Saigon (30 page)

In the spring of 1940 German forces overran Denmark, Norway, Holland and Belgium before forcing France to capitulate in June; as a result, twelve thousand miles away in Southeast Asia, the French governor general of Indochina, following the lead of the collaborationist Vichy government at home, surrendered control of the Annamese territories to the Japanese Imperial Army that was then matching the Nazi victories in Europe with its own expansionist conquests in China. Thereafter, for the duration of the war, the French authorities in Indochina collaborated peacefully with Japan, supplying her with rice, coal, rubber and other raw materials. This humiliation of France by an Asian nation destroyed completely the image of white colonial invincibility that had endured for almost a century and gave fresh encouragement to the native Communists and other anti-French groups in Cochin-China, Annam and Tongking. In June 1941 Hitler tore up the two-year-old Soviet-German Neutrality Treaty and invaded the Soviet Union, and this too proved to be a vital turning point for the Annamese Communists, because overnight along with the Russians they became allies of the Anglo-American forces in the fight against the Axis powers. In the closing months of 1941 the Japanese used Indochina to concentrate their land and sea strength for the massive onslaughts launched in the first week of December against Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and other islands of the South Pacific: during the night of December 6, as Japanese aircraft carriers raced towards Hawaii to attack the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Japanese land units surrounded all the compliant French garrisons in Indochina as a precaution but the French troops offered no renewed resistance. Shortly after noon on the following day, Monday, December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked a joint session of Congress in Washington to declare war on Japan an act which led to many Americans becoming involved in the affairs of Asia in the years that followed. 

The hands of the gold-faced clock behind the chair of the vice- president of the United States stood at twelve forty-seven on the afternoon of Monday, December 8, 1941, as the eighty-two senators who had just heard Franklin D. Roosevelt call for a declaration of war against Japan filed grimly back from the hall of the House of Representatives into their own chamber in the north wing of the Capitol. Above their heads the public benches were filled to capacity with dismayed Americans who had flocked to Capitol Hill to watch the formal enactment of their country’s entry into the spreading world conflict, and in the family gallery Joseph Sherman sat silently between his wife, Temperance, and his sixteen- year-old brother Guy, watching his father limp to his place close beside the vice-president’s podium, supporting himself on a silver- topped malacca cane. 

In his sixtieth year, Nathaniel Sherman’s shock of hair and his mustache were a snowy white, but it wasn’t for this reason alone that the senior Democratic senator from Virginia stood out among his fellow politicians; pale tentacles of scar still disfigured one side of his florid face, and the empty left sleeve of his jacket was tucked ostentatiously into his pocket. The shoulder from which an arm had been amputated in Saigon sixteen years earlier had been left badly misshapen, and he lowered himself with difficulty into the seat of his little mahogany desk. Despite his injuries, however, the senator still affected a flamboyant mode of dress, and for the solemn occasion had chosen to wear a cravat of dark silk and a stiff white collar with his Edwardian morning coat. While the roll was being called he leaned awkwardly on his writing box to scribble notes, and he didn’t look up until the legislative clerk had finished reading for the second time the proposed House-Senate resolution declaring formally that a state of war existed between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan. 

“Is there any objection to the joint resolution being considered?” asked the vice-president of the United States, who was presiding. 

When no voice responded the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stood up. “Mr. President, because of the nature of the resolution, I would like to ask without further delay for the yeas and nays ..,“ he began, then paused when he saw Nathaniel Sherman rising awkwardly to his feet. 

“If the distinguished senator. from Texas will be gracious enough to yield to me,” he said slowly, “1 wish to comment briefly on the joint resolution....” 

“Mr. President, on both sides of the chamber an understanding has been reached that all unnecessary remarks shall be withheld at this historic juncture,” replied the Foreign Relations Committee chairman with ill-concealed irritation. “I was hoping there would be no comment.” 

“I appreciate the reasoning of the singularly able senator from Texas, Mr. President,” continued Nathaniel Sherman, smiling deferentially towards the chair, “but if he will yield the floor further for just a moment or two, I’m sure I shall not interfere very greatly with what he has in mind.” 

