WASHINGTON POST - WALTER SCOTT'S PERSONALITY PARADE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500180004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 24, 2003
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 23, 1983
• Content Type: NSPR

,,pro. e4 Release 2003/12/03: CIA-RDP91-00901 R00050
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p:3 WASHINGTON POST
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23 TANUAPY 1983
WALTER SCOTT'S
Personahty Parade
Q I read that Roscoe Hillenknerter. the first direc-
tor of our Central Intelligence Agency. died at age
85 in ll'eehu-,?ken, V.J. I've never heard of this
guy, Have-you I-Af ark Williamson. Renton. Wash.
A Vice Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter was Presi-
dent Truman's choice to be our first CIA director.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Class of
20. he served as a naval attache in Spain and
Portugal before being sent to Vichy France. where.
as naval attache, he secretly worked with the French
underground. After World War 11. he was given
command of the battleship "Missouri," which he
led on a series of show-the-flag trips.
On May 1. 1947. Truman appointed him head of
the newly organized CIA. Three years later, when
the Korean war erupted so unexpectedly, the Sen- i
ate Appropriations Committee asked Hillenkoener
why the U.S. had been caught -9f-guard.-Not long ?1 -
after this grilling. Hillenkoetter asked Truman to
return him to sea duty, which Truman did. Hillen-
koetter retired in 1957 and landed a job as chief
executive officer of the American Banner Lines.
. Z WALTER SCOTT 15'D.+
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Approved For Release 2003/12/03 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500180004-3