Speaker 1: My name is Trim and this is Saigon, the story
Speaker 1: of my family and of the country that shaped us.
Speaker 2: The United States will not stand by and allow any.
Speaker 3: Power, however great take over another time.
Speaker 4: Or allow.
Speaker 2: You have brought only you, and beware.
Speaker 5: I need to break it out.
Speaker 6: Virginia band a bad, very babler sounds pronounce a very babler.
Speaker 5: That can be no peace without justice, and that can
Speaker 5: be no justice without peace.
Speaker 7: Chapter four.
Speaker 1: Joseph Sherman had left his liaison role with the Army
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty six and returned to his life in America.
Speaker 1: But in nineteen fifty four, the Washington Post needed someone
Speaker 1: to cover the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, and Joseph jumped
Speaker 1: at the chance.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, eh is that it captain it tease misr Shaman
Speaker 8: straight ahead. That's that jen bien fou guys in the
Speaker 8: North Vietnam.
Speaker 4: Eh, I didn't know it was so big.
Speaker 8: Eighty percent of all French forces in Vietnam and there
Speaker 8: now we spent a year flying everything up here groups
Speaker 8: artillery thanks impressive generous call it the launching pad from
Speaker 8: which they finally crushed the Vietnam Communists.
Speaker 9: The rest of us, got it, But Champ.
Speaker 4: Everything's on the floor of the valley.
Speaker 8: I got mountains are round, so I see.
Speaker 10: Not an easy landing.
Speaker 2: You should go back and.
Speaker 4: Yeah, excuse me more.
Speaker 2: Sureman, you lanky yank.
Speaker 1: As his feet hit the turnout, Joseph was met by
Speaker 1: his oldest French friend.
Speaker 2: You finally made it.
Speaker 4: It's been way too long.
Speaker 2: Why do we only see each other every eight or
Speaker 2: nine years?
Speaker 4: God knows?
Speaker 2: What do you know, major colonel?
Speaker 4: Colonel Paul Debreeux, your father would be so.
Speaker 2: Proud of you, and you a famous American war reporter.
Speaker 2: I better watch what I said.
Speaker 10: Well, they got a smile for me?
Speaker 2: Is that allowed bringing a camera here?
Speaker 10: I have permission. I need photos for the article.
Speaker 4: Come over here. Yeah, in front of the plane there
Speaker 4: with the mountains in the background. But that's good. Comesa
Speaker 4: what thanks Paul.
Speaker 1: The mountains were steep and forbidding, and as far as
Speaker 1: the French thought, they were impenetrable. But even as Joseph
Speaker 1: was framing the mountains in the back of his shot,
Speaker 1: a pair of binoculars were trained on him.
Speaker 3: See down there on the runway, an American and a
Speaker 3: French colonel.
Speaker 7: I knewed them both in another life.
Speaker 6: Well, we can live in the past. Come back came.
Speaker 6: We have too much to do in the present. How
Speaker 6: can we get all our delivery from the bottom up
Speaker 6: to here?
Speaker 2: Manpower and patience? General Zapp.
Speaker 1: General Zapp was the military commander in charge of the
Speaker 1: Vietnam forces.
Speaker 6: It cannon weighs more than two thousand kilos. It doesn't
Speaker 6: matter how many men we k use, they will still
Speaker 6: have trouble getting them up here.
Speaker 2: We don't have trouble. We are communists. General's App.
Speaker 9: Let's go and move those guns for uncle who for Vietnam.
Speaker 6: Concurt you t'dbye high zone, plue boar simplidoko pou lane.
Speaker 1: Over the coming weeks, Kim's comrades would break down each
Speaker 1: enormous howitzer cannon into eight parts and quietly haul everything
Speaker 1: at a few inches an hour of near vertical slopes
Speaker 1: covered in thick jungle foliage to the top of the mountains.
Speaker 1: It was an immense undertaking, and one the French never
Speaker 1: believed it happened.
