William Tapley Bennett Jr. (April 1, 1917 – November 29, 1994) was an American diplomat who served as Ambassador to the Dominican Republic during the 1965 civil war and who recommended that President Johnson intervene with United States troops.

From 1954 to 1955, he studied at the National War College and for two years after, he served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

[4] President Lyndon Johnson appointed him Ambassador to the Dominican Republic after the previous Ambassador, John Bartlow Martin, resigned after the Kennedy assassination on the very day in which Juan Bosch, then President of the Dominican Republic, was toppled in a coup d'etat.

[5] Reportedly "seeking relief from the tropical heat of the Dominican Republic,"[4] Johnson appointed him the Ambassador to Portugal in 1966.

[6] He served in that role until Richard Nixon became president in 1969 and he was succeeded by Ridgway B. Knight, who up until that point was the Ambassador to Belgium.