George Ball

George W. Ball (1909-1998) was a U.S. diplomat, who was Undersecretary of State between 1961 and 1966. In that senior diplomatic role, he was under the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.

Vietnam
Ball was opposed to major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, in part because he believed the U.S. focus should be on Europe. He regarded the involvement as a reality, however, and remained an advisor, although often a dissenting one. His comments made it very clear that his opposition was a matter of priorities, calling antiwar protesters "stupid and unattractive" who declared "...sanctimonious tones that American policy is thoroughly in the wrong and that we as a nation are as brutal and viciously ambitious as the other side."

In 1963, he favored the removal of Ngo Dinh Diem, as an "enormous humiliation to the United States, that we were supporting a regime which was behaving in the most unconscionable and cruel, uncivilized way toward a significant minority of the population."

He took credit for firing Roger Hilsman, who had become "very difficult... so full of his own omniscience with regard to Vietnam, and he was lecturing the generals on strategy. He became rather a nuisance. So we got rid of him."

Johnson Administration
Lyndon Johnson, in 1964, directed Ball to obscure the more aggressive U.S. policy that included the Operation ROLLING THUNDER airstrikes against North Vietnam.

Cuba
He was a member of Kennedy's Executive Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis.