Graham Martin

Graham Martin (left) during a meeting at Oval Office with President Gerald Ford, General Frederick C. Weyand and Henry Kissinger

Graham A. Martin (1912–1990) succeeded Ellsworth Bunker as United States Ambassador to South Vietnam in 1973. He would be the last person to hold that position. Martin previously served as ambassador to Thailand and as U.S. representative to SEATO.

Martin was born and raised in the small town of Mars Hill, North Carolina in the state's western mountains. His father was an ordained Baptist minister. He was a graduate of Wake Forest College. During World War II, he was a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, and even managed to be aboard the USS Missouri to watch the Japanese Surrender in 1945.

Martin first worked in the diplomatic field at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France from 1947 to 1955. His abilities as an administrative counselor and deputy Chief of Mission gained him attention from the State Department, which rapidly advanced his career.

When Martin became ambassador to Thailand, he came to the attention of Richard Nixon during a state banquet for the Thai King. Nixon was with Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. When the King toasted President Johnson, Humphrey tried to return the toast with a toast to the King. Martin interceded and gave the toast himself, explaining later to both Humphrey and Nixon that as the Ambassador, he was the President's personal representative, and thus, outranked the Vice President. He finished his explanation by saying "If you become President yourself someday, Mr. Vice President, you can be sure that I will guard your interests as closely as I did President Johnson's tonight".

When Nixon was elected in 1968, Martin became U.S. Ambassador to Rome, then in 1973 - after resisting the offer for a while - the U.S. Ambassador to Saigon.

Martin, along with the last remaining Americans, was evacuated by helicopter from Saigon as Communist forces overran the city in April, 1975. The helicopter used was a USMC CH-46 Sea Knight, serial number 154803. It is on display at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum in San Diego, California.

Martin was a committed anti-Communist, but he seriously underestimated the severity of the South Vietnamese situation, to the point that in the spring of 1975, when most American officials were convinced that South Vietnam was doomed to collapse, he continued to believe that Saigon and the Mekong Delta area could be held because of the tenacity of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the Battle of Xuan Loc under the command of General Le Minh Dao.

In fact, in the NSA history The Secret Sentry, the author says:

"In Saigon, Ambassador Graham Martin refused to believe the SIGINT (signals intelligence) reporting that detailed the massive North Vietnamese military buildup taking place all around (Saigon) ... and repeatedly refused to allow NSA's station chief, Tom Glenn, to evacuate his forty-three man staff and their twenty-two dependents from Saigon."

Because of Martin's refusal to believe the SIGNIT, and his refusal to allow the evacuation of the intelligence staff from the embassy, "(t)he North Vietnamese captured the entire twenty-seven-hundred-man (South Vietnamese SIGINT) organization inact as well as their equipment." (ibid)

Martin's son, Marine 1LT Glenn Dill Mann, was killed near Chu Lai South Vietnam in November 1965 while attacking enemy positions at Thach Tru with his Helicopter Gunship. 1LT Mann is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

References

• Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, ed. Spencer Tucker, s.v. Graham A. Martin.
• Aid, Matthew M. The Secret Sentry. Bloomsbury Press, 2009; pages 125-7.