Saigon: A Novel Part 21

"The j.a.panese razed them to the ground as they retreated," replied Tran Van Kim curtly, then hurried on ahead.

Lieutenant Hawke, who was marching beside Joseph, raised an inquiring eyebrow at him and jerked his head towards the village; when Joseph nodded, he chose a suitable moment to fall out of the line unnoticed and doubled quickly back to the jumble of smoldering huts. When he caught up to Joseph half an hour later, his face was grim.

"The j.a.panese haven't been near here for weeks, captain," he said in an undertone. "I found an old Annamese wandering in the ruins back there. An advance guard of our guerrilla friends came this way yesterday - and that village refused to cooperate. The old man told me it was burned and sacked to terrorize the rest of the region into supporting them. All his family were killed." Hawke paused and took a deep breath. "What's more, he didn't talk about the Viet Minh League. When I asked him who'd done it, he just cursed over and over again and said, 'Cong San Dang! Cong San Dang! '- the Communists!"

The information shocked Joseph, and when the guerrilla column halted outside the provincial capital of Thai Nguyen, he sought out Tran Van Kim and asked him where he could find Ho.

"I'm afraid he's very busy now, captain," said Kim apologetically. "He's got a great many things to organize - but I'll pa.s.s on your message that you wish to speak with him."

When Joseph hinted at his misgivings in a radio report to Kunming, OSS headquarters immediately ordered him to halt the Deer Mission in Thai Nguyen and go no further. Because of the uncertain political situation in what was a relative backwater of the war, he was told, a new OSS team, code-named "Quail," was being sent to Hanoi from Kunming, headed by Colonel John Trench himself. Its primary mission was to locate and liberate Allied prisoners of war in j.a.panese hands and prepare for the arrival of the Allied Surrender Commission, but it would also gather intelligence; a similar OSS mission, Kunming said, was being sent to Saigon from Calcutta. Joseph asked if the Deer team could take the surrender of local j.a.panese forces but was told curtly: "Take no surrenders and stay where you are. The war's over as far as the Deer team's concerned."

After a brief rest, the guerrilla force split into two, and Joseph watched Giap lead a little spearhead force out of the town towards Hanoi, with their gleaming American weapons on their shoulders. The rest of the column laid a siege around the fortified barracks into which the local j.a.panese garrison had retreated, occasionally bombarding the defenders to test their new armaments. Joseph commandeered a big house on the outskirts of the town for himself and the OSS team, and while his men sunbathed in the garden he fumed with impatience as several days pa.s.sed without any word from Ho Chi Minh.

At dusk on their third evening there, Tran Van Kim arrived at the house unexpectedly, his face alight with pleasure. "Today will certainly go down in our history as a great day for the people, Captain Sherman," he said excitedly. "We've just had a message from Vo Nguyen Giap saying that our advance party has seized control of the public buildings in Hanoi. The j.a.panese were astonished to see them arrive in the city with their powerful new weapons. They offered almost no resistance. We had to fire only a few volleys over their heads. Now the capital is ours, and the people are flooding into the streets waving Viet Minh banners!"

Joseph received the news in silence, the nagging suspicion that he and the Deer Mission had been exploited and misled growing into a certainty.

"The people of Hanoi are beside themselves with excitement," said Kim, still grinning. "They've been delivered from the j.a.panese and the French at one stroke. They've seen our fighters carrying American arms and are overjoyed that the might of America is on the side of their liberators."

"It's truly a great day for the Annamese people," said Joseph slowly, torn between the sympathy he felt for Ho and his followers and his anger at being deceived.

"You're right, captain," said Kim in a gently chiding voice, "except for one small important detail - it's a great day for the 'Vietnamese' people. We're not 'Annamese' or 'Annamites' anymore, and our country isn't divided into 'protectorates' any longer. Before the French came our land was called 'Viet Nam.' Now it will be 'Viet Nam' again. Eighty years of tyranny have ended at last! Our forces have already been renamed the 'Viet Nam Army of Liberation.'"

