by John Otim (Uganda/Nigeria): In the last days as they prepared to evacuate and return home, as personified by Claude, a veteran senior CIA operative in Saigon, the Americans were as cool as can be. Outwardly that is. The atmosphere in the embassy told a different story. There tempers were raw and the scenes were ugly. Among the South Vietnamese officials still in Saigon, matters were even worse. You get all of these just in brief first chapter. Which was all I could get access to as a poor third world academic. Even from this obviously very limited sample, I can say without fear, that this is a really good story, skillfully crafted and told.
