The Quiet American Page #2

Like the ones in your hair.

Do you like my hair?

- This is traditional style.

- It's very nice.

- Do you know Vietnamese?

- Sure. Try me.

When you dance,

don't try to lead.

No. I don't...

I only know two words.

Beer and... hair cut.

- Mr Fowler.

- Hello.

- May I?

- Of course.

Thanks.

Haven't seen you for a long time.

- I'm away a lot.

- Yes.

Who's he? Your friend?

His name is Pyle. He's with

the American Economic Mission.

He's from Boston. In America.

He's a very bad dancer.

Yes.

- He is married?

- Not that I know of, no.

This is Phuong's sister. Alden Pyle.

Very happy to meet you.

Your father is a businessman?

No. He's a professor.

My sister is very good dancer, yes?

- She's too good for me.

- She's my only sister.

He's cute, the American.

And money too.

Sometimes you're as vulgar

as the French you hate so much.

Your sister's a very pretty girl.

My sister is the most

beautiful girl in Saigon.

I don't doubt that at all.

Mr Fowler's a very lucky man.

My father was very sad

he had no grandchildren.

Would you like a drink?

No. Thank you.

My friends.

So pleased to have met you.

I hope we meet again soon.

- Perhaps you could arrange.

- When I get back from the north.

You are going north?

Yes.

Then you must come

and have dinner

with me and my sister

when Mr Fowler is gone.

- To cheer her up.

- Thank you. I'd like that very much.

- What a nice woman.

- Absolute saint.

She used to work in office.

Import-export.

- Really?

- She knows shorthand.

- Does she?

- Maybe you need someone.

Maybe we could work something out.

Please forgive me for dancing

with Miss Phuong so many times.

- I like watching her dance.

- She's a very good dancer.

She should be.

She used to do it for a living.

- What do you mean?

- She was a taxi dancer.

A hostess. Here at the Arc en Ciel.

I thought you said

she came from a good family.

She did, but the father died

so the sisters had to earn a living.

- Well, that's too bad.

- What?

Isn't that just a step up

from the girls across the street?

Good God, no. It took me six months

to get her to go on a date.

- Grenade.

- A grenade.

- Are you married?

- Yes, I am.

But not to her.

There's something I haven't told you.

I got a telegram from the paper,

asking me to go back to London.

So will you go?

I've cabled them,

asking them to let me stay, but...

If they stop paying me,

I'm not sure how we'll live.

I come with you to London.

I'd marry you if I could.

- You know that.

- Yes.

That's what I always tell my sister.

You think your wife will give divorce?

I doubt it.

'When did everything change?

'Maybe there isn't one moment.

'The cable from London

calling me home?

'Or watching them dancing together?

'Or what followed between us,

she and I,

'through the long night?

'I was never brave.

'But there I was, heading north,

'the fear of losing Phuong

more terrifying

'than the fear of any bullet.'

The communists attacked four days ago.

We pushed them back only yesterday.

We think there is 300 in this village.

- But you will not see them.

-It's getting worse, isn't it?

How long can you keep going?

A few months, maybe.

My men are counting bullets.

Silence!

Quick! Hide!

Quickly, hurry!

No, no! Don't shoot!

Pyle?

What the hell are you doing here?

They wouldn't let my truck

out of Phnom Penh

so I figured I'd see

what was going on for myself.

You're lucky to get here alive.

It wasn't that hard after I hired a boat.

It wasn't expensive.

- In the end I just bought it.

- You are mad.

- I'm mad?

- Yes.

Have you ever seen anyone

with trachoma?

- Yes, I suppose I have.

- It's not that easy to remain uninvolved.

Here, this way.

"'Not that easy

to remain uninvolved."

'I had hidden for so long

behind a typewriter.

'What we found there,

what we saw, in Phat Diem...

'... what did that do?

'To his zeal, to my detachment?

'The dead are not involved.

'The dead have no zeal.

'They are lying in wait.

'You see them, all their tenderness,

'and then they haunt you.'

- Communists?

- This is not the work of French soldiers.

It doesn't make sense.

The communists don't kill townspeople.

- It is not in their interest.

-Maybe another faction.

There are so many of them.

Each with their own army.

What's that book

you're always reading?

York Harding,

"The Dangers To Democracy".

- An American?

- Yeah.

He was out here a couple of years back.

- Was he here long?

- I don't know.

I heard him lecture once.

Joe actually met him.

He put forward the idea

of a third force to run Vietnam.

- Not the communists, not the French.

- Not the Americans?

No. We're not colonialists.

Something that could

really help these people.

- You have a gun, either of you?

- No.

They shall attack again tonight.

You don't want to be taken alive.

Believe me.

Shoot yourselves.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

Stay inside that bunker.

- Do you want something to eat?

- No, thank you.

Come on.

You didn't come up

to check your medical team.

Joe Tunney sent you, right?

A little intelligence work.

I've never have been very good

at keeping secrets.

There is another reason

why I came up here.

- It's you.

- Me?

Yeah.

You said that you might be

coming up here.

The thing is, it's about Phuong.

Well, I guess it started

that night when we were

at the Arc en Ciel

and I was dancing with her.

I didn't think you ever got

close enough.

And then I had dinner

with her and her sister

that Saturday and...

...just when I was sitting

there looking at her,

it all just became so clear to me.

I see.

Look, Tom,

none of this was planned.

There's no way...

I never ever used to believe in

love at first sight.

But after seeing those other girls

in that awful place

and thinking that Phuong

could easily become one of them,

I want to protect her.

What did she say when you

offered her your protection?

- I haven't told her yet.

- You haven't?

No. I didn't think it would be right.

I wanted to speak with you first.

Look, if you two were married

that would be completely different.

I can never marry her. Oh, sh*t!

My wife would never give me a divorce.

She's a Catholic.

They're getting closer.

They're walking in.

'Dear Thomas, I guess

I'll be back in Saigon ahead of you.

'And I wanted to reassure you

'that I won't go to see Phuong

until after you return.

'If you can make

the next transport out,

'you should be back

by the end of the week.

'I can check in with your assistant

to see if you made it.

'If so, I'll come around

to see you both together on Friday.

'Say 5.00? '

Anyone due to go out to Hong Kong?

Someone from Reuters, I believe.

Type this up and ask him

to cable it to London for me.

- Your big story?

- Yes.

Massacre at Phat Diem.

Nobody did it, of course.

Not the French,

not the communists...

But there are rumours.

- What's going on?

- I forgot.

- What?

- It's a rally.

- A new political party.

- Bloody hell.

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