"I'm truly glad for you and all your people," said Joseph in a controlled voice, "but I would still like to talk with Ho Chi Minh as soon as possible."

"But of course, captain." Kim took the American's arm and led him towards the door. "That's why I've come - to take you to him. He's set up his secret headquarters in a jungle village not far away - he's always happiest in humble surroundings."

Half an hour later Kim showed Joseph into a bamboo and thatch hut in a village outside the town, and Ho rose from a paper-strewn table to greet him with a glowing smile. "I'm delighted to see you again, Captain Sherman," he said, gripping Joseph's arm in an affectionate gesture. "I expect you've already heard the good news from Hanoi?"

"You've pulled a very neat trick on us," said Joseph, his face unsmiling. "You've used our weapons and our presence with you behind the j.a.panese lines to make it look as though the United States backed your coup - that's abusing our goodwill in my book."

Ho's genial smile didn't falter. "Have some yellow tea, will you, captain? it's a soothing drink." Turning his back he kneeled and picked up a blackened kettle sizzling on an improvised hob of stones. "I've always had a strong admiration for your country, and getting to know you and your men has turned that admiration to affection. I would be saddened if you didn't understand that."

"Is that why you felt obliged to deceive us? My men and I couldn't help noticing that you entertained many strangers in the jungle camp during the last few days of training. Were you plotting this stratagem behind our backs all along?"

"I had no way of knowing j.a.pan would surrender so quickly, captain. Like you, I knew nothing of the atom bomb. We were prepared to fight the .j.a.panese with you for one year, two years as long as was necessary." He stood up, holding two little beakers of tea, handed one to Joseph and sipped his own reflectively. "I once told you, didn't 1, Captain Sherman, that my party is my country? Well, that was no deception. I came to admire Lenin when I went to live in Paris because I discovered he was a great patriot who liberated his countrymen. When I first read his 'Thesis on National and Colonial Questions,' I was so overjoyed I burst into tears. Although I read it alone in my attic in the Rue Bonaparte, I jumped up and shouted aloud, 'Dear martyrs, dear compatriots of Viet Nam! This is what we need, this is our path to liberation.' "He paused and smiled at the recollection. "I was one of the first members of the French Communist Party, and some years later I helped to found the Indochina Communist Party - but always my action were motivated by the certainty that my weak country needed help from outside if we were ever to throw off the powerful rule of France. Your own George Was.h.i.+ngton accepted aid from the French to beat the British, didn't he? What you call 'Communism' teaches the oppressed to organize and discipline themselves against their oppressors - and those are valuable lessons. But in the end, the support of the United States has proved to be of the greatest importance to us. We appreciate the generous spirit in which it's been given, but during that time, captain, I haven't betrayed my cause - my party, you see, is truly my country."

"And what about the photographs of General Chennault and the side arms I gave you? What were they used for?"

The Annamese chuckled and hugged himself like a schoolboy caught out in a prank. "At the time, captain, there were others challenging for the leaders.h.i.+p of the Viet Minh League. When I returned with the signed photograph and handed out the revolvers to my rivals, I did nothing to disturb the impression that I enjoyed the closest support of your famous general and that the guns were his personal favors. That little subterfuge allowed me to a.s.sume full unchallenged control of the Viet Minh movement at a crucial time."

His face lit up again so impishly that Joseph smiled despite himself.

"But I'm sorry that you feel your goodwill has been abused, captain." Ho tugged at his whispy goatee, his expression pained. "Things like this are perhaps difficult to say, but don't all of us use those we're fond of in one way or another? And does knowing that we do it prevent us from continuing to feel strong affection? I sense that you're drawn to my country and its people, and I hope nothing I've done will alter that. I want there to be lasting friends.h.i.+p between our two countries - but I also hope the friends.h.i.+p between the two of us will continue to grow."

"For friends.h.i.+p to grow, there must be mutual trust," said Joseph firmly. "You could have taken me into your confidence earlier."

