William Y. Smith | Four-star Air Force general, 90

William Y. Smith, 90, a four-star Air Force general who flew combat missions in Korea, wrote a book about the Cuban missile crisis and retired as deputy commander of U.S. forces in Europe, died of congestive heart failure last Tuesday at his home in Falls Church, Va.

In retirement, Gen. Smith was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and for five years was president of Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center.

What may have been the defining moment of his career occurred in February 1952 over North Korea when his F-84 fighter jet was hit by antiaircraft fire, smashing his right foot and ankle and setting his airplane on fire.

He landed on North Korean mudflats and was rescued by a U.S. helicopter. He spent the next nine months in military hospitals, and his right foot would be amputated just above the ankle. He was fitted with a prosthetic foot and ankle.

The future general had flown 97 combat missions but would never fly another, he was told. He could have taken a combat disability retirement. Or he could remain in the Air Force in nonflying assignments, but that would impair his opportunities for promotion. He chose to stay and retired in 1983 as deputy commander in chief of the U.S. European Command.

William Young Smith was born in Hot Springs, Ark., on Aug. 13, 1925. He graduated in 1948 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

From 1954 to 1958, he taught government, economics and international relations at West Point. He received a doctorate in political economy and government at Harvard University in 1961, then came to Washington as a junior staff member with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council.

He participated in negotiations that led to the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. His experiences during that time became germinating agents of a 1994 book about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, cowritten with a Soviet general, Anatoli I. Gribkov, former chief of staff of the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact.

In 1979, Gen. Smith was posted in Europe as chief of staff for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and remained in that job until becoming deputy commander in chief of the U.S. European Command.

His medals included the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and four awards of the Air Medal.

Gen. Smith's avocations included tennis and squash. He was quick and agile in competition.

Men and women who did not know were said to have been unable to tell, when he walked along a corridor at the Pentagon, which foot was the prosthetic.

- Washington Post