Luke A. Nichter - The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War

THE LAST BRAHMIN

HENRY CABOT LODGE JR. AND THE MAKING OF THE COLD WAR

Luke A. Nichter

Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Amasa Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College.

Copyright 2020 by Luke A. Nichter.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020935981
ISBN 978-0-300-21780-3 (hardcover: alk. paper)

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For Jennifer and Ava, my partners in everything I do

The overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963 was one of the most important events in Cold War history. It is widely regarded as a turning point that led to formal American military entry in Vietnam.

Our understanding of the coup continues to evolve. There is an active debate about the extent to which the United States supported it; how the decision was made to execute Diem and his brother, chief political adviser Ngo Dinh Nhu; and whether President John F. Kennedy had foreknowledge of these events. The publication of Kennedys instructions to newly appointed American Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. before his departure for Vietnam helps to clarify these issues. One thing is certain. While the coup was intended to increase political stability, it had the opposite result. In March 1965, instability in South Vietnam necessitated the first deployment of U.S. Marines to the beaches of Danang.

The events leading up to the November 1963 coup are some of the most closely studied of the entire Vietnam War. But they have never been explained from the point of view of one of the most significant figures in the entire drama, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who has been largely forgotten by history.

The reason is not only that Lodge preferred to remain behind the scenes and that he was brought up to consider it crass to trumpet ones own accomplishments. It is also that Americans disregarded the Best and the Brightest generation, which was responsible for the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. For scholars and journalists living through the disillusionment of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate period, it was unfashionable to treat the Vietnam era, its decisions, and its decision makers as worthy of serious study.

The story of Lodges life and career illustrates Americas coming of age as a superpower. The searing experience of World War IIwhen he became the first sitting senator since the 1860s to resign his seat for military servicedramatically transformed him from an isolationist into an internationalist. With a converts zeal, Lodge embraced the United Nations as a force for good and emerged from his grandfathers controversial shadow and long battles with Woodrow Wilson over national sovereignty.

The Cold War tested Lodges and the countrys faith in democracy and our ability to project our system of values abroad. The belief in our superiority and even infallibility led directly to our involvement in Vietnam and other adventures of empire. Lodge occupied a series of key positions of influence throughout, and when the nation began to fear we had overreached our role, the American people reacted by turning decisively against those who caused us to doubt ourselves. The decline of Lodges reputation reflects a shift away from a generation of leaders who overextended our international presence at the price of domestic unrest and turmoil.

Throughout his life, Lodge was motivated by a deep sense of patriotic duty and his familys history of public service that went back to the Washington administration. This country and this government must have the support of people who feel a deep sense of devotion, who have a desire to give something, he wrote in his diary, echoing Henry Stimsons call to defend the nations institutions and traditions. This country has done a great deal for all of us. I know it has done much for me. We should in turn be willing to do what we can for our country. His life came to a close in a Cold War twilight after a fifty-year career.

Lodge was the last true Brahmin of the Eastern Establishment to be active in government. Steeped in the views typical of his social class regarding race, gender, and colonialism, he also represented their highest ideals and conducted himself as a vital centrist long before Arthur Schlesinger Jr. coined the term.

Lodges views harked back to a time period when compromise was an art and comity a virtue, when those in public life could disagree without being disagreeable. It was these qualities that allowed a Republican Episcopalian from Massachusetts to be trusted by Democrats, Catholics, and five presidents from Dwight Eisenhower through Gerald Ford. A perennial theme of Lodges political and military service was that he was trusted by those in power and to stand in for those in power.

Thrice Lodge gave up his political career to serve the greater good: first when he resigned from the Senate to serve in World War II, second when he sacrificed his Senate seat to manage Eisenhowers campaign for the presidency, and third when he willingly accepted an appointment from a Democratic president to the most challenging diplomatic post in the world. Yet no one, including those who benefited from Lodges sacrifices, was there to help him in 1964 when he had a genuine chance for the presidency and his success would have helped those who withheld their support.

As journalist Neil Sheehan once concluded, the self-containment of the aristocrat, the sensitivity of the politician to human factors, and a perspective on the military that reached back to the preWorld War II era made Lodge difficult to stereotype. He was too much a loner to have left successors. On rare but significant occasions, he could abandon his bipartisanship and engage in shrewd, tough, even vicious political maneuvers. While many politicians have claimed to be uninterested in higher office, Lodge genuinely was. Higher office was irrelevant to the social status he already possessed. However, privilege led not to selfishness and decadence but to a willingness to serve his country.

The events set in motion shortly after Lodges arrival in Saigon in August 1963 contributed to the greatest misunderstanding of all. But to understand them, we have to understand Lodgeand where he came from.

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was born on July 5, 1902, to George Cabot Bay Lodge and Mathilda Frelinghuysen Davis Lodge at the familys summer house in Nahant, Massachusetts. He was born into a family of Boston Brahmins and named in honor of his grandfather, Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Six Lodge forefathers served in the Senate during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. His grandfather was Woodrow Wilsons nemesis, and his great-great-great-grandfather was Washington-Adams-era Senator George Cabot.