27

Date …

The plane landed on the airport in Texas. Everywhere was overwhelmed with golden sun. The oddly space in America appeared. A rather long list of tourist “delegation” coming from Vietnam included my father Ham, Uncle Vu Hung, my aunt Lan Vien, I, Vera and Hai Yen.

Uncle Duc Vinh, Lu and Li Da received us in a waiting room in the precinct of the airport. Everybody cheerfully embraced each other. The grey hairs of uncle Vinh and my daddy were side by side. The more they were old the more they looked alike, even their statures as well as their features and their grief, discontentment and bitter of life which they had to accept. All the “men” got in the Lexus whose driver was Lu. Meanwhile, Li Da carried all “female group” whose nationalities were Russian, American and Vietnamese on her Chevrolet Captiva, a Korean’s invention. The cars arrived in Weston town after thirty minutes of slowly running and stopped in front of Yellow Pine Garden. The town was rather beautiful with wide two-lane streets whose both sides were built with villas. There, all the houses were thousands of square meters large with very blue lawns, luxuriant and verdant pines and white fences which were always twinkling under the sun light. All the villas were very similar with three floors, walls made of bricks and the bright and cheerful red color of the ceilings. What a wonderful town! A place in inner city where all the cramped houses were in close proximity to one another, there wasn’t any tree at all and the smell of petrol discharging from vehicles pervaded the air couldn’t be compared to that of the Yellow Pine Garden.

Lu’s villa was large enough for everybody to stay in a room each. The “family” feeling pervaded the atmosphere of the tour. There was something called warm. The host gave generous kindness. The guests were polite.

We gave Lu the precious presents such as special “Guan Yin” tea, pig-tongue-like bamboo shoot, bronze art objects and lacquer paintings. There was a special case happened to “manioc flour” mixed with shaddock blossoms. We had already brought 10 kilograms of such flour with us to Noi Bai airport but Vera’s “discovery”: the white flour looked like that of heroin made the whole delegation white with fear. It was true that those two kinds of flour had the same appearance. To avoid all the troubles and misunderstandings, I left it in the anteroom by giving it to aeronautical staffs and considered my behavior as an intelligent decision. For all that, what a regret! When arriving, I had recognized that there wasn’t any “manioc flour” in Texas and it turned out to be quite rare.

The above mentioned gifts could be accounted enough for “exchanging” the food which the host used to stand the guests. What “a fair play under American style”!

Everybody sat round the big table in the first feast. I made an observation and burst out laughing. The two “elders” were at one end of the table. They used to be the provincial chiefs (one was a Provincial party committee Secretary in the North of Vietnam and the other was a Vice Provincial chief in the South of Vietnam). Next to them was Sir Grey Tiger Shogun of a near-half-century war. The two girls sitting at the other end of the table were Li Da and Vera whose nationalities belonged to two confrontational countries during the last tens of years: America and Soviet Union. I and Lu, the two “cousins”, were soldiers who used to fight at the front. But then, all of us were sitting there, slurping and chewing the American pig-thighs simmered with Vietnamese lotus seeds.

Glasses of French Bordeaux made us more cheerful. Vera spoke Vietnamese language. So did Li Da. All the people there didn’t speak any other languages but Vietnamese one. 

One more time, I had surveyed everybody for a second and I couldn’t help laughing. It was true that as the tree, so the fruit. Hai Yen was a dead ringer for Vu Hung. Their faces were well-proportioned, perfectly round, alight with an impartial unaffectedness and an instinct strength. They were quite different from uncle Vinh and my father that always had an anxious appearance …

Among the four women whose nationalities were American, Russian and Vietnamese, my aunt Lan Vien was fit to be a senior. She kept being accustomed to Vietnamese habit of picking up the food with her chopsticks and put them into the bowls of Li Da, Vera and Hai Yen.

-       Just ignore us! – Hai Yen informed. Li Da and Vera showed their sympathy.

Aunt Vien looked slender and limp like either a strip of silk or a curtain of dew in comparison with the three big stature women. They were like bright yellow sunflowers while she seemed to be a branch of pure violet orchid with an immaculate white face which was as refined and aristocratic as royal favorites.

Aunt Lan Vien and uncle Vu Hung used to be a spousal couple. But then, they parted. How many couples used to live together as husband and wife in that party? I and Vera had had a “try life” for years in Moscow. Later on, we had a melancholy separation. And one more time, we were together. We were “side by side” like that moment. Was it a long-term “side by side”? Nobody knew.

How complicated the modern life was! It went beyond the scope of classical relationships. The newly formed complex relations had broken through the classical tradition. Did Li Da and Lu “live together as husband and wife”? The correct answer was either yes or no. They always “spent the night with each other” without living “under the same roof”. They kept “making love” although Li Da didn’t want to have any baby as what Lu wished. The distance between them was either wide or narrow alternately. They both felt lonesome and wanted to give mutual warms.

What myriad forms and shapes the relationship between men and women in that feast according to the specific characteristics of modern society. The only people who were classical and consistent were Mr. and Mrs. Vinh. They got married and live side by side forever. She was a faithful wife. She body and soul waited for him when he was cast into prison and was exiled. Then, their “great reunion” date arrived at last. They had been again living together at the ebb of their life.

I wondered weather that party represented the “great reunion” of Nguyen Duc Family. I looked at the three whole brothers and sisters of District chief Nguyen Duc Nguyen. They were getting together beside their “Mr. servant” Vu Hung who was “upgraded” to the member of their family. It wasn’t easy at all to have the moment like that after almost a half-century of catching storm and being scattered accordingly.