Speaker 2: Normally, Joseph, Normally, I agree, setting up a base on
Speaker 2: a valley floor is just asking for trouble.
Speaker 4: Well, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, isn't it.
Speaker 4: You need the high ground, Heracles, Alexander the Great, your
Speaker 4: man Napoleon.
Speaker 2: They all knew that, I know, but in this case,
Speaker 2: no one can get to those high positions, not with
Speaker 2: any heavy artillery anyway.
Speaker 4: Set a possible, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2: Your wonderful president has promised us four million dollars worth
Speaker 2: of shells, rockets, tanks, and in a few more weeks
Speaker 2: we'll have all that here and then we'll launch one
Speaker 2: big assault and that will be it. Benuill communist.
Speaker 4: I admire your confidence.
Speaker 2: It's all been thought out, Joseph, very carefully planned. Trust me,
Speaker 2: ste now wife.
Speaker 4: Good? Thank you?
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Our son Gary's fifteen now and enjoying high school. Nothing
Speaker 4: much to report on the on the home front there,
Speaker 4: and how's land?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't know, to be honest, It's been years since
Speaker 2: we spent more than a few days together. She moved
Speaker 2: back with her parents. I'm always off fighting. When we married,
Speaker 2: she was never the same. Oh, but before that she
Speaker 2: was so much fun, always laughing. But I can't say
Speaker 2: we're close. We never have been. Really. It feels sad,
Speaker 2: but it's just the truth. Will you try and see
Speaker 2: her this trip?
Speaker 4: You know. I hadn't given it much thought, but I
Speaker 4: could maybe it might be nice. You should I probably
Speaker 4: will then if I have time. Yeah, I'll see how
Speaker 4: much time I have.
Speaker 2: Oh, God, take the effort. She always liked seeing you,
Speaker 2: did she?
Speaker 4: Okay, Well then I will, Paul, there's something I want
Speaker 4: to No, no, sorry, you go no, no please? What
Speaker 4: were you saying?
Speaker 2: I was just wondering how long you were going to
Speaker 2: be here for, that's all.
Speaker 4: Oh, just a few hours. I have to go back
Speaker 4: on the plane I came in on. That's part of
Speaker 4: the deal. Yeah, I've got interviews in psychon that's to
Speaker 4: a ten. So it'll be a couple of weeks, and
Speaker 4: then I promise I'll come back to witness famous French victory.
Speaker 2: You better.
Speaker 4: Oh they'll probably make you a general after that.
Speaker 2: If only you were ending out the promotions.
Speaker 4: If only yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, Joseph had seen Land briefly before flying up
Speaker 1: to DNB and FOU and was keen to see her
Speaker 1: again as soon as he was back in Saigon.
Speaker 4: Joseph, Hello, Land, I thought i'd find you here. Can
Speaker 4: I walk you home?
Speaker 3: Sure? Have you been up north?
Speaker 4: Yes? Briefly? And I saw Paul.
Speaker 3: Did you tell him about us.
Speaker 4: Well, I wanted to. I tried to, but didn't. Well,
Speaker 4: he's you know, he's up there fighting for his country.
Speaker 4: It hardly seemed like a very good time.
Speaker 3: When would be a good time.
Speaker 4: I know, I know.
Speaker 10: After they win perhaps if they win, sure they'll win.
Speaker 3: Well maybe maybe.
Speaker 4: Man, they're fighting an enemy that believes in their costs.
Speaker 4: I spend time with their leader, Ho Chi Minh, I remember, yeah,
Speaker 4: And he's smart, he inspires people, and he has a
Speaker 4: clear goal. The Vietnam are fighting for their country. They
Speaker 4: have to fight. It's life and death to them. The
Speaker 4: French are only there because they've been sent given a choice.
Speaker 4: You know, I think they'd rather go to dinner.
Speaker 3: Will you go back?
Speaker 4: Yes, as soon as I can. I have to. I'm
Speaker 4: the war correspondent for the Washington Post. I'd like to
Speaker 4: spend some more time with Paul.
