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Lodge says he desperately tried to save Diem and Nhu from death. "I was with Diem the morning of the coup and had gone home to lunch. I was eating when the firing began in the streets. Later in the afternoon I talked with Diem on the telephone and offered him safe-conduct out of the country. Even at that late date, I'm sure we could have delivered on that promise, and I'm reasonably sure the generals would later have accepted Diem's return as head of state. But Diem rejected the offer, and their deaths followed. It was needless and it was tragic."
For a While, Daylight. At first Lodge had hopes for the success of the junta's top general, Duong Van Minh. "Minh actually had been doing pretty well. We had a couple of good days out in the provinces, and people were beginning to respond to him. I actually thought I could see daylight ahead."
Then came another coup, which Lodge prefers to call "a shaking out of the knots and kinks" rather than a second coup. Lodge's reaction: "My first thought was, dammit, why did this have to happen?" But when Lodge met the new Vietnamese leader, General Nguyen Khanh, he was impressed. "He was obviously intelligent, obviously patriotic and obviously tough. Moreover, he seemed willing to listen to what we had to suggest, and if a change had to be made, well, then we couldn't ask for anything better than that."
Just as he always did at the U.N., Lodge considers his role as ambassador much more than a mere administrative function, explains: "In a job such as this I'm expected to give advice. I'm here to execute foreign policy, of course, but I'm also here to contribute to its formulation. In a place as active as South Viet Nam, the President of the U.S. must depend on his top man to help formulate policy on the spot."
To most Vietnamese, the 6-ft. 3-in. Lodge, towering over them as he mops his brow in the hot sun and exchanges light banter in excellent French, is a much-revered figure. His wife, Emily, who loves to shop for vegetables in Saigon's sidewalk stalls and is learning Vietnamese from a tutor ("I don't do much more than make sounds, but it's fascinating"), is popular too. Lodge delights the local folk by spreading foul-smelling Nuoc Mam, a sauce made from sun-rotted fish, on Vietnamese dishes and acting as though it were edible. General Khanh regards Lodge almost as a father figure, recently told an American newsman: "If his people call him, then he has no choice, he must go back to the U.S. If he does that, I ask only one thing: that you send us another Lodge—another straightforward man whose word can be trusted."
Will Lodge actually return to the U.S. to run for the nomination? No one knows but Lodge himself. He feels deeply that he still has a vital duty to perform in Viet Nam. He is also most reluctant to plunge back into the hurly-burly of American politics.