Edward Smith Hamilton, a highly decorated combat veteran of World War II who later embarked on clandestine assignments along the coast of China during the Korean War, has died in Annandale, Va. He as 89.
Mr. Hamilton died of pneumonia June 30. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he was commander of an Army infantry battalion that went ashore at Normandy Beach on June 8, 1944, two days after D-Day.
For his coordination of the defense of a key bridge in France on Aug. 5, 1944, Mr. Hamilton was awarded the Silver Star.
A month later, on Sept. 8, he led a surprise raid on German positions at Avril, France, for which Mr. Hamilton received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest commendation for valor.
Two days later, he was wounded in battle and lost his left eye. He was given a battlefield promotion to lieutenant colonel and received, among other decorations, the Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart.
After recuperating, Mr. Hamilton returned to his hometown of Dallas, Ore., in 1946 to open an insurance agency.
In 1950, as the Korean War was heating up, Mr. Hamilton was lured back into action as a CIA agent in Taiwan, working with the Chinese nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek.
Nicknamed the “One-Eyed Dragon,” Mr. Hamilton led combined American and Chinese guerrilla units in clandestine attacks against communist forces on the Chinese mainland.
His role in the covert actions conducted along the southeastern coastline of China is detailed in the book “Raiders of the China Coast” by Frank Holober.
Mr. Hamilton was in Taiwan from 1950 to 1954 before he was transferred to Washington. In 1956, he was sent to Germany as an undercover agent working in counterintelligence in East Germany and Turkey.
He left the CIA in 1959 and took a position as operations officer with the old Civil Defense Administration. He retired in 1973.
In his later years, Mr. Hamilton made many visits to France, where he was welcomed as a returning hero of the nation’s liberation from Nazi control. Last year, he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government.