The Annamese leader gazed intently at Joseph for a moment; despite the ravages of his recent illness, which had left him pitifully thin, his face remained set in lines of cairn determination, and Joseph saw more clearly than he'd ever done before the rare strength of character that sustained him. "There isn't always time to do all the things one would like, captain," said Ho quietly. "But because I value your .friends.h.i.+p highly I will tell you exactly what happened in the jungle camp in those last few frantic days - we were very busy organizing our nation's future. The Viet Minh League is as yet little known among our people. We have only a few thousand trained activists. That means we have to work very quickly and not waste a second. The sudden surrender of the j.a.panese has created a vacuum, because our French masters are all still in prison. The Allies at Potsdam have decided that Indochina shall be jointly occupied by China and Britain - but their troops will not arrive for several weeks. In that time our tiny organization must perform a gigantic conjuring trick. The Viet Minh League must be made to appear to our own people and to the Allies as a vast and powerful organization of patriots capable of governing our country. It will be soon, but until that day comes we must create an illusion. Our few cadres have been dispatched to the four corners of our land to arouse the people, print banners, organize marches. It might have been difficult to explain all this to you before we began-but now you've already seen some results in the villages through which you've pa.s.sed, haven't you?"

Joseph nodded. "So that was all faked up by your propaganda boys, was it?"

Ho smiled and shook his head slowly. "No, captain, not 'faked up.' Our people are responding spontaneously now to our leaders.h.i.+p everywhere. There's nothing false about any of the demonstrations of support for the Viet Minh. To popularize a cause requires careful organization and much hard work - but it will come to nothing if the ma.s.s of the people don't respond from the heart."

"Weren't the people in those devastated villages we pa.s.sed responding from the heart?" said Joseph stiffly. "My men discovered that you burned them down because the people refused to join you."

"Such instances are, fortunately, rare, captain," said Ho brusquely. "There's no profit in dwelling on them. If your countrymen had been slaves to a foreign tyranny for a hundred years and you were suddenly presented with the opportunity to make them free, how would you have responded? Would you have let a few doubters stand in your way? Would you have announced that you were weak and had no powerful friends? Would you have sat back and said, 'Our organization isn't yet big enough'? Or would you have acted as we did?"

Joseph gazed into the glowing embers of the fire for a moment. "I guess," he said slowly, "1 would have done what you did."

A brilliant smile lit Ho's ravaged features, and he gripped Joseph's hands. "Thank you, captain. Let me give you another beaker of tea."

Still smiling broadly, he turned away and busied himself with the blackened kettle once more.

12.

In the sumptuous throne room of the Palace of Perfect Concord, the Emperor Bao Dai watched uneasily as Tran Van Kim led the shabbily dressed Viet Minh delegation towards him. Wearing a golden turban and a brocade jacket, the emperor was standing in front of his throne instead of sitting on it, and at his side an apprehensive senior mandarin from the Ministry of Rites stood holding a velvet cus.h.i.+on on which were laid the ancient imperial symbols of power - the emperor's gold seal and a golden sword with a ruby-encrusted handle.

As Kim's eyes took in the tense figure of the emperor and his glittering sword, he felt his heart beat faster. This was the moment he had been savoring in his mind throughout the long dash south from Hanoi to Hue in a commandeered j.a.panese army truck. The man who symbolized the humiliation of his country's long collaboration with the French colonialists was about to surrender to him personally his right to rule! The people of Vietnam, in whose minds the emperor's "Mandate of Heaven" was a deeply rooted superst.i.tion, would know soon that he had ceded it to the Viet Minh League, and he himself would have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that the terrible quarrel with his father had been finally vindicated. He had been right and his father wrong! Events had proved it. If only his father could have been made to attend, to witness personally the emperor's capitulation to the son he'd ordered so contemptuously from his house nine years before!

