Walters to Take Kirkpatrick’s Place at U.N.

President Reagan Friday named Ambassador-at-large Vernon A. Walters, a multilingual veteran of hundreds of high-level secret missions, to succeed Jeane J. Kirkpatrick as ambassador to the United Nations.

Walters, who has served presidents from both parties in a lengthy military and diplomatic career, is considered less likely to bring to the U.N. post the ideological fervor and combative spirit displayed by Kirkpatrick, who often irritated others in the Administration with her hard-line conservative rhetoric.

Walters’ nomination must be voted on by the Senate, where confirmation seems assured. Continuing a tradition that dates from the 1950s, he would be given Cabinet rank as U.N. ambassador--although Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who along with President Reagan would be Walters’ boss, is believed to have lobbied strongly to end the custom.

In a brief appearance at the State Department after his appointment, Walters, 68, paid tribute to the “fantastic job” done at the United Nations by Kirkpatrick, who is resigning to resume her teaching post at Georgetown University. During Kirkpatrick’s four years at the world organization, he said, respect for the United States has increased.

As for his own view of the world organization, Walters said: “I think the United Nations is necessary for the world. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have accepted.”

The most famous of Walters’ cloak-and-dagger exploits was his part in carrying out secret negotiations in Paris in the late 1960s and early 1970s with representatives of the North Vietnamese government--contacts that eventually led to settlement of the Vietnam War.

More recently, as a roving ambassador for the Reagan Administration since 1981, he also carried on secret talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro and with Nicaragua’s Sandinista leaders. Asked Friday about his success in behind-the-scenes diplomacy, he replied: “I’ve never traveled under a false name or in disguise.”

‘Modesty Well Known’

Then, with tongue in cheek, he added: “There’s no amount of good work you can’t do if you don’t want to get credit for it--my modesty is well known.”

Walters is famous as a linguist, and his skill in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian qualified him as an interpreter for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he had served after World War II as a special assistant. He also is fluent in Russian, German and Dutch.

Earlier, Walters’ linguistic ability in Portuguese had enabled him to be appointed liaison officer between the U.S. Army and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy during World War II. His service there resulted in friendships with officers who later became the leaders of the Brazilian armed forces, and he is alleged to have played a key role in the 1964 military overthrow of leftist President Joao Goulart. However, Walters himself denies any part in the coup.

He has served under various presidents, beginning with Harry S. Truman.

Walters’ career began in the Army, from which he retired as a three-star general. He also was deputy director of the CIA from 1972 to 1976.

Asked about reports that he had insisted on Cabinet rank in accepting the U.N. appointment, Walters declined to comment. Although his connection with U.S. intelligence operations is expected to bring questions from liberal members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will conduct hearings on the nomination, his general popularity in official Washington is expected to ensure easy approval by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Kirkpatrick was on a boat trip up the Nile River and was unavailable to comment on her successor, spokesman Joel Blocker of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said.