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Library » Subject Guides » Smith, Walter Bedell


COLLECTIONS

Smith, Walter Bedell

Walter Bedell Smith was born Oct. 5, 1895 in Indianapolis, IN. He was nicknamed “Beetle” as a boy. In high school, he took a job as a machinist at the National Motor Vehicle Company. He did not graduate from high school. At 16, he enlisted in the Indiana National Guard. Smith’s work during the Ohio River flood of 1913 led to officer training in 1917. He and Mary Eleanor Cline were married in 1917, and Smith sailed for France with the 4th Division a few months later. Smith was wounded during the Aisne-Marne Offensive.

After the war, he worked disposing of surplus equipment and served in the Bureau of the Budget. He also served at Fort McKinley in the Philippines. Smith attended the Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA in the spring of 1931, where he met George Marshall, and where he stayed on as an instructor. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, KS, then returned to the Infantry School to teach, but was instead sent to the Army War College, where he graduated in 1937. In 1939, Marshall brought Smith to Washington, D.C., to be the Assistant to the Secretary of the General Staff, and he became Secretary to the General Staff in 1941. Smith was promoted from major to brigadier general in three years.

Smith was Chief of Staff to Gen. Eisenhower during World War II and worked with the combined allied staff. He opened negotiations for German surrender in the Netherlands, and he negotiated the surrender of the German Armed forces which was signed May 7, 1945.

After the war, Smith was the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union for three years as the relationship between the USSR and the United States hardened into a Cold War. In 1949, Smith was made commander of the First Army; his first command since 1918. In 1950, he became the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he reorganized the structure and created an identity for the Agency. In 1953, he became Under Secretary of State and retired from the Army.

In 1954, Smith worked at the United Fruit Company, and as a director at RCA and Corning. Smith died of a heart attack on Aug. 9, 1961 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.

To find other items that the Marshall Foundation has on Walter Bedell “Beetle” Smith, search “Walter Bedell Smith” in the library catalog: https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/results/

Digitized items in the George C. Marshall archives:

4-044 To Major General Walter Bedell Smith, July 10, 1943
4-053 To Major General Walter Bedell Smith, July 14, 1943
4-295 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, March 15, 1944
4-386 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, May 16, 1944
5-078 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, March 30, 1945
5-122 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, May 9, 1945
5-150 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, June 4, 1945
5-373 To Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, February 24, 1946
6-012 To Walter Bedell Smith, January 30, 1947
Beetle : the life of general Walter Bedell Smith / D.K.R. Crosswell
Frank McCarthy Interview Notes 2 February 3, 1966
GCM00385 Secretary of State Marshall with Walter Bedell Smith and son of Charles Bohlen
GCM00699 Secretary of State Marshall with Walter Bedell Smith and son of Charles Bohlen
GCM00700 Secretary of State Marshall with Walter Bedell Smith and son of Charles Bohlen
GCM01681 Marshall and National Security Council at the White House
GCM03826 U.S. Loan Negotiation with European Coal and Steel Community Signing
GCM04061 Gen. Bedell Smith fishing in Florida
GCM06242 General George C. Marshall and Brigadier General Walter Bedell Smith in Iceland
General Walter Bedell Smith as director of central intelligence, October 1950-February 1953 / Ludwell Lee Montague ; with an introduction by Bruce D. Berkowitz and Allan E. Goodman
The chief of staff : the military career of General Walter Bedell Smith / D.K.R. Crosswell
Walter Bedell Smith Interview Details July 29, 1958
William L. Bryden Interview Details December 1, 1956
Xerox 0091 Bedell Smith to Mrs. Marshall Regarding Jeep history

Collection Formats:

War Department Chiefs and Executives, October 19,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Organization Chart Offices of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff & Secretary, General Staff, September 15,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Organization Chart Offices of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff & Secretariat, General Staff, March 1,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Statistics Branch War Department General Staff organization chart
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Secretariat, War Department General Staff, June 7,
Call Number: GCM 7890 Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection, George C. Marshall Photographs

Photographs


Handshake after award from Gen. George C. Marshall, 1945
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Photographs


Legion of Merit awarded by Gen. George C. Marshall, 1945
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Photographs

Legion of Merit awarded by Gen. George C. Marshall


Newspaper clipping of Pershing attending Brown-Marshall Wedding, October 12,
Collection: George Catlett Marshall and Katherine Tupper Marshall Collection

Notice of Marshall-Brown wedding


Invitation list to wedding of Katherine T. Brown and Lt. Col. George C. Marshall, 1930
Collection: George Catlett Marshall and Katherine Tupper Marshall Collection

Documents

Inivtation list to the wedding of Katherine T. Brown and Lt. Col. George C. Marshall


Marshall Day at Virginia Military Institute, May 15,
Author: Virginia Military Institute
Collection: George C. Marshall Collection

Documents

Marshall Day Virginia Military Institute


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Please contact the Director of Library and Archives, Melissa Davis, at 540-463-7103 ext 122 or send an email.

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