Bao Dai's sudden decision to abdicate in the face of the public acclaim that had greeted the Viet Minh's seizure of power in Hanoi had taken Kim and the rest of the league's leaders.h.i.+p by surprise. What had begun as a carefully engineered propaganda operation with small, organized demonstrations. marching through streets decked with hastily manufactured Viet Minh flags and banners had quickly grown into a popular celebration of ma.s.sive proportions in cities and villages the length of the land. The jubilant crowds, uninterested in the political complexion of the men Who seemed to be freeing them simultaneously from the j.a.panese and the French, had turned out in their millions, and Bao Dai had announced his intention to give up the throne even before there had been time to form a provisional government in Hanoi. As a result, Kim had been hurriedly appointed to lead a delegation to Hue to accept the emperor's abdication at a private audience of August 25.

He had instructed his delegation members deliberately to arrive clad in the shorts, s.h.i.+rts and sandals that they had worn in the jungle, and as they crossed the gleaming tiled floor among the scarlet urn-wood pillars, their appearance contrasted sharply with the rich furnis.h.i.+ngs of the throne room that had enchanted the young eyes of Joseph Sherman twenty years before. Kim and the delegation, of whom more than half were Communists, walked jauntily with their heads held high, determined to show no servility to the emperor, but to Kim's surprise the sight of the magnificently ornate throne and its occupant reawakened in him instinctive, long-forgotten feelings of awe. He had grown up believing that the mystery of the "Mandate of Heaven" was made manifest in the person of the emperor who ruled from the palace where the white tiger dwelled in perfect harmony with the blue dragon, and he had seen the throne room for the first time as a small excited boy clutching his father's hand; later he had railed against the emperor as a mannequin d'ore - a gilded dummy - when he became convinced that only Communism could save his nation from the French, but as he stopped before Bao Dai his childhood instincts almost betrayed him and he had to make a conscious effort to prevent himself bowing to the sovereign. In the pocket of his shorts, he carried a small red Viet Minh emblem with a central gold star, which he intended to pin on the emperor's tunic as a final gesture of the Viet Minh's supremacy, and when he looked into Bao Dai's face he remained deliberately silent so as to cause him maximum discomfort.

For a tense moment or two the sovereign gazed blankly back at Kim, then after a nervous glance at the gowned mandarin at his side, he cleared his throat diffidently. "In this decisive hour of our nation's history," he began quietly, "union means life and division means death. In view of the powerful democratic spirit growing in the north of our kingdom, we feared a conflict between north and south would be inevitable if we delayed our decision any longer. That conflict could have plunged our people into suffering, and although we feel a great melancholy when we think of how our glorious ancestors fought for four hundred years to make our country great, we decided to abdicate and transfer power at once to the new democratic republican government in Hanoi..."

The emperor's voice shook slightly, but he managed to retain a quietly dignified composure as he spoke, and despite himself, Kim felt a twinge of sympathy for his humiliating predicament.

"During a reign of twenty years," continued Bao Dai, his voice gathering confidence, "we have known much bitterness, and it has been impossible for us to render any appreciable service to our country. From this day we shall be happy to be a free citizen in an independent country. Renouncing our reign name of 'Bao Dai,' we wish to be known now only as citizen Vinh Thuy, and in this capacity we offer ourselves as a counselor of state to the new democratic government in Hanoi Still without looking at Kim, the emperor took the cus.h.i.+on from the mandarin and, stepping forward, placed the ancient symbols of authority in the arms of the revolutionary. "Long live the independence of Vietnam," said Bao Dai, his voice cracking at last with strain. "Long live our democratic republic."

To Kim's consternation, his own hands began to tremble, and the jewel-encrusted sword almost slipped to the floor. He clutched at it frantically with one hand and pa.s.sed the cus.h.i.+on hurriedly to the a.s.sistant leader of his delegation. "We accept your decision, Vinh Thuy, with a supreme sense of satisfaction," said Kim, employing an arrogant tone to hide the turmoil of his emotions. "Your abdication has freed the people of Vietnam from the bonds of slavery which have bound them to France for eighty long years and more recently to the fascists of j.a.pan. It frees them, too, from a corrupt system of government which has too long defied the march of history! Long live independent and democratic Vietnam!"