The film “The family’s chronicle” was displayed when the table was cleared. Did the movie finish? Oh, no! Frankly speaking, it was left undone because we were not only tired and embittered but also too insufficient in strength and directive talent to fulfill the conclusion part. We prepared to throw away all the uncompleted piece of work but we held it at last due to our regret since we had already shot two third of the film anyway. There were several long video clips which could describe the history of the Nguyen Duc clan in spite of the incoherent film setting. For instance, the long video clips such as the insurrection of Great Oldest Uncle, the “modernization” of District chief Duc Nguyen, the event that Vu Hung took the delegation of the poor people to district court in order to demonstrate, seize power and received “the royal seal” from Duc Vinh, the event that Vu Hung “took Duc Vinh alive” in Phan Rang line of resistance. That meant no any other scenery which was accounted insipid or nonsensical but all the shots of the key landmarks which attracted the viewers were performed.

All of us fretted when looking at the screen. Our Great Oldest Uncle, an outstanding hero in Nha Son forests, who was extremely imposing had fought against the French enemy for years. Doctor of Letters, a Modernist was hungry for reforming the country by applying the Material about new ideas and rejecting the Confucius and Mencius doctrines which had been a great obstacle in the march forward of Eastern countries.

What a moving film with skillful actors and actresses beside meticulous and costly arrange!

I suddenly took a look at Li Da and Vera, the two “representatives” of Russia and America. Precisely! Let them saw how Vietnam was! How the Nguyen Duc family was! …

Date …

“The first drive” of our tourist schedule was sightseeing around Houston, Texas. Uncle Vu Hung had to utter a cry of admiration when watching American industrial companies:

-       What great works! Admittedly, my mind always resounded with a sentence “America Imperialism is nothing but a paper tiger” when I started placing myself in an anti-American resistance war. I didn’t what the fear was. I had full of spontaneity and self-confidence without having any knowledge of neither how much the GDP figure in the enemy country was nor how their economic and military potential was. What I comprehended was we were fighting for justice: we struggled against the invaders. We had the support of the whole socialist faction. By way of consequences, I was firmly convinced. With such ideal, I rushed into the war with my highest determination. My belief in our victory was as sure as eggs were eggs.

Now, I’m here and I’m observing my enemy. What an amazing reality! Vietnam was a poor country with a life of deprivation and misery at that time. We didn’t have even an intact rice bowl. With “rice carried in bases of the areca leaf petioles, egg-plants and hearts for revolution”, we still won the victory. How strange! What a glorious victory! The losers hurriedly performed their flight with panic-stricken fear in American helicopters waiting on the roof of embassy building. The Ambassador Matin whose son was formerly killed in Vietnam war rolled American flag, clamped it under his arm, got in the plane and run away … ha … ha … ha …

-       That was the confrontation between both sides – I added – the condition of socialist part was increasing as strong as either tidal flow or the shifts of water in the falls. The international gendarmes in American had to withdraw from competition because they didn’t have enough ability to “help” the remote land in South East Asia.

-       With all excuses, America was still the loser. A new chapter in which Vietnam’s majestic victory was mentioned was written as an update on history event. We had won. We now forget all the past, eliminate all hatreds, cooperate, integrate and promote investment for the sake of both sides. We are on friendly terms with each other. Seriously, our Vietnam is really talented.

-       However, such the “oblivion” hasn’t been performed till 20 years passed by. The period of 20 years was one third of a lifetime – Hai Yen sighed.

-       20 years were as short as a wink of history only.

-       But it is accounted very long in comparison with a human existence. It’s just like a generation …

-       A blessing comes after a misfortune – I analyzed – The quantity of Vietnamese people in United State reaches the figure a million at least at the moment thanks to those changes. They are members of the most advanced society in industry. That is going to be an opportunity to create precious seeds which are going to contribute their ability to build our country …

… One time, I asked Lu while we were seeing the sights:

-       How beautiful and peaceful this town is! I want to buy a villa here as a place of “permanent residence”, “communication”, rest and stay so that our descendants will later on live and study, don’t I?

-       Of course! – Lu replied – Many wealthy Vietnamese people in Vietnam had bought houses here. In Texas, the lands are immense and the inhabitants are few in number. The lands are very cheap but not as expensive as the ones in Hanoi. The house with its campus like mine only cost 200 thousands dollars.

-       How can it be so cheap like that?

-       It’s reasonable!

-       I request one-million-dollar house.

The effect of my saying on everybody could be considered as an electric current which gave them a shock. Their eyes were round. They knew I hit the jackpot and that came of my investment in shares but they didn’t know exactly how much I earned. I hadn’t disclosed the secret to anyone, not except my father Ham who acknowledged receipt of information about my getting a windfall in general. A figure 60-million was untold. The figure 60-million dollar could bring “danger” to me and my parents and it wasn’t good at all. It was accounted smartest to inform them that I had enough money to spend without unveiling the specific amount.

-       Do you think that I am here for having sightseeing around Houston only? I travel America to purchase a villa. According to American law, foreigners are allowed to buy houses in its country. Brother Lu! Help me with your legal procedure clearance, please! How wonderful this town is! Vera will stay here and give an eye to it. Vera always loves living in America, loves American lifestyle and it’s easy for her to fall in line with American society as a person coming from “the West”. In addition, she has Li Da and Lu as “relatives” who will help her during the first days she settles here. I will travel backwards and forwards between Vietnam and United State. I won’t plant myself here. My main house is in Vietnam since I have many things to do in Vietnam.

I phlegmatically made careful recommendations. How confident the rich guy was! People would listen to him no matter what he said.

