John H. Waller (CIA official)
{{Short description|American historian (1923–2004)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = John Waller
|office = Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency
|president = Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
|term_start = July 1976
|term_end = January 1980
|predecessor = Position established
|successor = Charles Briggs
|birth_name = John Henry Waller
|birth_date = {{birth date|1923|5|8}}
|birth_place = Paw Paw, Michigan, U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|2004|11|4|1923|5|8}}
|death_place = Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
|education = University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BA)
}}
John Henry Waller (May 8, 1923 – November 4, 2004) was an American historian and author, as well as the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1976 to 1980.{{cite news |author= |title=CIA Official John Waller; Was Historian and Author |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31165-2004Nov6.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C. |date=November 7, 2004 |page=C08 |access-date=April 30, 2015}}{{cite news |author= |title=John H. Waller, 81; Ex-CIA Officer Wrote About Espionage, War |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-nov-09-me-passings9.1-story.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |date=November 9, 2004 |access-date=April 30, 2015}}Contemporary Authors; January, 2006.
Early life
Waller was born in Paw Paw, Michigan, to George and Marguerite ({{nee}} Rowland) Waller on May 8, 1923. Raised in Detroit, he earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1946, and married Barbara Steuart Hans the following year. The couple had three children.
Career
In 1943 after he was rejected for military service due to an ear disorder, Waller began serving in the Office of Strategic Services, working in counterespionage. From 1947 to 1953, Waller served as vice-consul with the United States Foreign Service in Iran. He was a special assistant to the ambassador in New Delhi, India from 1955 to 1957 and from 1968 to 1971. Waller served in Khartoum, Sudan from 1960 to 1960, then as an analyst in the United States Department of State from 1962 to 1968. Waller was Chief of the CIA's Near East Division from 1971 to 1975, then Inspector General of the Agency from 1976 to 1980. During his career he was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the National Civil Service Award.
During his tenure as Inspector General, Waller led the CIA's internal investigation of the arms for Libya case involving CIA agents Edwin P. Wilson and Frank E. Terpil.{{cite news |last=Taubman |first=Philip |date=February 1, 1982 |title=House is Starting Hearings on C.I.A. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/01/us/house-is-starting-hearings-on-cia.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |access-date=April 30, 2015}} His report exonerated senior intelligence officials Theodore Shackley, deputy to the director of clandestine operations, and Thomas Clines, director of training in the clandestine services.
Later life
Waller lived in McLean, Virginia from 1978. He retired as Inspector General of the CIA in 1980. During Lawrence Walsh's investigation of the Iran–Contra affair, Waller and four other former CIA officials served as trustees of a defense fund set-up to help pay the legal expenses of at least six individuals who were serving or had served with the CIA during the scandal.{{cite news |author= |title=EX-CIA OFFICIALS FORMING DEFENSE FUND |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/177890/EX-CIA-OFFICIALS-FORMING-DEFENSE-FUND.html?pg=all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120101417/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/177890/EX-CIA-OFFICIALS-FORMING-DEFENSE-FUND.html?pg=all |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 20, 2015 |work=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City |date=August 14, 1991 |access-date=June 20, 2017}}
In retirement, he was reported to have been a full-time writer. Among the books authored by Waller were Gordon of Khartoum: The Saga of a Victorian Hero (1988), Beyond the Khyber Pass: The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War (1990), The Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World War (1996), and The Devil's Doctor: Felix Kersten and the Secret Plot to Turn Himmler Against Hitler (2002). He wrote Tibet: A Chronicle of Exploration under the pseudonym John MacGregor{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DeQllAvslq8C&pg=RA4-PA104 |title=Studies in Intelligence |date=2004 |publisher=U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. |language=en}} as well as A History of Sino-Indian Relations: Hostile Co-Existence under the pseudonym John Rowland.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}
On November 4, 2004, Waller died due to complications from pneumonia at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia. He was survived by his wife and three children.
References
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External links
- [http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/DOC_0006122540.pdf An Interview with John H. Waller] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013003330/http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/DOC_0006122540.pdf |date=2014-10-13 }}
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Category:20th-century American historians
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Virginia
Category:People from Paw Paw, Michigan
Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency
Category:University of Michigan alumni