In the family gallery, Guy Sherman grinned at his elder brother and leaned forward eagerly in his seat. On the other side of Joseph, Temperance too gazed down at her father-in-law with an awed expression. She had fallen under the spell of his mannered southern charm the very first time Joseph had invited her to meet his family at the Queen Anne plantation house on the James River five years before, and because of the unfailing courtesy he had shown her since, he had continued to grow in her estimation. The rich southern tones of his father’s voice rising from the Senate floor produced in Joseph a different reaction, however; he rarely attended family political functions because he always had difficulty dismissing from his mind the impression that his father was motivated more by his desire to strike telling public postures than by deeply held political convictions. Occasionally he had wondered whether this attitude was uncharitable, but the suspicion nevertheless persisted, and as he scanned the rows of desks on the floor of the chamber below, he fancied he could detect similar expressions of irritation on both sides of the aisle. His father, however, remained stubbornly on his feet beside his desk, fully aware, Joseph was sure, that the mutilations of the old hunting accident made him a compelling, dramatic figure. 

“Of course the senator has a right to speak if he insists,” said the committee chairman distantly. “If he refused to join the rest of the chamber in withholding comment, I have no alternative but to yield to him.” 

Nathaniel Sherman smiled warmly in response, then dipped his head graciously in acknowledgment towards the vice-president. “I’m grateful for the privilege accorded me to make these remarks, Mr. President. I happen to believe that the United States Senate is the greatest body of men to be found anywhere on earth — and as honest a body of men as ever assembled any place in the world. 

That’s why in making this historic declaration today we should leave the world in no doubt as to our true feelings.” 

He paused, rocking back on his heels for effect, and let his gaze roam slowly around the chamber. “Out of peaceful Sunday skies, without a word of warning, Mr. President, Japan has launched the most infamous and cowardly attack in all history. She has violated our sovereignty and murdered our citizens, and this dastardly act lays bare a foul ambition that reeks of dishonor. To Japan, Mr. President, our reply should be this: ‘You have unsheathed the sword, so by that same sword you shall die!’ And to the president of the United States our reply should he: ‘For the defense of everything that we hold sacred, we salute the colors and are ready to march!’” 

He paused again, resting his one hand on the desk top, and his jaw jutted aggressively. “We are about to cast the most important vote we will ever he called upon to cast. We’re about to do something no other branch of our government can do — declare war. The Constitution gives Congress this great power and this great responsibility, and our sentiments today must be expressed with the utmost clarity. Many times in recent weeks this chamber has echoed with damaging dissent. The voices of ‘America First’ isolationists have been raised all too frequently and such opinions have, I believe, been directly responsible for encouraging our enemies in their despicable acts. They have been allowed to hope that we might weaken from within — so today we must show them beyond any doubt that we are determined above all else to close this nation’s ranks. We must demonstrate the strength of our will and our determination. Those are the twin foundation stones on which success must he built, and in this dark hour the whole round earth should be told that one hundred and thirty million Americans are united and resolved to fight. The world should know that America hates war, but America will always fight when she is violated. 

The senator’s voice shook with emotion as he warmed to his theme, and in the gallery Temperance, visibly moved, shifted closer to Joseph and squeezed his hand. Her body, slender and athletic when they met, was now plumply voluptuous from the after-effects of her second pregnancy, and the soft waves of her chestnut hair framed cheeks that still shone with the unmistakable bloom of motherhood. When Joseph turned to look at her, he found that despite the concern she obviously felt, she wore the implacably serene expression of a contented child bearer on her unlined face, and feeling a surge of gentle affection wash through him, he squeezed her hand warmly in response. 

They had met at a Baltimore exhibition of oriental art only a week or two after Joseph’s return from Saigon and he had found her warm, uncomplicated American nature soothing after the emotional turmoil he had suffered in Asia. The daughter of a devout North Carolina lawyer, who had christened her two sisters Faith and Charity, she had been entranced by the Shermans’ Queen Anne plantation home on her first visit to Charles County; she had sighed over the grandeur of the Great Hall and the sweeping staircase of carved walnut, claimed to be able to identify 

Joseph’s ears and nose in the gilt-framed portraits of nine generations of Shermans on its paneled walls, and had charmed his father into allowing her to spend her first night in the creaking four poster in which the family maintained General Robert E. Lee had slept during numerous visits as a young man. 