Stepping close to the emperor, he plucked the little insignia from his pocket. Bao Dai stared straight ahead over his shoulder as Kim thrust the pin into the rich brocade tunic; but Kim's hands shook so violently that it took several attempts to secure it, and when he finally stepped back, the little red flag with its gold star stuck out crookedly from the emperor's breast.

To Kim's astonishment Bao Dai held out his hand towards him, and for a moment he stood staring at it nonplussed. The hand was clearly being offered to be shaken, but in all history Kim knew that no Annames emperor had ever shaken hands with one of his subjects! Seeing his confusion, Bao Dai began to smile, and Kim, feeling a flush of embarra.s.sment rise to his cheeks, quickly grasped the outstretched hand. As he shook it, the instincts of his childhood finally got the better of him, and to his horror he bent his head low towards the emperor in a gesture of loyalty and submission.

Half an hour later Kim stood beside the emperor on the ramparts of the Citadel while the imperial flag was lowered and the Viet Minh standard was run up the mast. A great crowd of people gathered below, cheering loudly, and Viet Minh agents among them began to lead them in chants of "Hail the democratic spirit of Vinh Thuy!"" Hail the delegates of the new Provisional Government."

Kim raised his arm high above his head in response and forced a smile to his face, but as he gazed up at the red flag fluttering on the masthead, despite the great satisfaction he felt, he couldn't rid himself of paradoxical feelings of sadness and disquiet at the thought that his father's familiar world and the world in which he had grown up had been destroyed forever.

13.

Although news of what was happening in Hanoi and other cities had reached Joseph and the other OSS men by radio while they kicked their heels in Thai Nguyen, they were still taken aback by the tumultuous welcome they received when they finally entered the northern capital with the last of the guerrillas on the morning of September 2. After marching across the Kim Ma plain, they boarded open cars and trucks on the outskirts and rode into the city through wildly cheering crowds. Above their heads every street was festooned with Viet Minh flags and banners that proclaimed repeatedly in Annamese, English, Chinese and Russian: "Welcome Allies - Peace Is Here" ..." Vietnam for the Vietnamese" ... "Death Rather Than Slavery" . .

"Independence or Death" .."Let's Bury French Imperialism!"

Tramcars and rickshaws trailed similar revolutionary banners, and hundreds of crudely painted likenesses of the goateed face that Joseph had first seen swimming before his eyes in the mists of his Pac Bo delirium were draped from the windows of houses and strung between the trees along the boulevards. The unbridled enthusiasm of the crowds and the sudden elevation to national heroes of the ragged guerrillas among whom they had lived in the jungle for a month astonished the American OSS men, and they shook their heads constantly in disbel4ef as they neared the center of the city.

"Maybe they should put your portrait up there alongside Uncle Ho's," said Lieutenant Hawke, grinning mischievously at Joseph. "They would, I guess, if they knew how you saved his a.s.s with that timely injection."

Joseph smiled, but halfheartedly.

"I guess it all becomes clear now, captain, doesn't it?" Hawke gazed up wonderingly at the vehemently anti-French slogans. "Our 'Lucius' obviously wasn't going to allow any Free French patrols into Tongking when he was planning this little jamboree all along."

Joseph nodded abstractedly. As they moved slowly through the congested streets, with half his mind he was trying subconsciously to see the city again as he had last seen it during his ecstatically happy Visit in 1936; but to his disappointment it was scarcely recognizable as the same place. The smart French shops on the main boulevards were boarded up, and the French Street names glorifying heroes of the colonial conquest had been torn down and replaced with names of revolutionary heroes of Vietnam's own past; Boulevard Henri Riviere, he noticed, had become Dai lo Phan Boi Chau in memory of an early anti-French agitator, and Rue Mirabel had been renamed Duong Tran Nhan Ton to commemorate the Vietnamese sovereign who created the country's first popular a.s.sembly. In the old quarters the French translations had been obliterated from the blue-and-white street signs, and only the original Annamese names remained written in quoc ngu, the latinized national language that was meaningless to Joseph's eyes. Red Viet Minh flags fluttered proudly in the September breeze from the flagstaffs in the grounds of the governor general's palace, and Joseph noticed suddenly that none of the thousands of slogans strung across the streets was written in French.

