Aug. 18, 1963 - Communist North Vietnam’s official newspaper today described Henry Cabot Lodge (pictured), the new U.S. Ambassador to Saigon, as “reactionary and bellicose” and said he would not be able to turn the tide in South Vietnam. Radio Hanoi quoted the Hanoi Daily as saying, “No matter whom the U.S. imperialists send to South Vietnam, they will certainly fail” in bolstering President Ngo Dinh Diem’s Government in the fight against the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas. Commenting on the appointment of Lodge to succeed Frederick Nolting as Ambassador, the North Vietnamese paper said: “In the past, the French colonialists used to replace their high commissioners and military commanders, but they failed to turn the tide and tasted bitter defeat. The same fate is in store for Henry Cabot Lodge. He is a rabid opponent of the national liberation movement. On many occasions, he voted on behalf of the U.S. in support of the British, French, Portuguese, Belgian, and Dutch colonialists against the Asian and African countries.” Ambassador Lodge is expected to arrive in Saigon later this week.
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