-       Win some money which nobody knows the exact figure thanks to trading securities only but you dare to have an extremely loose tongue – Hai Yen commented – Buy a house in America and plant a Russian in that house. Why you don’t let a Vietnamese Hai Yen like me stay there.

-       Hai Yen has to be back and “reopens” the Quiet Poplar Garden. This Yellow Pine Garden isn’t a suitable place for Hai Yen.

-       I also can’t tell fact from fiction in Trung’s saying – Aunt Lan Vien remarked.

Uncle Vu Hung seemed not to pay any attention. Meanwhile, my daddy Ham was uncertain. As far as Lu was concerned, he “felt” the “real value” of my words. Lu smiled.

-       Playing “stock” game in America, lots of people appeared to be dollar millionaires within a day and vice versa. Many millionaires turned out to be beggars after a night at the same time due to the decrease of their share index which caused the loss of their fortune and made them went bankrupt. Perhaps, “the securities job” in Vietnam is similar.

I pretend to jest casually and nonsensically:

-       That is only my temporary work. I will have a private discussion with you later for further information.

I had become an “inscrutable person” in the eyes of everybody from that time forward. All of them respected and “honored me with a faint hope” no matter how uncertain they weren’t fully confident.

Date …

Mr. Smith was looking at the morning mist which was hanging by the window. Li Da was sitting next to him. They were deep in thought while the smoke was rising from their cups of coffee.

-       We will depart for Yellow Pine Garden at 8 am – Li Da informed.

-       OK!

Mr. Smith cast his eyes upon his daughter. That Vietnamese family gave his family a friendly behavior. Their relationship hadn’t been exactly called “alliance” but it also could be esteemed as alliance in some meaning. On the occasion of Vietnamese guests’ visit to their house in Yellow Pine Garden, they would like to invite Smith home.

-       They may pay us a visit after today meeting – Li Da guessed. Smith looked round their apartment:

-       You should tidy up our house to make it more beautiful and cleaner a bit. What books and newspapers in a mess!

-       Never mind! – Li Da smiled.

It was true that their flat wasn’t taken care by good hands. The common furniture looked cold and dry. That came of the “crack-brained” manner of both father and daughter. The young one was absorbed in books without having an “official husband”. The old one who was a disabled person with the loss of one leg bitterly perceived the life and was a “spouseless” man after his wife forsook him …

… Tens of years ago, Mr. Smith was a young pilot who drove a jet-plane F4H and was garrisoned in Korat air force base in Thailand. His president said that their war fought for putting “the free world” under protection. As a serviceman, Smith had to fulfill his duty although he didn’t well understand the idea of his leader. From Korat and by mean of jet-planes F4H, Smith’s air squadron which was called “The ghosts” released bombs on the ground of North Vietnam. What fearful days! How unknown the sky in the North of Vietnam! In the days which were either cloudy or sunny, Smith’s jet swooped down and dropped bombs to destroy the bridges on national road No. 1 on which all means of transportation carried reinforcements as well as weapons, food and goods of all kinds from the North to the South of Vietnam. Smith’s air squadron was “welcomed” by dense antiaircraft fire-powers of North Vietnam troops. Among four planes took their departure, one had been shot down and the rest ones returned. That event was repeated many times. The air squadron seldom remained unchanged in quantity. After landing on Korat air port, the pilots side by side entered the club and drank glasses of beer while their eyes were alight with fear. They exchanged the looks without saying a word. The next day, the day after next or some day, they wouldn’t know whether their air squadron could remain undamaged when coming back from the following sortie so that they could one more time tasted the sweet of the gulps of beer in their mouths and could get drunk.

Smith prayed to God every night. His young wife, Mariana and his little daughter Li Da sent him silver necklaces hanging their pictures from their hometown, Houston. Smith wore them on his neck as “talismans” on occasion. The beautiful faces of his wife and daughter would be “saviors” who could help his Ghost F4H with its escape from antiaircraft trajectories.

Smith wanted to be “safe and sound” while he had to release bombs straight on the bed of the lifeless road No. 1, the small bridges and the villages in which military targets were lurking far below his plane. The bombs cost 500 pound sterling imposingly dropped. The film recorded columns of smoke and fire, the broken bridges and the villages eliminated as targets at that were pointed to count and value in order to give Smith a compliment or a reprimand was projected.

Smith was walking on the scorching hot landing strip under the tropical sunlight. He was watching his huge “iron bird” as though it was one of his images, or rather, his incarnation and vice versa. He himself was its incarnation, a flying block of iron. Smith shuddered with fear. Nevertheless, he had to be “unconscious”, try to know nothing, think nothing, turn himself into a machine and become “emotionless” so that he could prevented his legs from trembling whenever getting in the cockpit. The Thai good-time girls’ tiny bodies with smooth complexion and the cigarettes whose ingredients were merged with marijuana helped Smith to forget his fear. Smith had to “fly straight” to the sky in the North of Vietnam so as to pour all bases of bombs as very heavy as “the Death’s hearts” into an unknown ground whose owners were good-natured far below his jet.

Why the Creator assigned him to do such things. What kind of hatred he and those farmers living in the North of Vietnam had so that he poured “the deadly rain” on their heads. With my action of pressing a button, many lives had to “be gathered to God”. Such “debt from previous life” was started in minutes when Mr. Kevin – Smith’s father – who was a tractor driver took his strong healthy son to the gate of Air force academy and advised:

-       You must fly on the sky and control the sky. This vast sky belongs to you. Ride the clouds and trample down the wind. Don’t be like me who bend my back, low hang my face facing to the ground and struggle against the furrows in my whole life.

