LODGE'S SECOND TOUR BACK IN SAIGON AS ENVOY, HE PROFITS FROM ASSESSMENT OF HIS EARLIER WORK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430028-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: November 12, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

C
0
NOV 12 1965
itized -- Approved For Release
Lodge'sr Second Tour
Back in Saigon as Envoy, He Profits
;From Assessment of His Earlier Work
By CHARLES MOHit
Seedal to The New 7mk Tlmee
NOV. (11-Henry Cabot Lodgelagain.
{returned to Saigon in August Mr.. Lansdale has -thus bee
,. year a n v.e experie
not having been Ambassador advising the Vietnamese an
for about a year after that. A helping to examine new Idea
friend quotes his as having said from the American mission.
that "having been Consultants Make Visits
News Ambassador to Vi- Before leaving Washing to
Analysis .#- Is pretty Mr. Lodge had been asked b
being Ambassador, but Mr. President 'Johnson to get som
r _ __ Is also ..rateful for I,hav. other likely consultants to co
Ing had a year in the snowdrifts to Vietnam for snort visits. a,
Ness. 10-1-A to think" ( first of these, a Harvard Vol
life that he enjoyed bet een ...-.
(first assignment as Ambassador will be reporting to a numb
(here and his present tour of of top officials in Wahington.
Auto he had a. privilege that Mr, Lodge has also had dl
few policy-maskers . jo
adequate time to re-examine his can aid mission province repr
s. nta ivee-the man who wol
lulurs RIM
~~-- to advise Vietnamese provin
wise men en w with th C to
time to t^thi
wise nk.
...~_ ___...a_ have ~.een novel chiefs.
Lodge deliberate) left .open chann
Lodge is not merely attempting deliberately
to carry out a policy; he Is also through which even the m
__.nducti-_ ., seminar on how junior Americans. In. Vietn
1., a that r--?-+. him.
Complaints 0et a Hearing The presence of large nu
Since his return there has hers of American combat trop
Itivity in plans and operations, attention almost entirely for t
listen to those who feel that mission, But Mr.Lodge Is s
policy has not always worked the head of the United Sta
properly, as well as to the more mission team. .
numerous optimists. A Every indication is that r
It, was Mr. Lodge's Idea that sonable harmony for such
Edward G. Lansdale and his large mission has been ma
protbg~s be brought back to tamed and that Mr. Lodge h
Vietnam. Mr. Lansdale had been labored to inctease cooperati
lost to public service after his and reduce competition.
retirement from the Air Force For instance, the inform
with the rank of major general, sources say, he has recen'
but even earlier he had been been devoting time to attem
as had some of his former as- each with a program needi
sistants. Vietnamese administrato
Mr. Lansdale's record as a from raiding each others' sm
political adviser to Governments pools of trained, able Vietna
in the Philippines and in Viet- ese officials.
nam, according to informed In his first term as Amb
sources led.. Mr. Lodge' to be, sador, from the summer of 1'
ley! tftat. t~e..Uplted , fltlttls to the summer of 1964,
Lodge was also considered
(success but he was unpopu
with. some American` subord
his hat.
Mr. Lodge now operates,
liable sources say, in a m
formal and normal way but
most common criticism is t
he is still a "loner" unused
Sanitized - Approved his
`liable eoUroe4remarks, however'
the'need to persuade divergent
groups subtly to agree and dis
likes ordering them to adopt a
common policy on his, say-so
Mr. Lodge's arrival last sum-
mer was viewed with some ap-
strong-willed late Presiden
Ngo Dinh Diem.
But Mr. Lodge has been care
ful to prove these fears ground
less and appears to have a
acceptable relationship wit
changeable-a statement by on
sounds Uke a statement by th
other.
Mr. Lodge is above all a real
ist about Vietnam and thos
close to him say that he feel
yet been formulated.
But the search that began
he sat alone in his study
Beverly. Mass., amid the' sno
Pace@
at
ar
P75-Od;OO4.1Q.Q0300430028-8