US Presidency
1967

Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, who has served us with such great distinction, is coming to the end of his second distinguished tour of duty in Saigon. To replace him, I am drafting as our Ambassador to the Government of Vietnam, Mr. Ellsworth Bunker- able and devoted, full of wisdom and experience acquired on five continents over many years. As his Deputy, I am nominating and recalling from Pakistan, Mr. Eugene Locke, our young and very vigorous Ambassador to Pakistan. To drive forward with a sense of urgency in our work in pacification, I am sending the President's Special Assistant, Mr. Robert Komer. To strengthen General Westmoreland in the intense operations that he will be conducting in the months ahead, I am assigning to him additional topflight military personnel, the best that this country has been able to produce. So you can be confident that in the months ahead we shall have at work in Saigon the ablest, the wisest, the most tenacious, and the most experienced team that the United States of America can mount.