He was appointed as a member of the United States delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1955.

[citation needed] In 1957 he was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as alternate permanent representative to NATO, and in 1961 he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as United States Ambassador to South Vietnam.

Following his government service, Nolting went to work for Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, and in 1970 joined the faculty of the University of Virginia and became founding director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

In 1946, he purchased "Sully", the former estate home of Richard Bland Lee, first Congressman from Northern Virginia, built in 1794.

[citation needed] Nolting died on December 14, 1989, aged 78, in Charlottesville, Virginia.