Sunday, January 30, 2011

Diary Entry 17: Saigon, Wednesday, 30 June 1965

                                                                Saigon
                                                                Wednesday, 30 June 1965

            Reckon I’ll write about where I live as can’t write about much of anything else I’ve been doing today.
           
Live at the Ham Nghi BOQ, so named for the main boulevard it sits on.  Overlooks the Central Market in Saigon where the Buddhist monks used to burn themselves with gasoline.  We can go out on our front porch and see the US Embassy one block to the right (which the VC try to blow up).  Just to the left is the public execution rack where the Vietnamese shoot the VC terrorists.
           
Have a living room which is furnished with sofa and 3 chairs, coffee table and desk.  Walls are colored ugly blue.  Bedroom which is painted the same color as living room.  Have 2 single beds with foam rubber mattresses but there are no springs for the bed.  There is a maid’s service and ironing room just off the living room.  Our bedroom is air conditioned with one window unit.  All floors are ceramic tiled.
           
Grady does not like it here and plans to move to another place as soon as he can.  He’s kinda nervous.  Keeps a sub-machine gun and a carbine in the living room and a pistol in the bedroom.  All loaded.  Sure hope he doesn’t have any nightmares and starts to sleepwalk!  I don’t think it’s as bad as he makes out.

The colonel from Washington who was over here “straphanging” last week turned out to be a very nice fellow.  He put in some nice words for me at the right places and left a nice note when he departed.  I was not here to see him off as had to rush to the boonies.
           
Don’t expect to make any more trips for a while.  Things are getting too pressing here at headquarters.  Seems like I spend most of my time in crisis conferences at all levels from my immediate subordinates up to places at the Embassy, US Operations Mission, and US Information Service.

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