Speaker 3: If you see him again, Joseph, you must tell him
Speaker 3: about us. My marriage to Paul was never very real.
Speaker 3: There was never any love. But he deserves the truth.
Speaker 4: I know he does. Yes, I know, I do know.
Speaker 4: How is two yet?
Speaker 3: Good? Adjusting well to living with my parents. They dote
Speaker 3: on her, the only grandchild. She has a smile. Joseph,
Speaker 3: h really, she'll be home from school soon. You should
Speaker 3: come in and see her.
Speaker 4: Oh, but what about your parents?
Speaker 3: They won't be home? Ah do yet? Will be thrilled.
Speaker 3: I'll make us some tea. It'll be lovely, I insist.
Speaker 4: Well, okay.
Speaker 1: When they arrived at the Hugh Family Villa, Land showed
Speaker 1: Joseph into the old, familiar garden room and made tea
Speaker 1: for them both.
Speaker 3: Ah, thank you, she's back.
Speaker 4: Mamma, where are you in here?
Speaker 1: Ready?
Speaker 3: Prepare yourself.
Speaker 11: You can't stay long? But is there anything to eat?
Speaker 11: I'm oh?
Speaker 6: Hello too?
Speaker 3: Yet? May I please introduce to your father, mister Sherman,
Speaker 3: and Joseph your daughter too?
Speaker 2: Yet?
Speaker 3: Do you remember him too?
Speaker 7: Yet?
Speaker 11: Alma said you were back.
Speaker 4: And here I am. It is wonderful to see you too.
Speaker 4: Yet you're looking great?
Speaker 11: Are you really my father?
Speaker 4: Yes? I am.
Speaker 11: You drove us back from the country, right. Yes, Alma
Speaker 11: says you loved her.
Speaker 4: I did, I do, very much.
Speaker 11: So why didn't you stay around?
Speaker 10: Well?
Speaker 4: I was married, she was married. I had a life
Speaker 4: in America. It was complicated.
Speaker 11: I guess it must have been. She says, you've got
Speaker 11: a son.
Speaker 4: Yes, I do. Gary, he's fifteen.
Speaker 11: My half brother.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 11: I'd really like to see him one day. Maybe I
Speaker 11: should come to America sometime.
Speaker 4: Oh, I would love that. I'd love you both to
Speaker 4: come to America.
Speaker 11: But your wife wouldn't. Well, Hi, honey, have I told
Speaker 11: you about this Vietnamese daughter I've got. That'd be a
Speaker 11: tough conversation.
Speaker 10: Yet, No, No, it's okay, fair point.
Speaker 11: Anyway. I'm sorry, mamma. But they've called a rehearsal, so
Speaker 11: I better get going. I just came in for a snack.
Speaker 3: Oh, rehearsal well too, Yet has a concert tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Oh what do you play?
Speaker 11: It's traditional Vietnamese focal use, but I play guitar.
Speaker 1: Huh it sort of works.
Speaker 11: Yeah, one day, mister Sherman, I really think we should
Speaker 11: sit and talk.
Speaker 4: Me too.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 11: Let's do it then, cool, see you later, Alligator.
Speaker 4: Well, she speaks her mind and follows her heart.
Speaker 3: We've created a force of nature, Joseph.
Speaker 4: You know, I think I'm proud of that.
Speaker 3: It's such a pity you haven't been able to watch
Speaker 3: or grow up.
Speaker 10: Well, it's not too late.
Speaker 4: I mean, I understand why you couldn't come back to
Speaker 4: America before but why not now bring to Yet. I'll
Speaker 4: divorce Maryland, you divorce Paul. Who we can all be.
Speaker 3: Together in America.
Speaker 4: It's the life we've always wanted, isn't it? You and me?
Speaker 3: Not in America?
Speaker 4: Then please?
Speaker 3: At least you don't belong there, Joseph, but you do.
