Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

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Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902-1985) was United States Ambassador, and chief of the United States Mission to the Republic of Vietnam (April 16, 1957 to May 3, 1961 and August 25, 1965 to April 25, 1967). He succeeded Frederick Nolting Jr. Unique to ambassadors, he served twice, coming back after replacing Maxwell Taylor, and finally replaced by Ellsworth Bunker.

Legislative and military

Lodge was first elected, as a Republican to the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1933, to the U.S. Senate in 1936, was reelected in 1942, and but resigned on February 3, 1944, to go on active duty during the Second World War in the United States Army; the first United States Senator since the Civil War to leave the Senate in order to go to war. served in the Mediterranean and European Theaters, rising to lieutenant colonel; again elected to the United States Senate in 1946 and served from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1953. He failed to be reelected in 1952.

His grandfather, Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., was also a member of the Senate.

In 1960, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nominations. His subsequent diplomatic assignments came from Democratic aamd Republican presidents.

Vietnam

Lodge's role in the coup that overthrew Diem remains confused. It is clear he knew that a coup was being planned; it is clear he did not inform the Diem government; it is not completely clear to what extent he encouraged the coup; it is fairly clear that he was shocked by Diem and Nhu being killed. Since CIA officer Lucien Conein was the actual contact to the coup plotters, it is possible that Lodge, intending to have plausible deniability, also did not have full information.

Other diplomatic

He was United States Ambassador at Large 1967-1968; Ambassador to Germany 1968-1969; appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as head of the American delegation to the Vietnam peace negotiations in Paris, France, and served until December 1969; appointed by President Nixon to serve as special envoy to the Vatican 1970-1977.