Having failed to generate a consensus appraisal of developments in Vietnam through the dispatch of mid-level officials from the State Department and Pentagon, President Kennedy decided to send the higher profile team of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Maxwell D. Taylor. Kennedy recognized that the mission would involve delicate diplomacy with both South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm and U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.