13h03 (Indochina Time)
Thursday, January 15, 1953 ‘C’
Bac Ti Airfield, suburbs of Hanoi
Tonkin, Indochina
While he already knew about the age of Major General Ingrid Dows, Vo Nguyen Giap was still shocked by her impossible youth for her rank. She could not be much more than 25 years old. He also had to concede that she was as beautiful as she was said to be, with an angelic face, big blue eyes and reddish brown hair falling to her neck. Standing a good 175 centimeters, with a graceful body and long, shapely legs, Dows dominated him by a half-head. Despite her youth, Giap was however acutely conscious that this young woman had proved herself to be a fearsome combat pilot, as well as a brilliant tactician and strategist. With her air wing based in Da Nang, she had succeeded in utterly crushing and turning around a Chinese invasion force of over a quarter million soldiers, on top of exterminating the whole higher level Communist Chinese political leadership by a daring, masterful bombing raid on Beijing. All that, plus her surprising openness and political acumen, had convinced Ho Chi Minh to accept her terms for a peace accord in Indochina. In return, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh were going to be able to participate in a coalition government that would soon take over from the hated French colonial administration. Giap, coming at the head of a column of trucks carrying thousands of French prisoners of war due to be freed today, was in Bac Ti in order to supervise an exchange of prisoners, as mandated by a recent ceasefire agreement. Getting that ceasefire accepted by some of his more hardline Communist collaborators had not been easy for Ho Chi Minh, who now fully realized that he could not afford to reject this opportunity for peace and independence for Vietnam. The reception of Dows’ conditions for a ceasefire and peace agreement at the Viet Minh field headquarters near Cao Bang had triggered some fierce and bitter objections from the more hardcore communist leaders of the movement. In desperation, and fearing that a golden opportunity could be lost because of political and dogmatic intransigence, Ho Chi Minh had turned to the one moderate he fully trusted: Giap. Together, using Giap’s soldiers, who were overwhelmingly hoping for a quick and honorable peace, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap had conducted a surprise purge of the hardliners, including Ho’s three closest collaborators, Le Duan, Truong Chinh and To Huu. Now free to act as he wished, Ho Chi Minh had then lost no time in implementing the conditions for a ceasefire, including this prisoner exchange.
Dows saluted crisply Giap as the latter stopped in front of her, to then speak to him in perfect Vietnamese.
‘’Welcome to Bac Ti, General.’’
Giap returned her salute, then shook hands with her while speaking to her.
‘’And it is an honor to meet with such a meritorious adversary, General Dows.’’
‘’Please, General, do not think anymore of me as an enemy. I, like you, want to see an independent and prosperous Vietnam able to live in peace.’’
‘’I must say that the recent turnaround in American policies concerning Vietnam surprised me, General Dows. Many in Washington were firmly against leaving any future political role to the Viet Minh in Indochina.’’
‘’Many people in Washington still are opposed to the idea of having some Communists being part of an independent Vietnamese government, General. However, President Dewey decided to follow my advice rather than theirs.’’
‘’This must have created many political enemies for you in Washington, on top of attracting on you the unhealthy attention of the French secret services.’’
‘’Well, I am in fact debating if I should acquire the services of a food taster.’’ Replied Ingrid in a joking tone. ‘’But enough about me. How many French prisoners of war did you bring in your convoy, General?’’
Giap turned around to look at the trucks of his convoy, who were now maneuvering to park in a series of long lines in an empty zone of the airfield, guided in this by American military policemen.
‘’I have in my convoy 3,866 French prisoners, all that the Viet Minh had in our camps in the Tonkin. I am still assembling for transport the remaining French prisoners we have inside Laos and Cambodia. And how many Viet Minh prisoners did you bring out of French prisons?’’
It was Ingrid’s turn to look at a large group of trucks and buses parked a hundred meters away and guarded by French soldiers.
‘’I was able to assemble all the Vietnamese prisoners of war and political detainees I could find in French prisons across Indochina. This includes 428 prisoners of war, 4,510 political detainees and 1,896 prisoners accused of acts of terrorism by the French. I must warn you that I expect many of those ex-prisoners to request to stay here in Hanoi, in order to be reunited with their families. My soldiers will take care of providing them transportation to their respective homes then. I can guarantee you that these people will not be further threatened by French authorities. The French prisons are now empty of everything but common criminals and will stay so, including the Hao Lo Prison. American soldiers are now posted at the entrances of those French prisons and have orders to free on the spot any prisoner brought in under accusations of political activities.’’
‘’And the French accepted that?’’ Asked Giap, truly surprised, attracting a malicious grin on Ingrid’s face.
‘’Let’s say that I told the French that they could put their objections somewhere, General. With all American military and financial support cut off on President Dewey’s orders, the French were left with no choice but to start withdrawing right away their forces from Indochina. In fact, a good quarter of the French troops stationed in Indochina have already left the country, to return to either France or to the French African colonies from where they came from. By the way, I am sorry for what happened to your wife Quang Thai at the hands of the French so many years ago. I was able to locate her grave in the cemetery of the Hao Lo Prison. I can guide you to it after this exchange of prisoners is completed, so that you can arrange to dig her coffin out and transport her remains to her native town of Vinh.’’
Giap looked at her with wide eyes, emotionally shaken by those words. Tears then started rolling on his cheeks.
‘’You…you would do that? Why?’’
‘’As a simple act of humanity, General. The Tet new year celebrations are in one month and your wife deserves to be able to rest near the bones of her ancestors. Consider this as a proof of goodwill on my part…and a low blow to the French secret services for having briefly tortured me with the intention of then executing me in secret.’’
Giap then shook again her hand warmly, sincerely moved.
