As a brigadier general, Walter Bedell Smith was chief of staff in Europe to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II, and he was the man who negotiated first the surrender of Italy and then of Germany. He was U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1949 and Director of Central Intelligence from 1951 to 1953. He retired from the army in 1953, and was appointed Undersecretary of State.