GRAHAM MARTIN, 77, DIES; ENVOY AT SAIGON'S FALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100310008-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: March 15, 1990
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418ROO0100310008-0
t I. U`
Graham Martin, 77, Dies;
Envoy at Saigon's Fall
By ALFONSO A.NARVAEZ
Graham A. Martin, a career diplo-
mat who was the last United States
Ambassador to South Vietnam, died of
a heart ailment on Tuesday at For-
sythe Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.
He was 77 years old and lived in Win-
ston-Salem.
Tall, slender and courtly, Mr. Martin
served in Saigon from 1973 until the
end of April 1975, when thousands of
American troops, Vietnamese officials
and United States Embassy personnel
were evacuated in the final chaotic
hours of the Vietnam War.
Mr. Martin was sharply criticized for
his handling of the evacuation, in which
thousands of Vietnamese who worked
for the United States and hundreds of
classified documents were left behind.
Some officials charged that he had ag-
gravated the situation by not ordering
American troops out of Saigon, now Ho
Chi Minh City, earlier.
Mr. Martin defended his role, calling
the evacuation "a hell of a Rood Job."
In 1976 he told a House Foreign Af-
fairs subcommittee that the accusa-
tions were " rose distortions" and that
his final 10 days in Saigon "required a
most careful walking of the tightrope
of judgment of just how the situation
"
was developing.
The final hours of the American get
enceTn vie m were de~A~~~ In
Alt enc anal st in etnam from
to 1973. r. ne a at em-
bassy officials had a a-
Lei r me evau ion and Enat
u
ne
r. Martin had attem o a
apeaceu en ooinc a rw
io Veil ence reports that t North
Mr. Martin was familiar with contra
versy. In a previous assignment, as
Ambassador to Italy from 1964 to 1973,
he helped funnel millions of dollars in
covert aid to the Christian Democrats
and other Italian parties opposed to the
Communists.'
197
plots to overthrow the to an Govern-
MCM.
Battles With McNamara
Earlier, as Ambassador to Thailand
in the Johnson Administration, Mr.
Martin battled with Secretary of De-
fense Robert S. McNamara over the
level of aid to the Thai Government. He
argued successfully against a Penta-
gon proposal to divert aid from Thai-
land to Vietnam.
The Washington Post
The New York Times 9-13
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Date fS /MAR )99
After serving in Vietnam he became
a special assistant to Secretary of State
Henry A. Kissinger. He retired in 1977.
Graham Anderson Martin was born
on Sept. 22, 1912, in Mars Hill, N.C., and
graduated from Wake Forest College
in 1932. He worked briefly as a Wash-
ington correspondent for several south-
ern newspapers and in 1933 joined the
National Recovery Administration,
where he served as an aide to W. Aver.
ell Harriman, then the deputy adminis-
trator.
In 1936, he joined the Social Security
Board and a year later opened the first
field office for the agency in Asheville,
N.C. He returned to Washington in 1941,
joined the Army Air Corps as a lieuten-
ant and rose to colonel.
Assistant to Douglas Dillon
In 1947 he joined the Foreign Service
and was posted to Paris for eight years.
He earned high ratings from a succes-
sion of ambassadors, among them C.
Douglas Dillon, who later became
Under Secretary of State. In 1959 Mr.
Dillon appointed Mr. Martin as his spe-!
cial assistant.
Three years later, after serving as
the deputy United States coordinator
for the Alliance for Progress, Mr. Mar-
tin was named United States repre-
sentative to the United Nations and
other international organizations in
Geneva.
He served there until May 1963 and
was then named Ambassador to Thai-
land, where he negotiated for the use of
secret airfields by American war-
planes.
In addition to serving as Ambassa-
dor to Thailand until 1967, he was the
United States representative to the
Council of the South East Asia Treaty
Organization. From 1967 to 1969, heI
was a special assistant to the Secretary
of State for refugee and migration af-
fairs and in 1969 was named Ambassa-
dor to Italy. In 1973, he was named to ,
head the United States Embassy in Sai-!
gon.
In 1967 he was given the State De-
partment's Distinguished Honor
award.
He is survived by his wife, the former
Dorothy Wallace; two daughters, Janet
Martin Tantensapya and Nancy Lane,
and a son, Michael, all of Winston-
Salem ; and four grandchildren.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418ROO0100310008-0