Gordon Etherington-Smith; diplomat who became Ambassador to South Vietnam
Hyfler/Rosner
May 30, 2007
Gordon Etherington-Smith
Diplomat who served his country on four continents, becoming
Ambassador to South Vietnam as the war began
A diplomat of the old school, Gordon Etherington-Smith
served his country abroad with distinction before, during
and after the Second World War.
In a frustrating period as Ambassador to South Vietnam in
the 1960s, he tried, ultimately without success, to pass on
to the Americans some of the lessons of Britain's experience
of decolonisation.
Raymond Gordon Anthony Etherington-Smith was born in Cairo
in 1914 of an English father and Austrian mother. His father
died in 1915, and he was brought up by his mother and aunts
in Vienna. He won a scholarship to Downside and then went to
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained a first in
politics, philosophy and economics. He entered the
Diplomatic Service in 1936.
After a short spell in London Etherington-Smith embarked
upon his long career abroad, his first posting being Berlin.
He was reported to have had an altercation on the steps of
the British Embassy with a Nazi officer, who was knocked to
the ground, which resulted in Etherington-Smith being
declared persona non grata - a moral victory, and in light
of the events, no great hardship.
He then went to Copenhagen, in his spare time encouraging
the development of squash as a national sport, only to be
deported again when the German Army moved in. The rest of
the war saw him mainly in Chunking, NorthWest China, as part
of the British mission to Chiang Kai-shek. He was also in
Moscow for a time, where he learnt Russian.
At the end of the war he was posted to Washington, then in
1952 to Rome as the Foreign Office representative to the
Vatican, a post that traditionally rotated between Catholics
from Downside and Ampleforth schools.
In 1954 Etherington-Smith was sent as First Secretary to the
British Embassy in Saigon. He arrived just before the
devastating defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu. After
the departure of the French and the 1955 armistice dividing
the country between the democratic South and the communist
North, a period of relative tranquillity ensued and it was
possible to travel extensively in the South and neighbouring
countries such as Cambodia and Laos. He was fascinated by
the history of the region, and particularly admired the way
its peoples insisted on the importance of culture, even in
the midst of a debilitating conflict.
After a frustrating three years in the Netherlands, he was
relieved to be posted back to the Far East in 1960, this
time to the High Commission in Singapore during the latter
stages of the Malayan Emergency.
His experience in this period of this political turbulence
in the region, led to his appointment as Ambassador to South
Vietnam in 1963. The subsequent three years were among the
most tumultuous in his career, coinciding with the gradual
breakdown of the South Vietnamese Government. The British
Embassy played host to at least one deposed president.
Britain was not directly involved with the Americans in
providing troops, but the presence of Australian (and
therefore Commonwealth) forces and provision of police
training and other assistance to a Nato ally meant that
Etherington-Smith was extremely busy.
Britain's 12-year experience with communist insurgents in
Malaya, which hadnot long ended, should have provided the
Americans with a first-rate example of how it was possible
to combat guerrilla forces successfully. Advice was freely
offered but only occasionally taken, assisted by
Etherington-Smith's personal friendship and intercessions
with the US ambassador, Henry Cabot Lodge.
He thought the Australians, who had experience in Malaya,
understood the realities of nonstop guerrilla warfare better
than American soldiers.
Under Etherington-Smith, advisers were brought in from
Malaya to train the South Vietnamese police, and he promoted
a policy, tested in Malaya, of encouraging the hill tribes
to take responsibility for their own defence so that forces
did not have to be strung out across vulnerable country.
The Far East, and Vietnam in particular, was where
Ethering-ton-Smith and his family felt themselves most at
ease with, and sympathetic to, the indigenous peoples. The
loyalty shown by all Vietnamese who worked for
Etherington-Smith and his family, often at great danger to
themselves, was remarkable.
In 1966 Etherington-Smith was posted as minister in the West
Berlin military government. He was the senior British
civilian member of the Allied command, tensions between the
Soviet Union and the West were running high. His war-time
experiences in Moscow and command of German, French and
Russian were useful in dealing with internal disputes among
the Allies (the French under de Gaulle lived up to their
fractious reputation) as well as the Soviets.
In 1970 Etherington-Smith was made British Ambassador to
Sudan. He arrived at a time when many companies, British in
particular, had been nationalised and forced to leave the
country and the economy was suffering accordingly.
Cultural tensions between the predominantly Arab, Islamic
North and the Christian/animist South, inhabited mainly by
Africans from the Nilotic tribes, had contributed to a
debilitating civil war, but by the time he left the Sudan
this had more or less ceased after the inclusion of a
vice-president from the South in a unity government.
Nevertheless, this relatively quiet part of the world was
thrust into the limelight on March 3, 1973. At a Saudi
Embassy reception in Khar-toum members of the Palestinian
Black September Group burst in and took a number of
diplomats hostage. By pure luck Etherington-Smith had just
left to meet a visiting British diplomat at the airport. Two
Americans and a Belgian diplomat were killed when the group's
demands were not met by the Israeli Government.
Etherington-Smith would almost certainly have suffered the
same fate.
After retiring in 1973 Etherington-Smith moved with his
family to live in Wiltshire. He missed out on the customary
knighthood, having fallen out with Edward Heath when he, the
then leader of the Opposition, had visited Vietnam -
Etherington-Smith had felt that Heath was too fond of making
sweeping pronouncements on a region he knew little about.
Etherington-Smith possessed in abundance the slightly
eccentric combination of qualities necessary for a diplomat
at the time: strong intellect, independence of mind and
formidable willpower; command of several languages including
fluent German, French and Italian, passable Russian and even
some Chinese; and a broad erudition.
He and his wife were deeply engaged in charitable activities
and in particular endeavouring to rescue former South
Vietnamese employees from the hostile attentions of the new
Vietnamese Communist Government after 1975. Many settled in
Britain to lead peaceful and fruitful lives.
Etherington-Smith was predeceased by his wife and youngest
daughter. He is survived by a son and two daughters.
Gordon Etherington-Smith, CMG, diplomat, was born on
February 1, 1914. He died on April 14, 2007, aged 93