The Valkyrie Mandate: The Book That Changed History by Robert Vaughan

Author:Robert Vaughan [Vaughan, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2014-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Seventeen

On the night of the twenty-third of September a gala ball was held in the villa of the West German Embassy. It was well attended, and beautiful women in colorful dresses and flashing jewels, and handsome young men in medal-bedecked uniforms or elegant cutaways moved through the tiled halls. For a brief instant in the broiling intrigue of plot and counterplot Saigon seemed to recover some of its lost elegance and give credibility to its onetime reputation as the Paris of the Orient.

The Americans were represented in full force at the party, and there were many from the embassy and MACV in attendance. There were, however, dissensions beneath the surface facade of glamour. Fissures had developed between the embassy and the military, and even between individuals within the same sections. The Krulak-Menden-hall trip had accomplished nothing. The investigators had come up with such diametrically opposed points of view that neither party was able to make any headway. So word had come back from Washington that Secretary MacNamara and General Taylor would be arriving in Saigon on the twenty-fourth of September to look into the matter personally.

Justin was at the party, and so was Le. They managed to meet once at the punch bowl, but others were nearby, so their words were guarded. They had to leave unsaid what they felt.

"Good evening, Madam Doung," Justin said. "May I pour you a glass of punch?"

"Yes," Le replied. "That would be nice. Thank you." Le handed her cup to Justin, who allowed his hand to brush against hers for just a brief instant. Their eyes caught, but Colonel Rogers approached them, and Le, with a shy smile and a pleasant greeting for Rogers, left.

"Colonel Barclay," Rogers said, pouring himself a cup of punch and being very careful of his dress whites, "Secretary MacNamara and General Taylor arrive tomorrow. Will you be meeting them?"

"I'll be at the airport," Justin replied. "I'm not scheduled to brief them at any time, so I doubt if I will actually meet either of them."

"I need to see you after the ceremony at the airport," Rogers said. "I want you to arrange a meeting for me with a local national."

"Who do you want to meet?" Justin asked, his curiosity aroused.

"Someone who is outside the official scheme. That's why I feel you can best manage it for me. How is everything with General Tran, by the way? Is everything going all right?"

"Colonel Rogers, Tran is without doubt the worst possible choice for us," Justin replied. "He couldn't possibly have any support. Suppose we draw up a list of officers acceptable to us and suggest a junta committee to Tran?"

"No," Rogers said flatly. "We will continue to let Tran handle everything. He can select his own junta."

Justin smiled. It was exactly the answer he wanted. Now he could refuse to provide Tran with the list, and he could do so with Colonel Rogers' official backing.

"Colonel, why not drop Tran and throw our support to someone like Big Linh? He enjoys popular support," Justin said.

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