Ellsworth Bunker

Ellsworth Bunker (1894-1984) was United States Ambassador and chief of the United States Mission to the Republic of Vietnam, (April 28, 1967 — May 11, 1973). Presided over high-intensity warfare by U.S. combat forces working with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and then the Vietnamization program.

Bunker began his diplomatic career as ambassador to Argentina in 1951 and subsequently served in Italy from 1952 to 1953 and India from 1956 to 1961. He was mediator of the Dutch-Indonesian dispute over West New Guinea in 1962. Returning to Latin America, he was Ambassador to the Organization of American States, 1964-1966, and then Ambassador-at-Large, 1964-1967.

After Vietnam, he was a negotiator of the Panama Canal treaty of 1977, by which the United States agreed to give Panama control of the canal by the year 2000.