William C. Trueheart
William Clyde Trueheart was a diplomat who served as the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 1969-1971, and as the acting U.S. Ambassador and chargé d'affaires in South Vietnam from May-July 1963.
Early life and education
Born on December 18, 1918, in Chester, Virginia, Trueheart earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia.Career
Trueheart was a civilian intelligence analyst in the United States Department of the Navy 1942-43. He then served in the Army, rising to the rank of captain. In 1949 he joined the United States Department of State as an intelligence officer. Having joined the Foreign Service, Trueheart was posted to Paris in 1954 as deputy director for political affairs at the U.S. delegation to NATO in Paris. In 1958 he moved to Ankara, Turkey, to become executive assistant to the Secretary General of the Baghdad Pact. The following year he became first secretary of the U.S. Embassy in London, specializing in atomic energy affairs.In Saigon as of October 1961, Trueheart served as deputy chief of mission, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat in South Vietnam during what would become the final years of President Ngô Đình Diệm's rule, and during the initial buildup of U.S. military assistance to the Diem regime in its struggle against the Viet Cong. During the spring and summer of 1963, as the Buddhist crisis intensified, Trueheart's analysis of the political and military situation diverged from that of the ambassador, Frederick Nolting. As the ambassador vacationed, Trueheart warned of the possible liability to the United States of continuing to support Diem's government in South Vietnam, noted as "let loose the floodgates of doubt".
Trueheart's position as the deputy chief of mission for the United States led to his involvement in the political turmoil which South Vietnam had had to embrace after the forced coup d'état of Emperor Bảo Đại in 1955. He did not assume responsibility for the embassy until May 1963, when Nolting was on a resting period from the position. Diem's assassination later in November 1963, just before that of the President John F. Kennedy, was neither anticipated nor welcomed by Trueheart, although he had foreknowledge of the coup, and admitted there were no better alternatives within the Vietnamese theatre, indicating that it was possible that "half don't know who Diem is." However, this was immediately contradicted by his superior, Nolting stating emphatically that picture was "everywhere."