Speaker 3: This is my country. Vietnam is my country, and it's
Speaker 3: too Yette's country. This is not just a place.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, at least come and see what America's like
Speaker 4: before deciding. Yeah, please, I can arrange that.
Speaker 3: Why don't you come in here to Yet concert first?
Speaker 3: I can arrange that.
Speaker 4: Of course I'd love to.
Speaker 1: A week later, Joseph returned to d NBN food.
Speaker 2: Hope you're feeling luck.
Speaker 4: Where are they firing from right up of the mountain?
Speaker 2: Who knows how they did it? But until we cannot reach.
Speaker 4: Them, can we even land? Say problem in the qua?
Speaker 9: I will land and then pick up the wounded that leave.
Speaker 2: That long on the ground.
Speaker 12: You understand, Ali, Who are you?
Speaker 4: Joseph Sherman, Washington Post. I'm looking for Colonel Devro, the
Speaker 4: guy of the Mercy.
Speaker 2: He's a Joseph, your American bustard. Where the hell have
Speaker 2: you been sunning yourself in Sidegon.
Speaker 4: Pretty much sightseeing, you know, going to concerts.
Speaker 2: And what did you pack? Some rocket launchers or a
Speaker 2: phantom jit? Did you bring us a phantom jit? That
Speaker 2: would be handy.
Speaker 4: Sorry, Paul, I've got a thirty five mil camera with
Speaker 4: four lens, twenty rolls of film and a pencil.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll throw your camera at them and see if
Speaker 2: it makes a difference. Good to see you, man, I
Speaker 2: mean you too, my friend. Although you shouldn't be here,
Speaker 2: not at the moment.
Speaker 4: Why what's happening?
Speaker 2: Hey? No, please don't pull you. They're all around us,
Speaker 2: Joseph with equipment. We didn't think they had dozens of
Speaker 2: how it says that we weren't.
Speaker 4: Expecting that how from China must be.
Speaker 2: But then how they dragged them up nearly vertical cliffs
Speaker 2: and through the jungle that should not be possible.
Speaker 4: Kim always could beat the art, Kim trans Van, Kim
Speaker 4: Land's brother, the tennis player well long ago, yes, But
Speaker 4: in Saigon, what we're hearing is it's Kim and General
Speaker 4: Zapp making all the big military decisions.
Speaker 2: Well earned respect. A drink a me. We might be
Speaker 2: running out of bullets, but there's still plenty of cognac.
Speaker 10: The French army always did fight and style.
Speaker 2: Don't lower our standards, can we? And two brandy balloons
Speaker 2: for justice occasion so civilized.
Speaker 4: There's so much to love about you Frenchmen, even in
Speaker 4: a crisis.
Speaker 2: I wish more Vietnamese shared that feeling. We tried to
Speaker 2: help them. Elumisarigadevo positionnell to us, Joseph and whatever lies ahead, Sante,
Speaker 2: How is the story going? It could be quite a school.
Speaker 4: Oh that's what the Post hopes, not least because there's
Speaker 4: no other journalist up here.
Speaker 2: Then what you right will become the truth.
Speaker 4: I'm writing what I see, Paul with photos forever Paul,
Speaker 4: before I go, I should, well not should? I mean,
Speaker 4: it's not something I should do. It's something I have
Speaker 4: to do, or something I have to say, rather just
Speaker 4: to you between us, something you should know.
Speaker 2: Get to the point, Joseph.
Speaker 4: Well, on my second trip, when Kim won the tennis game,
Speaker 4: you remember that?
Speaker 2: Who doesn't?
Speaker 4: And I escorted Land home?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Well? Yes.
Speaker 10: On the following night, the same night your father.
