Charles Vetter; Trained USIA Officers, Peace Corps Recruits

Charles T. Vetter, 84, a former official with the U.S. Information Agency who later became an international consultant, died Nov. 10 at Sibley Memorial Hospital of complications of esophageal cancer. He lived in Washington.

Mr. Vetter joined the State Department in 1950 before moving to USIA five years later. He provided training for USIA officers and other U.S. personnel around the world, including those working at an exhibition of American wares in Moscow in 1959. The site became the impromptu setting of the so-called kitchen debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

From 1962 to 1964, Mr. Vetter worked widely throughout Latin America. He also participated in training programs for Peace Corps recruits and trained American guides and Marines for the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal.

His other work in the late 1960s took him to more than 15 countries. In 1972, he undertook a five-week lecture tour of India, discussing international relations and U.S. culture. He went on a similar tour of Africa in 1974. From 1970 until retiring from USIA in 1976, Mr. Vetter was a faculty adviser at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute.

After leaving USIA, Mr. Vetter was an independent consultant on international affairs and management with the State Department, CIA, Defense Department, Commerce Department and other federal agencies and private companies. He delivered an average of 200 lectures, seminars and workshops a year.

He was the author of two books, "Citizen Ambassadors" (1983) and "Citizen Diplomacy" (1995), about promoting international understanding.

Mr. Vetter was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Detroit and New York. He was a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and served as a naval aviator in World War II.

After the war, he taught at Bell Multicultural Senior High School in Washington and worked for the Republican National Committee.

He later attended the School of Advanced International Studies (now affiliated with Johns Hopkins University), Georgetown University's law school and the Hague Academy of International Law. He graduated from the National University Law School in Washington in 1953 and received a master's degree in law from George Washington University in 1959.

Mr. Vetter was elected to an Advisory Neighborhood Commission and was on the board of directors of International Student House in Washington. He belonged to many honorary societies and professional organizations and was a member of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Washington, where he was a vestryman and junior warden.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Alice Vetter of Washington; two children, David Vetter of Rockville and Hope Vetter of Brussels; and a grandson.