"I've always been controversial. Not that I seek it, only that I've had a distaste for anything but the truth."
—Ambassador Graham Martin
Even within the white, fortress-like mass of concrete that serves as the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Ambassador Martin is controversial these days. Some of his bright young Foreign Service subordinates bristle at the old man's intransigency. They complain that he squelches the normal give and take of policy discussion, refuses to pass along to Washington any political reporting that does not conform to his own, and limits distribution of State Department messages to a few hand-picked aides.
In Washington, Martin is still highly regarded by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. But even old colleagues who once admired him as the very model of a professional diplomat now express their worry that he has become a testy, overzealous apologist for President Thieu.
Martin, who succeeded Ellsworth Bunker as Ambassador to South Viet Nam in 1973, has provided his enemies with ample ammunition. Distrustful of the press, which he blames for "distortions about Viet Nam that turned America inward," he has had some notable battles with U.S. correspondents in Saigon, whom he has shunned.* After Senator Edward Kennedy, in a letter to Kissinger, raised a series of questions about U.S. policy in Viet Nam, Ambassador Martin—in an undiplomatic cable to the State Department, that was predictably leaked from Washington to the press —replied: "I think it would be the height of folly to permit Kennedy . . . the tactical advantage of an honest and detailed answer to the questions raised . . ."
Recent events in Indochina have raised questions about the accuracy of Martin's perceptions. "Politically, the South Vietnamese government is stronger than ever," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last July, while arguing for greater aid to Saigon. "Militarily, the South Vietnamese armed forces have demonstrated their ability to defend the country without U.S. ground support." As it happens, Martin, who normally sees President Thieu at least once a month, could not be directly blamed for failing to inform Washington of Saigon's decision to withdraw from the Central Highlands; the ambassador was on home leave in North Carolina, recovering from dental surgery.