rdfs:comment | - 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.
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| term start | - 1946-04-03
- 1950-10-07
- 1953-02-09
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| Ribbon | - National Defense Service Medal ribbon.svg
- Army of Occupation ribbon.svg
- Bronze Star ribbon.svg
- Legion of Merit ribbon.svg
- World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg
- American Defense Service ribbon.svg
- European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign ribbon.svg
- Navy Distinguished Service ribbon.svg
- Distinguished Service Medal ribbon.svg
- World War I Victory Medal ribbon.svg
- Croix de guerre 1939-1945 with palm.jpg
- Oorlogskruis with Palm.jpg
- USA - National Security Medal Ribbon.png
- Czechoslovak War Cross 1939-1945 Ribbon.png
- Legion Honneur GO ribbon.svg
- Order_of_the_Bath_UK_ribbon.png
- CHL Order of Merit of Chile - Grand Cross BAR.png
- BEL Kroonorde Grootkruis BAR.svg
- Ord.Neth.Lion.jpg
- Order kutuzov1 rib.png
- Order of Military Merit.png
- Order of the British Empire .jpg
- Ordre du Nichan Iftikhar GC ribbon .svg
- POL Order Krzyża Grunwaldu 1 Klasy BAR.svg
- POL Polonia Restituta Kawalerski BAR.svg
- POL Virtuti Militari Wielki BAR.svg
- Ribbon bar Order of the Oak Crown.jpg
- Ruban_de_la_Croix_de_guerre_1914-1918.png
- TCH Rad Bileho Lva 1 tridy BAR.svg
- Grand Cross of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite ribbon.png
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| term end | - 1948-12-25
- 1953-02-09
- 1954-10-01
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| Alt | - Three quarter length portrait of seated man in uniform. He is bare headed and wearing his medal ribbons. He is wearing the SHAEF shoulder sleeve insignia.
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| Signature | - W. B. Smith signature.png
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| abstract | - 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. [citation needed] 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. [citation needed]
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