Speaker 4: Was murdered, and before she knew she was marrying you,
Speaker 4: we hired a riverboat and the perfume in the air
Speaker 4: was beautiful. Land was beautiful. I was so much in
Speaker 4: love with her, and things just happened. Yes, And she
Speaker 4: had a daughter before your wedding, who was brought up
Speaker 4: by some former housekeepers for the Tran family. But then
Speaker 4: the famine after the war created such a mess and
Speaker 4: everything went to hell, and well, you know, no one
Speaker 4: knew who was where anymore, and we went looking for
Speaker 4: her and found a traumatized fairal kid.
Speaker 2: And too yet you knew, well, I wondered, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: All I knew was Land rescued at this orphan and
Speaker 2: she ended up living with her parents. And then when
Speaker 2: I finally met her, Well, you've seen her. You'd have
Speaker 2: to be mad not to spot the resemblance, don't you think. Yes,
Speaker 2: so you and Lanne h m hmm. You still love her,
Speaker 2: don't you, Joseph. I always wondered if there was something
Speaker 2: between you and Lane, as far back as that tennis match,
Speaker 2: the way you watched each other, the way she loved
Speaker 2: my suggestion that you should escort her home give me
Speaker 2: that class. By the way, no more cognac for you.
Speaker 2: That's your punishment here. I think I could see it
Speaker 2: before you could. She never looked at the same way.
Speaker 2: I thought I could charm her winner over in time,
Speaker 2: but I never did. Excuse me, Marman, mister Sherman, I
Speaker 2: wounded on board. Are you staying or are you going?
Speaker 4: Ice?
Speaker 2: Going? No? Come on, get out?
Speaker 4: Are you sure?
Speaker 6: Go?
Speaker 2: Adi? Adi?
Speaker 10: Come with me, Pop.
Speaker 4: I can't staying Here's madness.
Speaker 2: I cannot leave my men. Besides, we might find a
Speaker 2: way of turning the tide.
Speaker 6: What was that.
Speaker 2: Our artillery shells?
Speaker 4: You've lost our demmunitions.
Speaker 2: We'll still have machine guns.
Speaker 4: Against how it serves it's useless.
Speaker 2: To take photos. Joseph, the world should hear about this.
Speaker 4: Go now, I mean you're coming, all right, all right,
Speaker 4: I'm coming coming.
Speaker 2: You have a whole life ahead.
Speaker 9: Go leave it very well, my friend, Oh Bob, we
Speaker 9: must help our luck. Hold mo jusip boir?
Speaker 4: Can I soup from up here if you wish?
Speaker 9: It may be the last picture you ever take.
Speaker 8: Me sure, I'm Sherry, I'm.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: As we soared into the air and climbed the safety,
Speaker 4: I could see the extent of the carnage below. Whoever
Speaker 4: decided to choose that spot for a major military garrison
Speaker 4: had been an idiot. There was no way out, and
Speaker 4: the enemy had the advantage of every high point. Its
Speaker 4: defeat was only a matter of time.
Speaker 1: On May seventh, nineteen fifty four, the siege of Dnbnfu
Speaker 1: ended and the French army in Vietnam was obliterated. Paul
Speaker 1: Deveux died on the final day of the siege. It
Speaker 1: was the end of seventy years of French colonial rule
Speaker 1: in Indo China and the beginning of total madness.
Speaker 5: Saigon is a production of Thoroughbred Studios, gold Hog Productions
Speaker 5: and iHeart Podcasts, starring Kelly Marie Trnn and Robed Benedict.
Speaker 5: Based on the best selling novel Cygone by Anthony Gray.
Speaker 5: It is created for audio by Greg Hadrick and Jeremy Fox,
Speaker 5: written by Greg Hadrick and directed by John Scott Dryden.
Speaker 5: Original music is by Sasha Putnam, with additional performances by
Speaker 5: nor Mgnir and Letivic Chier. Editing and sound design is
Speaker 5: by Elouise Whitmore. The series producer is Emma Hearn. The
Speaker 5: producer in Vietnam is Fatmung Nien. The executive producers are
Speaker 5: Jeremy Fox, Greg Hadrick, John Scott Dryden, Howard stringer and
Speaker 5: Jason English