House counsel] that on the day I went to work at the CIA I had hung on the wall of my office a color photograph showing the view through the window of my home in Florida. When people asked me what it was, I told them [this] was what was waiting [for me] if anyone squeezed me too hard. Diplomatic career Beginning in 1981 Walters served under Ronald Reagan as roving ambassador. Reagan used prominent Catholics in his government such as Walters to brief the pope during the Cold War. Walters was then United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1985 to 1989 and ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1989 to 1991, being responsible on behalf of the United States for the preparations of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. In 1986, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1987 he visited Fiji, two weeks after Timoci Bavadra came to office. Bavadra wanted to create a nuclear-free zone in Fiji. William Bodde Jr. had said previously about this: "a nuclear free zone would be unacceptable to the US given our strategic needs (...) the US must do everything possible to counter this movement". Walters spoke with Bavadra and Sitiveni Rabuka. Two weeks later Bavadra was overthrown by Rabuka. 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. Upon his death in 2002 he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In popular culture Walters was portrayed by Garrick Hagon in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play. See also 1964 Brazilian coup d'état References A tribute by Henry R. Appelbaum (This work is in the public domain) Book: Silent Missions. Autobiography, Publisher, Doubleday 1978; George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Further reading de Oliveira, Frank Márcio. Attaché Extraordinaire: Vernon A. Walters and Brazil. Washington, D.C.: National Defense Intelligence College (Mar. 2006) External links Finding aid for the Vernon A. Walters Oral History, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library Alan Goodman discuses the role of