Editing Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (section)

=== After the coup ===
On November 24, 1963, two days after Kennedy's assassination, Lodge arrived in Washington to meet the new president, [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]].{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=323}} Johnson told Lodge he would not "lose" Vietnam, saying "tell those generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word".{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=323}} After Diem's assassination, Lodge seems to have lost interest in Vietnam as he became increasingly lethargic in performing his duties as ambassador.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=324}} After his high hopes that Diem's removal would spark improvements, he reported that the new leader, General Dương Văn Minh, was a "good, well intentioned man", but asked "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?"{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=324}} In December 1963, the Secretary of Defense, [[Robert McNamara]], visited South Vietnam where he reported the American team in Saigon "lacks leadership, has been poorly informed and is not working to a common plan".{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=325}} McNamara described a dysfunctional atmosphere at the embassy as Lodge was still feuding with Harkins and had blocked him from using the embassy's cable room to communicate with Washington.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=325}} Lodge distrusted the diplomats at the embassy, and was noted for his secretive ways.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=346}}

The coup sparked a rapid succession of leaders in South Vietnam, each unable to rally and unify their people and in turn overthrown by someone new. These frequent changes in leadership caused political instability in the South, since no strong, centralized and permanent government was in place to govern the nation, while the [[Viet Minh]] stepped up their infiltration of the Southern populace and their pace of attacks in the South. Having supported the coup against President Diem, Lodge then realized it had caused the situation in the region to deteriorate, and he suggested to the State Department that South Vietnam should be made to relinquish its independence and become a [[protectorate]] of the United States (like the former status of the [[Philippines]]) so as to bring governmental stability. The alternatives, he warned, were either increased military involvement by the U.S. or total abandonment of South Vietnam by America.<ref>{{cite book |last=Moyar |title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-521-86911-0 |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=phJrZ87RwuAC&pg=PA273 }}</ref>

In June 1964, Lodge resigned as ambassador to run to seek the Republican nomination to be the presidential candidate for the election of that year.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=345}} Lodge had been unpopular with his embassy staff, and most were happy to see him go.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=346}}