history file
by Reg Reynolds
Deep Throat in Gibraltar On 31st May, 2005 William Mark Felt revealed to the world that he was Deep Throat, the man who secretly provided the information on the Watergate Affair that ended with the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon. Felt’s story was told in Vanity Fair magazine and was substantiated by authors Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who first reported the story about the burglary of the Democratic Party offices at the Watergate Apartments in the Washington Post. But many observers of the long-running scandal remain sceptic and believe that there were more than one ‘Deep Throat’ and among the suspects was Vernon Walters, who held high office in the Central Intelligence Agency at the time of Watergate. Walters acted as a translator and advisor for the President and it was Nixon who had appointed him to the CIA post. The American-born son of British parents was a skilled linguist (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Chinese and Russian) who received his baptism into the world of intelligence in World War II during the invasion of North Africa. Walters landed with the American forces at Casablanca on 8th November, 1942. His main mission was to interrogate captured soldiers but he wound up performing a wide variety of unusual duties “from cold storage and barrels of nails to the delicate issue of the control of the brothels.” Due to French fears that the Americans, armed with chocolates and nylon stockings, would dominate the available women it was agreed that the brothels would close to the Americans at 10 p.m. leaving the remainder of the night to the French. Walters accompanied Colonel Nason, an American officer of the French Foreign Legion, on an inspection tour of the red light district. “He (the Legionnaire) approached one in the old city, in the medina. He banged on the door. No answer. He banged again, now angrily. Finally, the door opened and a middle-aged woman looked out on us and said, ‘Ah the Americans! I worked with them in the First World War.’ Colonel Nason made it plain to her that if there were any Americans in the place after 10 o’clock she would be in serious trouble and might have the place closed down”.
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Vernon Walters
After questioning dozens of African, French, Italian and German prisoners Walters was sent to Algiers and then to Gibraltar with a General Bethouart who had been appointed head of the French Military Mission to the US. At Gibraltar Walters met an old boarding school friend. Although he was born in New York in 1917 his parents had returned to England in 1923 and he attended school there before returning to America in 1933. Walters doesn’t name the friend but says that he was a captain and an aide to Gov-
ernor Mason-Macfarland [sic].This was probably the actor Anthony Quayle who was a captain and aide to the Governor. Walters had been given orders to return to the US to train potential interrogators but he wanted to fly via England in order to visit family there. Because he was a low priority passenger he had to wait for a flight and this gave him ample time to enjoy the pleasures of war-time Gibraltar. The American liaison officer had told him there were only two hotels in Gibraltar the Bristol, which
“His confirmation to me the prior evening (while dining at the Rock Hotel) can only be interpreted as a petty and malicious deception. Little men take pleasure in little things”
was full, and the Rock which was for VIPs only. Walters had yet to find accommodation when his old school friend took him to meet Governor Mason-Macfarlane. After briefing the Governor on the situation in North Africa the old man ordered the aide to ‘Take him up to the Rock Hotel and get him a room’. This proved to be an unexpected treat for Walters: “The governor’s aide took me to the Rock Hotel, where I was immediately assigned a comfortable room with a magnificent view over the Bay of Gibraltar toward Algeciras and the Strait.” Every day Walters walked down to the North Front Airport to see if his name had made the flight list. He did make it one day only to be removed on the orders of a Colonel G who gave the place to a friend who had arrived from Algiers. “I was furious! Not at being removed from the passenger manifest — this I could understand if one of Colonel G’s friends turned up with a higher priority. His confirmation to me the prior evening (while dining at the Rock Hotel) can only be interpreted as a petty and malicious deception. Little men take pleasure in little things.” Walters lingered for another ten days on the Rock before finally getting a flight by volunteering as a waist gunner on a B-17 flying to England. After returning to America Walters worked as an instructor but also carried out intelligence missions including infiltrating a group of suspected Nazi spies. In 1944 he returned to Europe and fought in Italy and Germany. After the War he served as an aide at the Marshall Plan headquarters in Paris and later helped set up the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers. In the 1950s Walters served as an aide and interpreter for Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. In 1972 he was appointed Deputy Director of the CIA by Nixon and for two months in 1973 he was Acting Director. Interestingly he was passed over for the permanent position in favour of William Colby. Could this have been the spark that might have turned him into a ‘Deep
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2010