Saigon

by Anthony Grey

While exploiting the conquered territories France constantly proclaimed in public that it had come to Indochina on a “mission civilisatrice” to help the backward nation into the light of the twentieth century.

mystification.

admonition.

perfunctory

innuendo.

The Chinese are the Jews of Asia.”

debonair

imperious

“But what’s the point of building all those roads and railways?”

“Don’t the French really get more benefit from having roads and railways than the Annamese?”

They seem to need it. If we hadn’t colonized this country when we did somebody else would have.…”

A wide grin of delight had become a permanent fixture

and his grin of delight spread from ear to ear.

“We have no freedom of press here. Newspapers are closed and journalists are sent to jail if they displease our foreign masters.” Lat’s eyes glittered suddenly with the fervor of his words. “We aren’t free either to pursue our political beliefs. We can’t hold meetings or travel freely. We can’t even send mail without its being intercepted!”

peremptory

perfidious

chastity

mystification.

delirious

insolent

‘You have unsheathed the sword, so by that same sword you shall die!’

impetuous.”

jamboree

A large celebration

deviousness

pandemonium

solicitously

conscientiously

succulent

desultory

inexorably

“Things may be bad but that’s no reason to let a good friend get caught here like a rat in a trap.”

reconnaissance

indoctrination

incongruous

You’ve always yearned for the exotic, for the unattainable.

“But not you. You’ve always gone on yearning for the magic mysteries of the East that captivated you at fifteen.

obscure

innuendo.

hysteria

obsequious

spasmodically

gaffe.”

He reminded me too that a great river doesn’t rise in flood because it’s pulled from the front — it’s the massive weight of water pushing from behind that unleashes the torrent.

“But the French fought here for eight years and killed possibly a million Viet Minh — and still they lost. Doesn’t that ever give you sleepless nights?”

unattributable

pantomime

obscure

affability

Americans love to be winners; they’re simple people who admire above all else mindless physical vitality and winning — whether in games or in war. The French are subtler, they have much greater intellect — that’s why I prefer France to the United States.”

You always favor the underdog — even when you’re not sure who the underdog is!