"Changed a bit, has it, captain, since you were here last?" asked Hawke with a wry grin. "You look as if you wished you could turn the clock back. Or are you still wondering at the deviousness of that old scoundrel 'Lucius,' alias 'Uncle Ho'?"

"Maybe a bit of both, Dave," replied Joseph evasively. "But no matter how cunning he might have been, there's not much doubt now about his claim to speak for his people, is there? The French have given these folk a d.a.m.ned rough ride for a long time. I guess a little bit of chicanery along the way is forgivable."

The OSS "Quail " Mission, which had flown in from Kunming several days earlier, had already set itself up in the best suites in the Hotel Metropole, It had been their commander Colonel Trench who had at last given the Deer Mission the okay by radio to march into Hanoi, and when Joseph and Hawke knocked on his door, it was Trench himself who opened it. In high goad humor, he was clutching a bottle of vintage Perrier-Jouet champagne in one hand and he waved them to seats around a low table where gla.s.ses were already set out; through an open doorway they could see that a radio operator had set up his equipment on an empty bed.

"Welcome to Hanoi, gentlemen," he said, filling three gla.s.ses with a flourish. "The eyes of the world may not be on this city right now - and maybe no American outside this hotel has ever heard of it. But the French champagne's good and there's plenty of it - so let's relax and drink a toast to the end of our war!"

"To the end of the war!"

Hawke and the colonel drained their gla.s.ses, but Joseph crossed to the window and sipped his wine thoughtfully, staring down into the street. From there he could see the little terrace where almost every evening during his last visit he had written a letter to Lan while idling over a gla.s.s of Pernod. The same wickerwork chairs and marble-topped tables were set out beneath the same striped sun awnings, and Joseph could even pick out the corner where he had sat. Some echo of the tense exhilaration that had possessed him constantly then returned, and for a moment or two the voices of the two other officers in the room blurred into inaudibility.

I guess, lieutenant, he still can't get over the fact that agent 'Lucius' whom he found for us in a cave behind a waterfall has turned out to be the president. . . Is that right, Joseph?"

Colonel Trench's boisterous laughter broke his train of thought, and Joseph turned to find the senior officer standing at his shoulder.

"I've talked to him a couple of times and he's still wearing the same old battered helmet and khaki drabs, you know. The Viet Minh's taken over the governor general's palace, but Ho's living in a little cottage in the grounds" Trench laughed again. "He's adamant now that he's no Commie, and to prove it he's promised to dress up a little for the big speech he's making in Ba Dinh Square this afternoon. We're all invited in best bib and tucker to stand on the rostrum with him. He's asked me a couple of times, Joe, if you're going to be there."

"Isn't anybody worrying about our giving America's blessing to a bit of political sharp practice?" asked Joseph with a puzzled frown.

Trench clapped him heartily on the shoulder. "Relax, Joe. Have the grace to behave like an honored guest, will you? Not everybody here's getting the red-carpet treatment. The Free French from Mission Five in Kunming were put under house arrest as soon as they arrived and they're still under guard in the old palace. Don't you remember President Roosevelt told the War Department before he died that he thought the French had milked Indochina for long enough? It's not our job to take a stand against a native government that's obviously got the support of the people. Look down there."

A chanting crowd of marchers bearing pictures of Ho and Viet Minh banners was filling the street on the way to Ba Dinh Square, while crowds cheered from the pavement; like all the other demonstrations Joseph had seen since arriving in the city, it seemed spontaneous and relaxed.

"Everything's hunky-dory here, Joe, so don't worry your head anymore. The Chinese occupying force is arriving within the week under the overall command of General Wedemeyer in Chungking. It's been decided that they'll respect the Status quo. The Chinese will no doubt do a little gentle looting, as they've always done, but otherwise they'll get on with the job of disarming and repatriating the j.a.panese. If you want to do some worrying about your old Annamite chums, there's more fertile soil farther south in Saigon."

