OCR Text |
Show Family Weekly o COM3) Vfett mil uprising, Family Weekly's correspondent recorded By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER soldiers crowded into them. The traffic cop lets the first military vehicles pass but now he stops the rest to let a couple of taxis go by. What a war! No Time Recorded The shooting has started again. Through a window, I look down into the back yard of a house. Pathetically, women and children are huddling for protection behind some barrels. IVo Time Recorded I'm back on the hotel on a roof a roof top. We spot a machine-gunnblock away; he's firing just past us. I order a couple of Manhattans and invite some people for drinks. Wonder if I'll ever have to pay for them? 7:10 There is a tremendous explosion; an ammunition dump seems to have gone up. Someone just announced that the bar is now officially open! Where has the liquor been coming from so far? An American woman tourist tells me how much she loves what's going on. "Isn't this exciting," she bursts out. Another American comes up to me and whispers, 'Till your bathtub." With what, I asked him martinis or Manhattans? "Water," he whispers. "I understand it may be turned off momentarily." I'm much more concerned about the electricity going out. Someone could get stuck in one of the elevators and stay there for hours or days. I'll walk from now on. 7:15 Decide to have some dinner. No use starving. There's another radio broadcast something about being careful indoors; it seems a lot of people get hurt falling from ladders and walking into doors. 9:00 I go downstairs to meet my Vietnamese friend; not surprised he doesn't show . . . 9:55 Back at the bar. I have drinks with two Navy officers and a girl from the American Embassy. She invites me to a party at someone's house tomorrow night provided everything is back to normal. 10:00 We're back on the roof, and by a weird coincidence a thunderstorm has begun, and lightning flashes across the sky regularly. 11:30 We're still on the roof, about 30 of us. There's a drizzle. Tracers are flying overhead; explosions of mortar and artillery shells all around. An American technician is trying to talk the Scandinavian girl into dancing. She says she will if he can find another couple to join them, but right now she's the only girl on er January 5, 1964 1 -- mm Iji r ' tm 1m tY''i rr fl fe rr rr iTrt wi-"''- ! Vietnamese jeer statue resembling Madame Nhy. the roof. Someone sends a whiskey glass crashing to the floor. Everyone jumps. 11:50 Back at the bar, several Frenchmen are carrying on as if it were a Pastille Day celebration. They sing, yell, and clap their hands every time a shell explodes. 12:27 a.m. A flare lights the sky and then falls so close to the hotel we think it's going to land right on top of the building. A wire-servireporter is getting tense: he starts swearing at the noisy French. 12:35 More flares going up. It looks like an American Fourth of July. The French are getting more and more drunk and spilling drinks all over the lounge. 12:45 Except for the flares, it's calm outside. The French decide to leave. From the roof, I can see them walk down the deserted street. One of them grabs a parking sign and puts it in the middle of the road. There is a machine-gu- n burst, and the French run wildly. One falls; it looks as if he's hurt. No, he isn't. They make it into a doorway. 12:56 An American Air Force captain asks the Scandinavian girl for a late. She seems receptive, though she doesn't say yes or no. 1:05 A black station wagon drives through the street announcing that another armored unit has joined the rebellion. 1:12 A German television camera crew (accompanied, oddly, by a military officer) is taking pictures of us in the bar. Someone makes a and a hairdresser. crack about needing make-u- p The Vietnamese bartender is terribly uneasy about being photographed. 1:27 The shooting has stopped again. I'm going back to my room to lie down for a while. 2:15 Firing starts up, then stops. I walk upstairs to the bar to see how everybody else is doing, but the bar is closed. Only the bartender and two waiters are there. I ask what's new, and suddenly no one understands English. I guess they don't want to commit themselves until they know who wins this revolution. I go back to my room and lie down. 3:10 Heavy mortar fire and tank fire start in again. The firing seems to be just outside the hotel. I step out of my room. The hallway is deserted, but all the lights in the rooms are on. Both the bar and the roof are closed, and nobody knows where to go. ce 3:35 They seem to be hitting the Palace v Guards again. I can't see how anything can be left standing. People have assembled in the hallways again. I walk up to the seventh floor, where about 15 people are crowded on a tiny balcony watching the scenes below. 4:00 Planes overhead. Big fire near a radio tower three blocks away. 4:10 The Palace is now being attacked. Terrific noise and "explosions ; tracers coming in our direction, apparently from the Palace defenses. 4:25 Two elderly American couples are worried about how to get out of Saigon. I tell them the U. S. Army is sending planes to evacuate us and now they're concerned about how much luggage they can takelong! 5:14 --Soldiers in battle gear move toward the Palace. On the other side of the street, fellows clad only in their underwear scramble away from the fighting. They must be deser&rs who have thrown away their uniforms. 5:20 A bullet whistles past. We all tumble back into the room. I fall and tear my trousers 6:48 The curfew is supposed to be until 7, but people already are coming out of their houses. Life is beginning again. 6:57 I have fought my way through the yelling, happy crowds to the Palace. A tank is burning in the street; everybody inside must be dead. No sign of Diem or Nhu. There are rumors they escaped through a tunnel or that they have been shot. 7:30 Back at the hotel. When I take my travelers checks out of my pocket, I realize the folder is thinner than before. Sure enough, I find that not everybody has been fighting the war; someone has been busy rifling my room. Travelers checks worth $510 are missing. They were cleverly taken from the middle of the folder rather than the top. walk through the city. 9:00 On a three-hou- r Half of Saigon's two million people seem to be jamming the streets. Prisoners just released from jail carry banners proclaiming their liberation. Buildings belonging to the Diem family, as well as the police station, where many brutalities took place, go up in smoke. But generally the crowds seem And judging by the many people who come over to shake my hand, I'd say that for once Americans are popular after a successful revolution. It's a good feeling! well-behave- d. Family Weekly, January 5, 196 1 |