The sky was near to the Most High and the Infinite was above the sky. My dear daddy! You didn’t know that you had taken me to the “gate” of the Most High’s house and by the same token, I would be “attended the God’s audience” at any time because the gap between I and he was as narrow as a strand of hair. I would like to be a person whose steps were as short as those of the common people living on earth full of grass and flowers rather than the one who could move with extraordinarily large space on the sky full of antiaircraft fire-powers of North Vietnam army.

His life, his fear, his philosophy of life and fighting orders kept going abreast. During his years of “fulfilling his duty”, Smith had contributed to American air force in destroying the whole “earth’s crust” and the North of Vietnam locality in particular. From the first area which was Central Vietnam, the ruin was spread to the North Vietnam. All the roads whose “map” had been drawn by French traffic engineers since last century were cut into small bits just like a piece of beef filet which was thrashed to soft by the back of knife blade before frying. All the bridges scattering from Lang Son to Quang Binh were broken. All the cities, towns and townships that were the traffic gateway were reduced to nothing but piles of rubble.

The American President pitilessly announced: “Let the people in the North of Vietnam live in the stone-age”. With the savageness, they had covered a part of the stage which worked against the civilized history. The hearts of an American group including war creators were still beating in the context of “the stone-age”. What kind of guilt the peaceful villages in Vietnam had so that their thatch roofs, bamboo edges, country lanes, paddy fields and irrigation canals had to catch the bombs.

Following “the logic of the war”, United States had thrown an atom bomb into Hiroshima and then, they scattered the terrible dioxin on Vietnamese forests whose leaves were later on lost and the newborn babies in the surrounding regions were monstrosities without having eye, ear, legs, arms or mentality.

It was true that the human became so backwards that they really lived in “the stone-age” once they “lusted for bloodstained war”!

It was extremely skillful of Smith to warm his way out of the nest of antiaircraft fire-powers of North Vietnam troops during the last years. But then, he couldn’t avoid his “destiny” at last. One day, a Russian rocket Sam 2 which was carrying the trains and was flying along China secretly arrived in Mai Linh hill, the outskirts of Hanoi at midnight. Right at that time, Smith’s Ghost F4H was smashed in half by Sam 2 while it was strafing Hanoi. Smith’s leg was broken and he was dropped on a field in a village in the edge of a city. He fastened his thigh by himself to prevent his blood from bleeding to the last drops before moving into a furrow and covering his body with thatch to camouflage and avoid cold. Then, he fell into a dead faint. Smith saw a tiny militiawoman of North Vietnam troops when he waked up the following morning. She was pointing her riffle at his head. Smith babbled a few Vietnamese sentences which he had learnt by heart since the beginning of the war:

-       I’m American who is in an unfortunate circumstance. Help me, please! Give me something to eat! Help me to escape Vietnamese government! Our nation will compensate you in return later …

What compensation! What could compensate for the deaths of bomb? Their corpses were covered with mats and lying on the yard in front of the warehouse of the co-operative over there. How much could the American government pay for that “help”?

Smith took out “a flag” on which the Vietnamese “help words” he had just uttered were written from his pocket. The girl received and read it while her gun was still pointing at his head with great concentration. Other militiawomen arrived. They confiscated his six-shooter and all military equipments on his body before carrying him in a cart which was pulled by a buffalo. He was sent from the field to the yard in front of the warehouse of the Co-operative.

Smith was consternated when seeing the cadavers covered with blood. That came of the release of bombs on his jet the night before. The dead persons’ relatives were crying and throwing knowing looks to him. Smith assumed they would rush into him, give him a shower of blows and kill outright to satisfy their hearts’ content. On the contrary, they only scolded him by a language which was too strange for him to understand while the tiny militiawomen carrying riffles were standing close to him in order to protect him as though the dead coming from someone else but not him whose finger pressed the button and the bombs dropped accordingly. Smith would also feel resigned and fair without angrily complaining even when those militiawomen shot a spurt of gunfire in his body. The bombs on his plane had destroyed a half of that village which was still in violent flames. However, pouring the bombs on the roofs of private houses wasn’t his will. That came of “accidents in wartime” because those shelters’ localities were close to bridges, national roads and military targets that were drawn in the map which his boss assigned him to destroy.

Those things always happened in war. No one knew how to do. He had no guilt no matter tens of people had been killed in the twinkling of an eye. So, who would bear full responsibility for those dead? Was it possible to accuse the bombs of homicide? In future, how he had to “pay the penalty” for “letting the people in the North of Vietnam live in the stone-age” during the time he served his country. Could he afford to shoulder such crime?

The wound in Smith’s leg was first aided by a village nurse. One hour later, he was carried by a military “command car”. He breathed a sigh of relief because he could avoid seeing those bloody corpses and he could go on following his fate in accordance with “the logic of the war”. Well! Let it be! He gave them plenty of rope. It was worth for him to receive any punishment!

Smith’s leg was amputated due to gangrene which was too serious to save. He became a disable prison and had to use cripple. How North Vietnam army could have “artificial leg of electronics” in order to assemble to his broken leg. Smith was sent to “Hilton Hanoi”. The event that the nickname “Hilton” was used to call “The Furnace jail” expressed the ridiculousness and bitter of pilots when they were kept there. That penitentiary had been built since the time when the French colonialists had just set up their rule in Vietnam for a whole century. The stockade had “visited guests” of all kinds from highest rank such as the formerly revolutionary soldiers who fought for independence to the most inhumane killers for robbery. And then, it was his turn, a “heroic pilot” of the free world. “The interior conveniences” prepared for “visited guests” were still what the “old colonialism” made ready such as a cement floor serving a “a bed” and the closed system of walls with only several holes which were too small to exchange the fresh air. The American mandarins’ sons had been accustomed to air-conditioned rooms since they were kids and then, they had to suffer hot air as if they were roasted in hot frying-pans and they assumed to die right after having a well-done cooking. On the contrary, they were still in being year after year with just a bamboo tape fan which they used to gently flap and thus the fresh air was moved.