Joseph looked sharply at the colonel at the mention of Saigon. "What's happening there?"

"Sit down and have another gla.s.s of fizz and I'll tell you about the next a.s.signment we've got in mind for you and Lieutenant Hawke."

Joseph waited impatiently while the gla.s.ses were refilled, leaning forward on the edge of his seat.

"Our OSS guys from Calcutta have just arrived in Saigon, and already they're sending up smoke signals saying 'help.' It's a little team called 'Detachment 404,' and they're doing fine locating Allied prisoners - but they're making heavy weather on the intelligence front. To quote their report, the political situation is 'a crock of s.h.i.+t' and their best bet is that a civil war is about to break." Joseph sat straighter in his seat. "Why's that?"

"Well to start with, about fifteen hundred French soldiers of the Eleventh Regiment of the Infanterie Coloniale are still locked up like they are here, but the British occupying force is coming from the Burma-India theater so it won't be there for another couple of weeks. A Viet Minh Committee for the South has taken control in Saigon, but its members are busy quarreling among themselves. They organized a big parade through the streets a few days ago to celebrate the setting up of the Provisional Government - and it turned out to be more a show of force by half-a-dozen private armies than a celebration." Trench sighed and drank some more champagne. "There are some weird religious sects called the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao tearing at each other's throats and a criminal secret society known as the Binh Xuyen is trying to run things too - all of them have got arms because the j.a.panese are deserting in droves and selling their weapons to the highest bidder. The 'yellow dwarfs' in general are refusing to do much about keeping law and order and most of them run off to the bars in the Chinese city of Cholon as soon as they're off duty and get drunk. To top it all, a Free French colonel has parachuted in and is trying to negotiate with the Viet Minh Committee to reestablish French control over the colony again. The mood's d.a.m.ned ugly according to Detachment 404. French statues are being dragged down all over the place and about twenty thousand French citizens spend most of their time barricaded in their own homes, praying the British will get there before they're butchered." Trench paused and grinned suddenly from ear to ear. "It's a G.o.dd.a.m.ned powder keg waiting for a spark, and Detachment 404 hasn't got any Annamese speakers or anybody who knows Saigon. I thought you two guys might like to volunteer to help them out." Colonel Trench looked at Hawke. "What do you say, lieutenant?"

Hawke drained his gla.s.s, smacked his lips and held it out to be filled again. "Is the champagne as good down in Saigon as it is here, sir?"

The colonel nodded and poured more wine until it frothed over the rim.

"Then I'm ready to march," said the young Bostonian, grinning broadly and lifting the full gla.s.s to his lips.

"What about you, captain?" Trench held the bottle towards Joseph, raising one eyebrow in inquiry.

Joseph pushed his gla.s.s across the table without looking directly at the senior officer in case he betrayed something of the sudden surge of excitement he felt coursing through him. "I won't say no, either, sir," he said quietly.

Three hours later Joseph stood beside Colonel Trench and Lieutenant Hawke on a balcony above Ba Dinh Square, looking down on a sea of half-a-million Vietnamese faces gathered below. When the new, self-appointed president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam appeared, a great roar of welcome rose from the crowd. He wore a dark high-necked tunic and his wispy goatee fluttered in the afternoon wind as he stepped up to the microphone; reading from notes he began to speak emphatically in his own language.

"All men are created equal.... They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness He glanced up from his paper and for a fleeting moment caught Joseph's eye before looking back towards the crowd. "This immortal declaration was made in the United States in 1776 "How do you like that?" gasped Hawke, who was translating quietly behind Joseph and the colonel, "He's even commandeering our Declaration of Independence for his own use."

