Following the imposition of martial law in South Vietnam and the arrival of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as the new U.S. ambassador in Saigon, President Kennedy critiqued the American press in Vietnam. He did so after the State Department informed Lodge that the United States might need to withdraw its support for South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm. This exchange with Roger Hilsman Jr. was part of the first high-level meeting JFK had following the dispatch of that message.