---
born: 1920-01-24
category: Intelligence & Government
died: 1986-12-09
location: Manhattan, Kansas
summary: U.S. Ambassador to Moscow exposed to the Soviet microwave Moscow Signal at
  the American embassy, later dying of leukemia along with two predecessors.
tags:
- Person
- Soviet
- Diplomat
---

Walter Stoessel Jr. (1920–1986) was a distinguished American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to [Moscow](/places/moscow/) from 1974 to 1976. During his tenure, he was exposed to the [Moscow Signal](/events/moscow-signal/), a microwave beam directed at the [U.S. Embassy in Moscow](/places/us-embassy-in-moscow/) by the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/)[^1].

In January 1976, Stoessel was briefed on the Moscow Signal and filed a formal protest with the Soviets. He minimally informed embassy personnel about their exposure to high-powered microwave beam radiation. *The Los Angeles Times* reported that Stoessel had told his staff that the Russians were using microwave beams to listen in on conversations and that such radiation could be harmful to their health[^1].

Stoessel was later reassigned to the U.S. embassy in Bonn, West Germany. He died of leukemia at the age of sixty-six in 1986. Notably, two of the three ambassadors who had served before him in Moscow and had also been subjected to the Moscow Signal also died of cancer: [Charles Bohlen](/people/charles-bohlen/) (died 1974, age sixty-nine) and [Llewellyn Thomas](/people/llewellyn-thomas/) (died 1972, age sixty-seven)[^1].

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.