In 1791 in France," continued Ho, "the Declaration of the French Revolution on the Rights of Man stated: 'All men are born free and with equal rights and must always remain free with equal rights.'. . . Both these historic statements established undeniable truths, but for more than eighty years the French imperialists, abusing their own standards of liberty, equality and fraternity, have violated our fatherland and oppressed our citizens A roar of approval rose from the crowd, and Ho waited patiently until it lessened; then he resumed in a voice that quavered now and then with emotion. "The French deprived our people of every democratic liberty, they enforced inhuman laws, they set up different regimes in three parts of our country in order to shatter the unity of our people. . . . In the field of economics they fleeced us to the backbone, they brought poverty to our people and devastated our lands. They robbed us of our rice and our fields, our mines, our forests, our raw materials. They've fettered public opinion, built more prisons than schools and murdered countless Vietnamese patriots without mercy. All our uprisings until today have been drowned by France in rivers of blood.,.."

Ho's voice rose to a shout. of indignation as he reached the end of his catalogue of French' crimes, and the great crowd responded with another angry roar.

.....In the autumn of 1940 the French imperialists reached a new low when they sank to their bended knees to hand our country to the j.a.panese fascists," he said, letting his voice fall dramatically. "From that day forward our people suffered the double yoke of French and j.a.panese oppression, and as a result more than two million citizens have died from starvation For a moment Ho Chi Minh bowed his head before the microphone, and the crowd stared up at him in a stunned silence.

"Did he really say two million?" queried Joseph after Hawke had finished his translation.

"Yes - two million! There's been a famine for a year now in the provinces between here and the central highlands."

Joseph and the other OSS men on the balcony shook their heads in horror.

"One of his aides told me they've had a succession of bad harvests down there - but the j.a.ps and the French still kept demanding their full quotas of rice," whispered Hawke grimly.

But the truth is, citizens of Vietnam, we've wrested our independence finally not from France but from the j.a.panese," said Ho, raising his voice again to a shout. "The French have fled, the j.a.panese have capitulated, and the Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated! At long last we've broken the chains which have bound us for nearly a century, and we declare here and now that as from today all contacts of a colonial nature with France are at an end!"

Once again the dense throng of people acclaimed their new president's rousing words, and pandemonium reigned for a minute or two. When the square finally quietened again the faint drone of aircraft engines could be heard in the distance, and glancing up, Joseph spotted the familiar outlines of a squadron of reconnaissance P-38s of the Fourteenth U.S. Army Air Force winging north towards Kunming across the bright afternoon sky. As he watched, he saw the squadron wheel suddenly and begin dipping down to take a closer look at the ma.s.sive crowd that was obviously visible to the pilots from a high alt.i.tude.

"We're confident now," continued Ho, glancing up at the approaching planes, "that the Allied nations will keep faith with their principles of self-determination and equality and will acknowledge the independence of Vietnam. We're sure they'll agree that people who have fought side by side with them against the j.a.panese must be free and independent He stopped and looked up again; the blue roundels and silver stars on the wings and fuselages of the P-38s identified them beyond any doubt as American as they drew nearer, and the OSS men realized -probably simultaneously with Ho - that yet another stroke of good fortune had delivered a U.S. reconnaissance patrol into his hands at the most opportune moment; for all the world the planes appeared to be staging an Allied fly-past in support of the new Viet Minh regime, and Ho raised his voice again to make it heard above the roar of their engines.

"So at this historic hour, fellow citizens, the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam solemnly declares to the world that Vietnam has the right to be free and independent country - and that it is indeed already free! We further declare that we are determined never to yield again to France! Our people will fight with all their strength and spirit, and if necessary they will lay down their lives and sacrifice all their property to safeguard this precious newfound liberty!"

As the cheering began Ho Chi Minh stepped back from the microphone and raised his clenched fist above his head in a dramatic salute; a moment later the fighter squadron swept in low over the city. To the surprise of the OSS men, a band struck up "The Star-Spangled Banner," and contingents of guerrillas began marching past in the square below with their new weapons, Seeing this, a smiling Colonel Trench threw up a Smart salute and held it as cameras clicked to record the historic moment. Joseph and the other OSS soldiers followed suit, and the crowd applauded rapturously as President Ho Chi Minh smiled warmly in the direction of his powerful American benefactors who had unwittingly played a vital role in bringing him and his supporters to power.