Smith was eating a prisoner’s ration whose owners were living in a country where contemporary American leaders “were carrying out the schedule of bringing it to the stone time”. There were still ordinary rice, vegetable, tropical fruit … but not butter, milk, beefsteak, cheese, Johnnie Walker, German beer, Coca cola … that were what the doctors always advised their patients on avoiding “taking too much” due to weight control purpose and obese reason . It meant the food was enough for “a creature to exist”. And then, the sick of obese disease spontaneously abandoned illness-causing substances and avoid increasing weight without getting any recommendation from their doctors.

Smith’s leg couldn’t “grow” again. He wept every night. After 6 months of crying continuously His eyes became so bone-dry that they weren’t able to deliver any drop of tear even when he felt a pain. He looked like an Indian “Taoist hermit” who was practicing Yoga under the scorching sun in desert area. He didn’t perspire. His muscles seemed to fossilize. Smith’s mentality started thinking about the process of discovering the origin and the essence of life on earth. The Smith’s basic philosophy was that: the life was nonsensical. The life was the Most High’s joke. The mankind had two parallel activities: Maintain and develop the life and try to destroy and annihilate the life at the same time.

Smith didn’t wait for the date he could reunion his family because he had never thought that there was a meeting of minds between two ideologies: socialist and capitalist. Therefore, he was resigned to practice Yoga in the Furnace jail – Hilton Hanoi and waited for his last day.

Smith anathematized American capitalist corporations with their wild ambition of world hegemony for the sake of their profit. The capitalist influences in military industry in American always looked for the “legitimate” excuses to create war because they wanted to sell their products such as planes, tanks, cannons, firearms and ammunition. Blood had been used to write the chapters in history since the dawn of mankind. In Mongo, there were many plateaus with so much grass which was the food of the horse. Thanks to the human’s careful feed, the horses there were not only strong and brave but also extremely fast. They contributed to their owners’ success in subjugating a half world.

The planes in the contemporary America were as many as the horses in Mongo in former time. Bombs could be released into any place in a twinkling … in order to implement their eternal law: the human killed one another. As a result of that, the individual destiny of a Creator’s citizen whose name was Smith had to suffer an extremely hot air at 37ºC in tropical country under the roof of a cooler whose name sounded terrible: Furnace.

He assumed himself to be a Ghost in such Furnace so that it would be in accordance with his pilot career when he controlled the F4H with its Ghost nickname. Smith unexpectedly received a date he walked lame on crutches and got in the plane and flied home in America when the Paris convention was signed in 1973. Both American and Vietnamese sides “deescalated” at the same time and exchanged prisoners.

The presumptuous hero who “bossed the show on the sky” then limped with his crutches on the pavements and clip-clop voices were made accordingly. How Mariana could accept him. She was young and beautiful. She belonged to a type of “super-modern” people who refused all womanly “nonsensical and classical” duties. She forsook her husband and her little daughter whose manner looked “austere” when she dedicated herself to books.

Smith started leading a batty life …

…

-       Daddy! Let’s go, please! – Li Da took a coat and gave it to him. They approached the lift. Li Da didn’t change her grey Camry for a new one due to financial problem no matter how old it was. They were going to go to Yellow Pine Garden …

Date …

A large table was placed on the lawn and in the shade of an ancient pine. The atmosphere was joyful, confidential and warm. Everybody effervescently smiled and chatted. English and Vietnamese languages were spoken alternately. The lotus perfume of Vietnamese tea pervaded the air. That recalled a peaceful countryside. The taste of Vietnamese meal brought the images of the fields in the North of Vietnam in the dry and sunny days in October, the turtle-doves hovering and nightingales melodiously singing.

Smith liked Duc Ham and Vu Hung so much. They were “old friends”. Ham had “known” Smith since Smith always dropped bombs into the villages where he a leader as Thanh Do Provincial Party Committee Secretary. Hung had also “known” Smith since they participated in the meaningful war which could be counted as “the Third World War” at the same time.

Smith hadn’t got a “warm feeling of classical family” like that for a long time. As glue, the past memories cemented their friendship. Lu and Li Da took turn helping their elderly with their translation.

-       There had never been any area which had to rise again from its terrible conditions as consequences of “war of destruction” in the history of mankind like the North of Vietnam – Ham remarked – I’m a live witness at that time and I well know it. Taking the responsibilities of a leader, I had to govern a province with many important traffic gateways and military targets. Our slogan was to produce and fight at the same time. None of villages could escape the bomb attacks.

The green color had become a unique “fashionable” color of the whole people’s uniform for eight years. Smith! Tell me the truth! Did you clearly see the people in white shirts from your jet? Was American pilots’ duty to set the people on the ground as their targets? But, you know! We grasped that matter thoroughly. Everybody had to wear the green shirt so that could merge into the color of plants. No white shirt was worn during those eight years. The green color was applied on the girls’ white hats even. We were very afraid of very sunny days. Was it correct that your jet-planes would hardly go on sorties on sunny days when the sky was cloudless and clear? We wished for overcast and rainy days. How peaceful the rainy days which were peaceful short space of time in wartime! Was it true that you couldn’t perform bombing raid? In the morning, the people looked at the sky when they waked up. They would be relieved to see full of nimbus on the sky and vice versa, they would be worry if it was very clear and the sun appeared because they assumed you to give bombing attacks. No fear could be compared to the one of catching a bomb or receiving a bullet. Conversely, my provincial people had to suffer such fear during those continuous eight years from 1965 to 1973. Who could survive?

