SURPRISE ON THE CREDIBILITY FRONT
"Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge has asked to be relieved of his duties in Saigon late in the spring or early in the summer, according to friends....Informed sources said that the White House was conducting an intensive search for a successor. The search has proved more difficult than expected, the sources indicated, so the Ambassador's departure date has not yet been set." [The New York Times, March 7.]
* * * "These reports about my resignation are reports that come up every so often. The last time was last December. "I repeat now what I said in December. I serve at the pleasure of the President. Obviously, all tours of duty must come to an end sometime. "I have no definite plans or firm decisions whatsoever." [Lodge's denial of the report as quoted by Associated Press from Saigon March 8.]
x * * "Q. There are reports that Ambassador Lodge would like “to be relieved of his post and that you're looking for a successor. Any truth to these reports? "A, No, there is no truth that I'm looking for a successor." [Johnson at a televised news conference in the White House March 9.]
* * * “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, the able and devoted, full of wisdom and experience acquired on five continents over m years." (Johnson, speaking in Johnsonese, before the Tennessee legislature, March 15.]
* * * "There was no surpise about Mr. Lodge's retirement..." [Editorial in the New York Times, March 16.]
NEXT ISSUE
Our next issue will be dated April 7. This will not affect any subscriptions, all of them being automatically extended one week.
Several features are planned for the April 7 issue, among them a review by George Novack on Maurice Hindus' new book, The Kremlin's Human Dilemma, Russia after Half a Century of Revolution.