G. McMurtrie Godley

George McMurtrie Godley (1917–1999) was an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Laos 1969-1973, at the height of the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon nominated Godley as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in 1973, but his nomination was rejected by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

G. McMurtrie Godley, known informally as "Mac", was born on August 23, 1917 in New York City. He was educated at the Hotchkiss School and at Yale University, and spent some time on graduate work at the University of Chicago.

Godley joined the United States Foreign Service in 1941. He was posted in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Cambodia and the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).

In 1946, he married Livia Paravicini, who had served as a sergeant major in the Swiss Army Ambulance Corps during World War II. The couple divorced in 1963.

On February 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Godley United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ambassador Godley presented his credentials to the Congolese government on March 23, 1964. During his time as ambassador, Mobutu Sese Seko staged a second coup and seized control of the country. Godley left this post on October 15, 1966.

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