The people can only suffer pressures of work or problems in relations such as the love between boys and girls or between husband and wife … in modern life. Only with the above mentioned things, they were in stress, depression or mental disorders from light one to heavy one. On the contrary, the people there had to suffer “a pressure” of the Reaper. They could painfully die with their bodies torn to pieces at any time. The deaths were coming from the sky and nobody knew how to avoid them. The deaths were on the watch at midnight or at the time the cocks were crowing. The families could reunion that day but nobody knew who could survive the following day. Even so, they were neither stress nor depression. It was true that the Vietnamese people in wartime had iron spirit. They still survived during those eight years of standing such pressure. Do you think it’s extraordinarily wonderful?

-       What exceptional flesh and blood Vietnamese people could bear! – Smith admitted and supported more evidences – Like me, I still survived but not died despite it was quite difficult to breathe and I suffered tropical sun which was from 37 to 40ºC as if I was being roasted during the years staying in the Furnace stockade. Who made people miserable like that? It was the war! Who caused the war? Were they the creatures coming from other planets? Oh, no! They were the people on this earth. The war was over. I damn the war. I curse the human’s self-exterminatory nature by mean of war. I wish our mankind can enlighten from now on and they will never bring war to any place … . Like us, we don’t have an aversion for one another. Today, we are sitting side by side under the golden sun and on the green grass cover and sip a glass of whisky. Is it much better?

Smith snorted of laughter:

- I have to claim damages from corporations running in military industry in America. They were guys who caused the war pressure in order to sell their weapons of all sorts. They have to return me my undamaged leg. I will take legal proceedings against everybody from head to foot including my President for my damaged leg. Today, you pour a lot of comfort into my heart and make my writhe and world-weary have burned out. I have encouraged my daughter to follow “Vietnamese learning” department so that we can understand each other more. A part of my youth had an attachment to Vietnam. I become a forceful striking demonstration of the universal truth: war is a manifestation of stupidity. As a fool, I unflinchingly released bombs and thus many people had died. I had to lose my leg, attend lock-up, lead a lonesome life without having any better half and become a handicapped person. That came of my ignorance. How very spacious my life would be without war! I would be the same as everybody who always walks tall with strong steps under the sunlight but not limp with my crutches like what I am now and clip-clop voices were made accordingly …

-       I would like to raise one question as an interview – Vu Hung added – Just imagine that you hadn’t been a pilot who controlled the F4H jet. You think how would your life have been?

-       I would have worked for American airline and piloted Boeing passenger aircrafts whose flights were either domestic or international. I would have had a peaceful and stable life, a happy family, a gentle spouse just like a typical model of classical family in Vietnam. As a pilot, my salary wouldn’t have been low at all. Therefore, we would have had a comfortable life. I would have sat in the balcony, sipped a glass of whisky and listened to the melodious piano music played by my wife every night …

What a pity! The Creator didn’t program my life like that and I became what I am today …

-       We would like to share grief with you – Duc Vinh gave his sympathy for his “alliance partner”.

-       Frankly speaking, the American pilots like me didn’t expect that the antiaircraft fire-powers of North Vietnam troops had a surprised strength like that – Smith went on their conversation – US Air Force, the strongest Air Force in the world assumed to be able to rule the roost at its convenience due to the miserable and backward status in the North of Vietnam. On the contrary, our planes dropped like cluster figs. As colleagues, the pilots like us expressed our surprise in “Hilton Hanoi”. The American leaders became the worse loser when the more they launched the “main units” of their air force the more they received the just punishment.

In 1972, I met pilots who controlled B52 planes and carried war into Hanoi in the prison. They informed me that the strategic headquarters of the US Air Force “emptied their pocket” in order to knock bases in Hanoi out within an engagement. That would have been profitable for them in the final Paris talk. Unexpectedly, they tasted what the Western journalists called “an airy Dien Bien Phu battle”. Among 77 modern planes which were smashed were 33 “flying super-strongholds”. The loss ratio covered 18% among total quantity of American strategic planes.

All kinds of the America’s most modern planes took part in the 12-days bombing raid round the lock in 1972 - As a pilot, Smith distinctly named all kinds of planes – For instance, F111A with one folding wing and one straight wing was the most modern plane. The next was interceptors such as the AD6 one whose nick name was Heavenly guy, the F105 whose alias was Thunder-chief, the Ghost F4, the Cross army F8, the sudden Breaker F6, the Fighting Star A104, Buccaneer A7, Heavenly Eagle A4 … it meant no type of plane didn’t attend the combat so as to co-ordinate and escort the flying super-strongholds …

For all that, the North Vietnam side had known at the first night. They drew out their troops and truck back. Two flying super-strongholds were shot down in the first day. An international press conference was organized at midnight of that day in order to announce to the whole world that Vietnam had already gunned down B52. The fragments of the B52 stuck with a fist, flash of lighting and branch of olive-shaped badge and the words “Strategic Air Combat” appeared on the screen of television and were broadcasted world-wide. The whole world spoke scornfully of and criticized America who was well-known all over the world as a civilized power but densely scattered bombs on the decent citizens just like savage and cruel barbarians. The world opinion made American leaders worried and frightened.

The American pilots like us were really surprised at North Vietnam’s rather perfect system of fighting against US Air Force. How they could have a very good preparation which was not only quick but also opportune like that.

