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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
Since this conference is a small and intimate affair, the question I want to raise today is a modest: Why did President Kennedy in July 1963 appoint Henry Cabot Lodge Jr as the American Ambassador to Saigon?
The question is not only modest, Professor Gardner might say that it is redundant. In Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam, Gardner writes about Kennedy's decision to replace Frederick Nolting and nominate Lodge, that the new ambassador could offer him ‘protective coloration’ against Republicans attacking the Administration's Vietnam policy.
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