On Wednesday, March 13th, UVA’s Miller Center hosted the author of Diplomats at War, a memoir on the personal conflict between the United States’ top two diplomats to Vietnam from 1961 to 1963, during a critical turning point in the Vietnam War. The two would ultimately oversee the coup of the South Vietnamese dictator Ngo Dinh Diem and the full entry of the United States into the war. During the discussion, the focus primarily centered on the contents of the book, with deeper elaboration on the author’s inspiration and personal experiences.
The author himself is Charles Trueheart, and his father, William Trueheart. Trueheart was born in Chester, Virginia, and graduated with a degree in philosophy from UVA. Shortly after his graduation, the United States entered the Second World War, for the duration of which he would work in Navy intelligence. After the war, he joined the Foreign Service, and in the 1950s, he was assigned as the #3 to the US mission to NATO in Europe.
During his time working with NATO, William Trueheart would become reacquainted with an old friend, Fritz Nolting. The two were fellow graduate students in philosophy during their time at UVA, where they became friends. At NATO, Nolting was the #2 (Trueheart was his second-in-command), and the two clearly worked well together. In fact, Trueheart worked with Nolting’s father on a business venture. The author, Charles Trueheart, was born in Paris during this mission, where he was baptized with Nolting as his godfather.
In May 1961, Nolting became the ambassador of Vietnam, at the same time as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson’s visit to the nation. He chose Trueheart to become his second-in-command, who would arrive in October.
The first year of the two’s service in Vietnam witnessed notable successes and considerable optimism in the strategic hamlet program that had begun. With US involvement arriving in full force starting in 1962, by the end of the year, the tide of war seemed favorable. Mirroring the strategic situation, Trueheart and Nolting were cooperating well and were an effective pair.
However, 1963 started inauspiciously. All along, the JFK administration had doubted the feasibility of the Diem regime, given the dictator’s iron-fisted policies. Around this time, Trueheart had also come to doubt the sustainability of the status quo, especially regarding President Diem. When asked in a meeting by Senator Mike Mansfield after the senator arrived in South Vietnam to appraise the situation, Trueheart remarked that most people had no idea who Diem even was. While initially dissatisfied with the answer, Mansfield came to agree by the end of his stay, ultimately sending a bleak report to the US Congress. Additionally, the military defeat in January of 1963 at Ap Bac reduced US confidence in the South Vietnamese army (as the US military was still relegated to an advisory role), and pessimism began to grow within Nolting’s office. This dissent was permitted; many of the official telegrams sent by the US Embassy to Washington reflected growing doubts about Diem’s continued leadership.
These doubts were vindicated on the 8th of May, 1963, when Diem ordered the massacre of eight Buddhists in the city of Hue, including children. The JFK administration quickly sought to resolve the incident, asking Diem to apologize and make minor reforms. However, Washington misunderstood local dynamics and underestimated the catastrophic consequences of Diem’s actions. Following the shocking self-immolation of the monk Thich Quang Duc, the crisis reached a boiling point, and the JFK administration began considering drastic steps. Critical to the personal narrative told by Diplomats at War, Nolting had been on a vacation cruise when the Buddhist Crisis began, with Trueheart acting in his stead. During the unraveling of the situation in Vietnam, however, Nolting hadn’t seen news of the crisis in the local Greek newspapers during the stops on his cruise. Furthermore, neither Trueheart nor the State Department decided to inform Nolting of the situation. By this point, the State Department favored Trueheart’s skepticism of President Diem over Nolting’s continued support, and while still on vacation―and still unaware of the crisis―Nolting was relieved of his post. The legendary Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was tapped to fill the post instead. Nolting retaliated by accusing Trueheart of disloyalty in the standard “efficiency report” filed at the end of a diplomatic mission. Trueheart, unaware of Nolting’s anger, was surprised and “took the note very badly,” considering such an accusation was politically dangerous during that era. Nolting and Trueheart would never speak to each other again.
As Charles Trueheart explained in great detail, these events tore the two families apart, destroying a decades-long friendship. His father forbade him from ever traveling to Charlottesville, where Nolting was a member of the UVA faculty. When asked by the interviewer, Charles Trueheart explained that he was inspired to write this novel after hearing about the disagreement years later from his mother. He initially wanted to write a fantasy adaptation of the story, but realized a memoir would be better suited. Until his death, William Trueheart would only ever refer to that summer as “the business with Fritz.”
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