The Nixon’s plan Linebacker 2 in which B52 and thousands of jet fighters and tactical interceptors beside the support of 5 aircraft carriers which were laid at anchor in the Eastern seas were used to attack Hanoi and Hai Phong in 1972 was a top secret scheme. How North Vietnam side could know it in advance so as to timely cope with the situation …

In the Second World War, Japanese planes suddenly surprised American fleets at Pearl Harbor. In the first instance, American soldiers assumed that “their troops were holding military exercises” when hearing the first detonation. They hadn’t acknowledged the enemy attack till Japanese bombs dropped beside them and their fleet was exploded. What a shame in the history of American military the combat at Pearl Harbor was! Part of the loss came of the lack of information in Japan’s attack plan. Meanwhile, North Vietnam had known Nixon’s Linebacker 2 campaign in advance and prepared defensive measures. What a war-exploit!

-       We could receive the exact information because we had our intelligence agents who were operating in the enemy side. At the beginning of December in 1972, we got the news saying that America would move 2 Aircraft carriers from the Eastern seas to Vietnamese harbor and thus the total figure was 4 – Vu Hung added – After 1975, the commanders like me had a meeting in which we listened to the report on the war summation. Therefore, I could also have some information and secret document that were related to the B52 attack in 1972 although I was just the infantry general. The aircraft carriers Saratoga coming from Philippines and Enterprise coming from Japan got close to Thanh Hoa seashore. The Utapao airport in Thailand was filled with B52 strategic planes. The bomb-trucks continuously traveled up and down. Three more refueling aircrafts KC 135 landed on Udon airport in Thailand. 5 another KC 135 ones in Subic base in Philippines were in ready status as well. An American new headquarters was established to run 2 bases Utapao and Guam … You see! We knew everything in details like those …

Smith shook his head and put his tongue out to show his admiration. Vu Hung deliberately went on telling everybody information he knew “by heart” in the “war summation” meeting after 1975:

-       When the B52 battle was opened in the sky of Hanoi at 7:40 pm dated 18 December 1972, we were informed the news 3 hours in advance saying that B52 planes in Guam and Utapao had just received enough fuel to fly from 4 to 5 hours. The bombs were fixed in accordance with base. The interceptors and contour-fighters would start up. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the American armed reconnaissance planes RF-4C spoke to the strategic air force headquarters on the phone about the following content: “The weather in Hanoi can ensure military aviation’s effective operation”. The radar Regiment No. 291 which was directly under Vietnamese Air Defense Arm eliminated the atmospherics and concentrated on discovering B52 objects in their shift at 6:20 pm. Head of radar stations in Hanoi received the report at 7:05 pm saying that B52 planes were passing by the parallel of latitude No. 20 and it was possible for them to carry bombs into North Vietnam. The Commander of Arm ordered and gave the alert to attack B52 planes 35 minutes earlier than the G prescribed time. Right at 7:40 pm, the war happened and 2 flying super-strongholds were shot down at that night as well.

A remarkable detail which had taken place when Hai Phong was interfered was the event that American Headquarters applied engineering to “jam a transmission” and put its adversaries off the scent. The B52 signals appeared on the radar screen in the room of rocket army. They were recognized as “imitation B52 signals”. Our servicemen had to know how to distinguish between “the true signals from the imitation ones” so that their leaders could decide whether they would launch the missiles. Everybody’s heart missed a beat when a group of the first “B52 signals” appeared. What would have happened if they had been the true ones? What could ensure that they had been the imitation ones? Fortunately, we had had enough experience, skill and spirit to recognize they were the imitation B52 signals. America used 16 “technique types” to create the imitation signals on the radar screen of their opponents including the imitation signals of fighter planes which played the role of escorts.

The Hai Phong Arm let “9 teams of imitation B52” signals passed by in turn without launching any rocket. What a “great courage”! Because of knowing nothing about the real situation, some people were so astonished that they made phone calls and asked: B52 are entering Hai Phong locality. Why don’t we shoot them down?

Everybody closed their eyes and held their breath. No bomb was dropped and no rocket was launched despite the signals on the radar screen showing that “9 teams of B52” had entered Hai Phong airspace for 30 minutes. Such “B52 planes” flied past Hai Phong to get some fresh air and then they went across the sea …

The Hai Phong soldiers had their practical experience. When B52 planes were flying, the buzz … buzz … of heavy sound which could be recognized by normal hearing was raised from a far distance. That made the real planes different from other planes. The Hai Phong rocket soldiers didn’t hear those buzz … buzz … sound on that day. That was a “manual” technique of “human eye”. However, the so-called engineering was correct 100%. America had planned to entice Hai Phong Arm to launch series of rockets which aimed at the imaginational B52 and would have never let the true B52 appeared and scattered bombs until their rockets were run out or became less.

What a “deceptive” “intellectual fight”! But, “diamond cut diamond”.

-       Admittedly, Vietcong’s guerrillas could still use their “sticks made of coral wood, lances and scimitars” tradition in the “modern war” – Smith remarked – The leader of Hai Phong rocket battlefield had double courageousness which was not only fighting against B52 of course but also responsibility for his decision. He didn’t launch the rocket no matter his General Staff urged him by phone. What would have happened if the true B52 had entered and destroyed Hai Phong? Would he have been “sentenced to death”? What could ensure that they were the imitation B52 signals? How he could believe in the hearing of his rocket soldiers who were “human eye”. The “wisest” person should take “military orders were as firm as a mountain” as a principle governing his actions. She should launch the rockets whenever seeing the B52 signals on the radar screen no matter tens of rockets were wasted for those 9 groups of imaginational B52 planes. Nobody could blame him and nobody had ever died …

His choice was quite “extraordinary” in wartime as a soldier. No any other soldier but the one in time of war had such a “disinterestedness”. Meanwhile, people become more calculating in peacetime …

