Michael Forrestal

Michael Forrestal

Michael Vincent Forrestal (November 26, 1927 – January 11, 1989) was one of the leading aides to McGeorge Bundy, the national security adviser of President John F. Kennedy. He was seen as a pivotal figure in the changing of U.S. foreign policy, by which means he approved the coup d'état that deposed the first president of South Vietnam, Ngô Ðình Diệm.

Following the arrest and assassination of Diệm, which was backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, General Dương Văn Minh was led to the incumbency of president of South Vietnam in November 1963. This event and the John F. Kennedy assassination, which occurred later in the month, led Forrestal to eventual retirement from government service in 1965—speculated to be because of his decreasing influence in the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, who had replaced Kennedy in November of 1963.

Other than his political life, Forrestal was a senior partner in Shearman & Sterling and a legal adviser to the state-owned Algerian oil company, Sonatrach during the 1970s. Forrestal also had roles in the National Security Council, the German-based Allied Control Council and the U.S.–USSR Trade and Economic Council, 1978–80.