Part 21 (1/2)
”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.