U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam

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The United States Ambassador to Vietnam is the head of the United States Mission to Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, it was a basic policy that the Ambassador had control of all U.S. organizations, including the military, a different situation than in the Afghanistan War (2001-2021) and Iraq War.

With peaceful relations with Vietnam, the organizational challenges are much less complex. The wartime situations are not completely comparable, since the Military Assistance Command Vietnam was assisting an ally, while the military forces in the recent wars entered in combat, without diplomats.

Michael W. Michalak has been the Ambassador since August 2007.

Postwar Ambassadors[edit]

Since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations after the Vietnam War, only the first Ambassador has not been a career Foreign Service Officer, coming from Congress, but had unquestionable expertise, having spent 6.5 years as a prisoner of war of Hanoi but focused on reconciliation. He has a Vietnamese-born wife, who had headed the Australian trade mission; they were married in Hanoi.

Wartime[edit]

There were various ambassadors while Vietnam was a French proto-state, but the first true Ambassador at a national level was G. Frederick Reinhardt, accredited when the RVN became a nation. He was succeeded by Elbridge Durbrow and Frederick Nolting Jr.. During their terms, Ngo Dinh Diem was President of South Vietnam.

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was ambassador during the Buddhist crisis and military coup of 1963, which ended with the overthrow and killing of Diem, followed by a series of military governments. Maxwell Taylor replaced him, but Lodge returned when Taylor became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lodge and Taylor were the chiefs of mission during the major U.S. ground combat phase. Ellsworth Bunker presided over Vietnamization.

Graham Martin left just before the fall of the RVN.