-       Our side had a pilot whose name was Vu Xuan. He controlled a Mig 21and used his plane as a shell to rush into B52 at night dated 28 December – Vu Hung continued – The duty of a person who pilot Mig was to attack the escort interceptors and disturb the enemy formation. Mig was just like a “sparrow” but it dared to rush into the line-up of “a flock of ferocious peregrines”. The technical parameters of air-to-air weapons stated that: Mig couldn’t shoot down B52. Our Vu Xuan had successfully dodged his way through the stranglehold of dense escort planes in order to approach the “queen quarry” B52 on that day. He released the shells on his plane. The B52 got a wound only. His Mig straight smashed into B52 without delay as though his Mig itself was a huge shell. He became a suicide soldier. His plane and the B52 dropped on Yen Chau – Son La area. He looked like the suicide soldiers in the capital in 1946. They held three-angle bombs and rushed into the enemy tanks …

Vu Xuan’s action was prepared in the person of his in advance. Some days before, Vu Xuan said: “when my sortie turn comes, I will let my plane smash into it if necessary …” while he was talking to his companions in arms. That meant his conscious action was spontaneous. Everybody neither encouraged nor dissuaded him. That had been Vietnamese soldiers’ suicide tradition for a long time but not that time. They didn’t scare of their biological deaths of their bodies …

-       It was worth admiring him – One more time, Smith nodded repeatedly out of satisfaction – I “cursed at this life” although I only lost a part of my leg. Meanwhile, your soldiers lost their lives even without regret.

-       Your “damn” is legitimate – Ham’s idea complemented their conversation …

-       The Most High “programmed” the lives suffering full of disastrous paradoxes. – Smith went on speaking – I had “directly” killed tens of people or even hundreds of them if I did a sum of all my sorties though I didn’t have any aversion for the people living in their villages which were planted with bamboo and ivory trees at all. I’m worth exiling the hell where devils would saw my body into halves if an aspect of spirit is studied.

Alas! I’m now very afraid of lethal weapons. I seem to get “depression” at the sight of a bomb. With an explosion of a bomb, a great deal of people can be torn to pieces. But why does the human create bombs? Oh, my God! My Heaven! Why you can program the life on earth like that.

In 1975, a 15-year-old Vietnamese girl lost herself in America in the state of desolateness and stagger after witnessing the devastated landscapes of her country due to the war. I’m sorry not to reveal her name. She is 5 feet and 1 inch tall. Her characteristic is timid, good-natured and so scared of violence that she wasn’t allowed to read books named “Harry Porter” whose content described so many violent events. Nevertheless, she is now a chemist, an America’s leading explosion expert who was called “bomb Lady”. She created a heat bomb which was operated by thermo-barbaric pressure and had the most terrible destruction so that the Pentagon can throw it any place in the world.

You see! What is happening? Has she already forgotten how her nation was suffered by mean of bomb?

That is the ridiculous way the Infinite creates her “genius brain”. And she has to show all her talent when attending “life stage” like many other scientists who performed their talent when inventing atomic bomb.

The quantity of bombs the Americans dropped on Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos battlefield during the last war was more than twice the one all sides used in the Second World War. And now, the thermo-barbaric bombs whose inventor is the “girl” coming from Vietnam where suffered war results as victim are going to be used to scatter the consternated deaths on other grounds in the world …

Alas! Good gracious! I can’t understand the human life full of absurdity and illogicality no matter I had a splitting headache …

Smith disappointedly closed his eyes …

There was no more green wine Johnnie Walker in the bottle. Duc Ham stretched his arm to take another and open it. Their talk was still effervescent because its topic was switched to human destiny which was experienced old men’s favorite subject.

-       The life on earth performs reasonable laws beside a great number of paradoxical events as per what Smith has just mentioned – Said Ham while his face was full of confidence – Everybody here has severe fates except Hung. Smith lost his leg. Brother Vinh used to be a prisoner and I lost all my “position and fame” because I “deserved credit” for opening a new trend which could help the farmers with their highest production abilities. Even so, I myself after all hadn’t “queried” anymore since it was relegated to the field of destiny and absurdity … Let’s take a look at the history in modern time and we will see a lot of extraordinary events. For instance, a national hero Sir Winston Churchill who led English people and helped them with their victory over fascist Germany was “toppled” by British National Assembly in an election in July 1945, two months after the Second World War was over only. Why did the people in United Kingdom “requite” his services like that while he used to be their “ideal”? Let me give you one more example. Charles De Gaulle who was a French President in the other bank of English Channel and was a person marching in Paris with allied troops in order to overthrow fascism was pressured into resigning. What a ruthless action the French society treated its hero! Why was it? What could explain the reason why the above mentioned events can happen in “a parliamentary bourgeois democracy” which had a mechanical operation based on its people’s votes? What could be accounted right and irrational? …

Therefore, I myself found a peaceful spirit after experiencing the life now. We should look for a way to “harmonize” and accept all the paradoxes of our fates. We shouldn’t give any question to the Heaven. We can sit side by side together today. It’s very happy. From today to our last days, we will no longer worry but lead an unoccupied life …

-       But will the modern life let us alone to be peaceful and leisured as outsiders of its boiling stream flow just like volcano lavas? – Vu Hung suddenly raised a question.

In general, the above sentence didn’t create any special impression on everybody in the party at all despite both Li Da and Lu exactly translated it (Smith was the listener). Even Duc Vinh and Duc Ham ignored it as well. The two elderly couldn’t imagine that their “last days” would no longer be calm within a short time from that day on. Both would lose their only sons because of reasons which were full of … “paradoxes” …