Although Joseph had never admitted it, the simple charm of her enthusiasm for Virginia’s golden age — which for him had paled rapidly as his fascination with the ancient Orient grew — had influenced him deeply in his decision to propose marriage to her. At a loose end after completing the manuscript of his book on the tributary states in June 1936, he had reluctantly taken over the running of the plantation estate at his father’s suggestion — “just for a year or two” — so that the senator could devote himself more fully to political duties in Washington. Tempe, as his wife was affectionately known in the family, had just completed her law studies and had been thrilled at the prospect of becoming first lady in one of Virginia’s most elegant and historic houses; they had been married in the late summer of that year in a lavish ceremony on the lawns overlooking a spectacular sweep of the James River and the senator, because of the warmth of his feelings for Tempe, had made the wedding the social event of the year, hiring two bands and inviting many leading political figures from Washington. Joseph had been uncomfortably aware at the time that the deep pangs of misery he suffered in his return from Indochina had influenced him to make a hasty marriage, but he had never spoken to her of the past and as the months and years slipped by, his painful memories had gradually faded from his mind. 

Their first son, Gary, had been born a year later, the thirty-fifth Sherman of the male line to have begun life in the old plantation house, and while Joseph’s energies were absorbed mastering the unfamiliar day-to-day problems of managing the estate and its crops. Tempe threw herself with relish into the task of organizing the small army of black domestic servants who still ordered the social and domestic life of Virginians of their class. Although Joseph had felt a restlessness stir within him occasionally as their life settled into unchanging routines, the five years of marriage had been marked generally by a quiet contentment, and both he and Tempe had been delighted by the birth of their second son, Mark, in the early autumn of 1941. 

The first reports of an ominous Japanese military buildup around Saigon that reached the United States in early November had made Joseph realize suddenly that a year or two had gone by without his giving any thought at all to his blighted love affair with the beautiful Annamese girl. Then mental images of Japan marching her modern military legions through the ancient lands where he had once felt so enraptured by the past made him wonder how Lao and her family night be faring. Had she married Paul Devraux after all? Had they continued to live in Saigon? And if they were still there, how was Paul himself faring, soldiering under the tutelage of the Japanese? Such thoughts drifted in and out of his mind throughout that autumn, hut the passage of time seemed to have dulled his interest and he told himself that what he felt was no more than curiosity for people and events that could no longer affect his own Life. 

Like everybody else, however, he had been stunned by the momentous events of that first Sunday in December. News of the blazing, broken ships and dying sailors, coming over the radio just after he and his family had finished a leisurely lunch in their paneled dining room, had made him and all other Americans realize suddenly that the vast empty wastes of the Pacific could no longer protect them from the spreading turmoil of war in Asia. Throughout that Sunday he anti Tempe had discussed their apprehensions in hushed tones so that their small son, Gary, shouldn’t hear, hut it wasn’t until Joseph sat listening to his father talk pugnaciously on the floor of the Senate about retaliation that he became fully aware of what his true reaction had been all along 
a subdued sense of elation! 

The raid on Pearl Harbor would force America to carry the war deep into Asia, and instinctively he knew his own involvement would be inevitable. The war would almost certainly take him back to the continent whose history had fascinated him for so long, and the surge of pleasure he experienced at the prospect made him appreciate clearly for the first time just how unsatisfying his rural existence had become. This sudden awareness of his true feelings made him blush inwardly, arid he glanced quickly at Tempe, fearing that something of these guilty thoughts might have showed on his face. But his wife, to his relief, remained oblivious; she had already turned her attention back to his father, who still held the floor below them. 

For a long time Japan has been swaggering around Asia looking for war, but now, Mr. President, let Japan be in no doubt 

she’s got a real war on her hands! The United States is well on the way to securing a navy that will dominate two oceans, and an air corps that will command an all-skies airplane fleet. By attacking Hawaii, Japan probably hoped to keep us on the defense at home. But we can tell Japan loud and clear from this chamber today, Mr. President: ‘We will not stay at home — and we will not stay on the defense!’” 

Once more Nathaniel Sherman paused lengthily to heighten the impact of his words, and in the sudden silence it became clear that the entire Senate and the public gallery had fallen under the spell of his skillful oratory. For a moment he gazed around the chamber, nodding his head fiercely. “Let there be no mistake, Mr. President,” he continued at last, speaking more quietly than before. “This war is our war now — and not only in Asia. We will have to fight in Europe too — and we’ll win in both arenas. Today we announce: ‘The American people are going to take hold, and when they’re finished there’ll be a new order. This order for the marauding nations will be: Keep the international law! Maintain the peace of the world! Dismiss your robber bands! Get back to the confines of your own country—and stay there!’”