Vernon A. Walters - Retirement and Death

Retirement and Death

During the 1990s, after he had retired from public life, Walters worked as a business consultant and was active on the lecture circuit. On November 18, 1991, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush. He wrote another book, The Mighty and the Meek (published in 2001), which profiled famous people with whom he had worked during his life. On February 9, the day before his death he gave an interview (in French language) in the mockumentary Dark side of the Moon (original title: Opération Lune) by William Karel.

This mockumentary Dark side of the Moon suggests that The New York Herald Tribune article on his death included the following paragraph:

"General Walters' last known public appearance was on a French Television documentary in which he talked about the White House's involvement with the Apollo program in the late 1960s. Both the producer and director noted that Walters was in perfect shape. .

However, the web version of the article at the New York Times website uses a different paragraph:

'He was great as our James Bond, getting us in and out secretly, even giving us code names,' said Winston Lord, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who accompanied Mr. Kissinger to the secret talks with the Vietnamese.

Walters died on February 10, 2002. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.