Lawyers, Guns and Money by Bob Mayer

Author:Bob Mayer [Mayer, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621253365
Publisher: Cool Gus
Published: 2019-09-15T22:00:00+00:00

UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT, NEW YORK

Plaikos greeted Thao in a dialect of his people’s language. They bowed slightly to each other. Then he addressed Kane: “Welcome back, Mister Kane.”

“Sir,” Kane acknowledged. He shook hands with the older man and two Montagnard bracelets jangled on Plaikos’ wrist.

It was mid-morning and they were on the casement of Fort Putnam, five hundred feet above the Hudson River which was a half mile away to the north and east. The fort had a commanding view of the Military Academy. Michie Stadium, where Army played home football games, was to the south. It was named for a graduate of the class of 1892 who organized the first football team at West Point, but was subsequently killed in action in Cuba in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, one of those wars lost in the murky mists of history. Next to the stadium, the almost noon sun was reflected by the smooth surface of Lusk Reservoir. The terrain to the west dropped off abruptly, leading to more hills.

“The fort’s in a lot better shape than I remember,” Kane said.

“They cleaned it up for the bicentennial last year,” Plaikos explained. “Entire Academy went through a pine cone patrol.” The latter was an inside reference to the time most of the troops stationed at Fort Bragg were ordered to police up pine cones prior to President Kennedy’s visit; the infamous one where the green beret was introduced to the President and he endorsed it as official headgear for Special Forces.

“It is nice to be among mountains and green,” Thao said, looking about.

West Point was fortified during the Revolution because it commanded a sharp bend and narrowing in the Hudson River. Sailing ships heading north or south had to slow to negotiate the narrow turn. The Americans stretched a Great Chain across the river as an impediment. Given that the British had made their North American headquarters in New York City, keeping them from being able to freely travel north on the Hudson was essential to the war effort. It is the oldest, continuously occupied military post in the United States. It had been Kane’s abode for four years from summer 1962 through graduation in 1966 and he couldn’t say he missed it. His stomach still churned, as it began to do every time he drove north along the Hudson.

“Do you miss your home?” Plaikos asked the Montagnard.

Thao pondered the question. “It is not my home any more. The news we receive from the highlands is sparse but always very bad. The communists are worse than the South Vietnamese. Many of my people have been killed. Most of the rest have been rounded up and sent to re-education camps. Only a few are still living free.”

“I’m saddened to tell you it will not get better in the foreseeable future,” Plaikos said. “There will be open war soon between Kampuchea and the Vietnamese.” He was referring to what had formerly been called Cambodia, but had been retitled since communists took over in 1975, another domino to fall after South Vietnam.

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