The Quiet American Page #6

Both confined to this hut at this minute.

Both frightening.

Cigarette, or am I being ostentatious?

Well, I'd...

I'd give that couple to the guards.

We'd better stay friends with them.

Wouldn't have thought you would suggest

using economic aid to buy friends.

They are scared.

I wouldn't blame them if they

handed us over to the communists.

They don't believe in anything either.

They just want enough rice.

They want one day to be

much the same as another.

They don't want our white skins around

telling them what they want.

You're telling them what they don't want,

which is the same thing.

The skins in Russia are still white too.

- All of Indochina goes.

- I know that record.

Burma goes, Malaya goes, Indonesia goes.

But what does go mean?

Well, I don't know what I'm talking

politics for. They don't interest me.

I'm a reporter, I'm not involved.

My friend, you are a mass of involvement.

I don't take sides.

I'd be still reporting whoever wins.

If they win, you won't even be able to

pretend you believe what you report.

This sudden importance of the individual

and his freedom.

Why have we only just discovered it?

50 years ago, no one ever spoke of it.

It wasn't threatened then.

Ours wasn't threatened then, no,

but who cared then about theirs?

Oh, don't come to the east

with that cry about

the threat about the individual soul,

not unless you are prepared

to do something about it.

At this moment to these people,

it's the others who stand for the individual.

To us, they are just

so many units in

somebody's concept of global strategy.

Some of that is very unhappily true.

And what are you prepared to do about it?

Me?

I'm from a country that's been

in existence for less than 200 years

in a very old world.

That same 50 years ago,

we were barely taken seriously as a nation,

much less a great force for wisdom

and decision.

But suddenly now,

a watch-tick of history later,

the world waits angrily for us

to provide the answers

it hasn't been able to find in 50 centuries.

French patrol tank.

It wasn't as smart as I thought

getting your car off the road.

Maybe we can signal them

on their way back.

If they come back.

Well, in the meantime, there is nothing

better we can do than try and sleep.

Aren't you sleepy?

Just thinking.

What do you suppose Phuong

is doing right now?

Now? Probably, sprawled on the bed,

a joss stick burning

to keep away the mosquitoes,

memorizing her collection of picture books.

She knows more about the royal family

than I do.

She can take you on a tour

of the Grand Canyon.

I wish she would.

Sounded like a mine.

I guess that tank won't be coming back.

No.

We're in for it, I'm afraid.

What's he saying, can you guess?

Probably an ultimatum to these chaps

to surrender.

Sounds like a gramophone record.

How close are they?

Can't see them.

About 200 yards, I should say.

We're no help to these two.

Let's get out of here.

Make straight for the field. Aim for the rice.

I don't know how deep the water is.

We'll find out when we get there.

My foot! Something broken when I jumped.

- Come on.

- Don't be a bloody hero.

Head for the tall grass,

as they say in Texas.

I don't want to be helped by you.

Write a letter about it to The Times.

You know what's the funny thing

about those kids,

they didn't run.

I wanted to stay. I prefer to die on dry land.

Save your breath.

Who the hell asked you to save my life?

We are not a couple of movie marines.

You're not even gonna get the girl

in the end.

It's a shame about the car.

I hope it was insured.

Thoughtful of you.

Characteristic.

Hate to see anything happen

to an automobile

without an insurance company

getting stuck for it.

If you don't mind, I think

I'd like to go back to the ditch.

Lie flat. This is quite painful.

This is the fireman's lift.

I learned it in the Boy Scouts.

They taught you the wrong things.

You should have left me lying where I was.

My good deed for today.

Phuong might miss your kindness

and occasional gifts.

So, you did it for Phuong? (PANTING)

Also, characteristic.

The American belief

that women love heroes.

Not always.

You could have had her if I were dead.

- Try not to move that leg too much.

- If it'd been you, I'd have left you.

No, you wouldn't.

I'll be back in a little while.

Where do you think you're going?

Down the road to look for a French patrol.

Don't be a fool. They'll shoot you

before they know who you are.

- If the others don't get you first.

- I'll see ya.

He moved like a hero

in a boy's adventure story,

wearing his heroism like a Scout's badge

and quite unaware of the absurdity

and improbability of his adventure.

But the absurd and the improbable,

like the Boy Scouts and Marines win in the

end more often than we like to think.

And a few weeks later,

it was my day for going home

from the hospital in Saigon.

"Dear Thomas,

I was not surprised to get your letter.

"You're not a man, are you,

to remain alone for very long.

"You seem to pick up women

like your coat picks up dust. "

- Does she permit that you marry me?

- She doesn't say yet.

"Would you actually marry her?

"Perhaps, you would.

"I suppose, like the rest of us,

you're getting on and don't like living alone.

"I feel very lonely myself, at times.

"Even a woman, if she's left

early enough, can find another companion.

"But you didn't leave me in time. "

What was that?

It is fini, the cognac.

"And marriage doesn't prevent

you from leaving a woman, does it?

"It only delays the process.

"You say it will be the end of life

to lose this girl.

"Once you used exactly that phrase to me.

"I don't suppose I was the first

to hear it nor will she be the last.

"You've always attached so much

importance to the truth, Thomas,

"but your truth is always so temporary.

"And I've never been able to argue

with you or to convince you.

"So, it's easier to act

as my faith tells me to act

"and simply to write,

I don't believe in divorce.

"My religion forbids it.

"The answer is no. "

The letter's bad?

She says no?

Nothing of the kind.

It's very helpful.

She's consulting a lawyer.

Then it is the most happiest letter.

And you read it with such a long face.

May take some time.

The arrangements are complicated.

You could make a settlement.

I have no money.

My sister says you could take out...

Assurance of your life.

Your sister is a poet at heart.

May I buy two new scarves of silk?

For my trousseau?

Three, if you like.

It's a modest enough endowment

of worldly goods.

Come in.

- Hello.

- How are you feeling?

Oh, coming along.

Actually, I was in process of going home.

I know. That's why I'm here.

Oh, I forget to tell you.

Because he have big open American auto,

I ask my sister to ask him,

would he come here to fetch you?

In a little auto, your leg would not fit.

She shouldn't have done that.

Very thoughtful of her. No trouble for me.

- Is this your bag?

- Oh, don't bother about that.

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