‘’Thank you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, General Dows. I will certainly go with you to the Hao Lo Prison after this exchange.’’
‘’In that case, let’s start without delay, General. International Red Cross representatives are already present and will supervise the prisoner exchange. There are also reporters and press photographers of various nationalities present, but my soldiers will keep them some distance away, so that we can proceed quickly.’’
The prisoner exchange ended up taking a good three hours, mostly because of the need to properly identify and sort the large number of prisoners. Many of the French ex-prisoners also necessitated immediate hospitalization, due to their poor state of health and to the obvious ill treatments they had been subjected to. As the prisoner exchange concluded, Ingrid did a short joint declaration with Giap to the press representatives before inviting them to leave the airfield. Once alone with Giap near the Viet Minh trucks now full of liberated Vietnamese, Ingrid signaled for her M20 armored command car to come forward before facing Giap again.
‘’General, I can now lead you to the Hao Lo Prison, as promised. If you want, you can designate eight of your soldiers and a light truck to accompany us.’’
‘’I will certainly take your offer, my friend.’’ Replied at once Giap before shouting a few orders to his soldiers. One truck with eight soldiers inside soon came forward to line up behind Giap’s jeep and Ingrid’s M20. Ingrid then gave the order to her driver to roll as the convoy with the liberated Vietnamese started to leave the airfield, heading towards Cao Bang, the location of the Viet Minh headquarters near the Chinese border.
Giap, who had elected to ride with Ingrid in her M20, stayed silent during their trip to the Hao Lo Prison, which would become in another timeline and another war the so-called ‘Hanoi Hilton’ of sinister reputation. Ingrid, understanding Giap’s state of mind, respected his silence and spoke only when they arrived at the prison’s entrance, to give a few orders to the American marines who surrounded the two rather nervous French soldiers standing guard there. The small convoy then entered the courtyard of the prison, stopping finally by the side of a cemetery filled with hundreds of wooden crosses. No French guard dared stop Ingrid when she led Giap inside the cemetery, followed by the eight Viet Minh soldiers and by two American female MPs carrying shovels. Ingrid finally stopped in front of a particular cross and read aloud the inscription on it.
‘’Dang Thi Quang Thai, communist agitator. Died September 8 of 1941. General, do you have a way to recognize the remains of your wife if you open her coffin?’’
Giap had to swallow hard before he could reply to her.
‘’Yes! She had two fillings on her top left molars.’’
‘’In that case, do you wish that we dig out her coffin now, so that you could positively identify her and then go back to Cao Bang with her remains?’’
At Giap’s nod, Ingrid signaled her two MPs to come forward with their shovels, but Giap then stopped them with a hand signal while looking at Ingrid.
‘’Please let me and one of my soldiers do that job, General Dows.’’
‘’As you wish, General. Pass your shovels to the General, girls.’’
Ingrid then stepped back with her two MPs, keeping a respectful distance while Giap and his soldier dug up the coffin. After a few minutes of digging, a rotting, flimsy wooden coffin was extracted from the grave and put down besides the hole, with Giap then forcing the lid open with the help of a bayonet. Looking at the remains inside and opening the skeleton’s mouth, the Viet Minh general was suddenly struck with uncontrollable grief and had to sit down besides the coffin, crying shamelessly. Ingrid barely stopped herself from going to him, not wanting to break such an intimate and tragic moment. After a couple of minutes, having gained control of himself, Giap got up on his feet and gave an order to his soldiers, who then closed back the coffin and picked it up to carry it to their truck. Giap rejoined Ingrid as the coffin was being carried away, a look of gratitude on his face.
‘’I will never be able to thank you enough for this, General Dows.’’
‘’Help create a just peace and that will be enough for me, General. Vietnam needs peace now. It also needs to forget its hatreds and differences if it wants to prosper in the future. My armored car will escort you until you are able to join up with your convoy.’’
‘’Thank you again, General Dows. You truly are an exceptional woman.’’
‘’I just do my best to stay human while doing my duty to my country, General.’’ Replied Ingrid soberly.
19:43 (Indochina Time)
Detention block, Military Police guardhouse
Da Nang Air Force Base, Annam
The young and beautiful Vietnamese teenager, who was sitting on her cell’s bed and was dying of boredom, looked with surprise when Ingrid came to her cell and unlocked the door herself. No MP or soldier was with her in the corridor of the cell block as she entered the cell.
‘’What is going on, General? What do you want from me?’’
‘’I came to fulfill a promise I made to you after your arrest, Dinh Thi Hoa: peace is coming to Vietnam, so I am freeing you.’’
The sixteen year-old ex-prostitute and Viet Minh spy got up slowly from her bed, having difficulty believing her.
‘’The war is over? How?’’
‘’I managed to convince Ho Chi Minh to put down his weapons in exchange for a place for the Viet Minh in a new Vietnamese government of coalition led by Emperor Bao Dai. Don’t worry about the French: according to the terms of the accord I arranged, all of their forces must leave Indochina within four months and they will lose any political control they had on your country when the new government of national salvation will be proclaimed in three weeks. National and regional democratic elections will then be held by this coming Summer.’’
Hoa was speechless for a moment, then started crying, prompting Ingrid in hurrying to her and gently taking the teenager’s face in her hands.
‘’Believe me when I say that I am as happy as you to see peace come back to a soon to be independent Vietnam, Hoa.’’
‘’My parents are dead, killed by the French, while I lost my honor by working as a prostitute, even if that was to support the cause of the Viet Minh.’’ Said the Vietnamese girl while still crying. ‘’What will I do now? I don’t want to be a prostitute again and nobody will want me after this.’’
‘’You will not need to return to prostitution, Hoa. You are young and you were well educated. You also speak fluently three languages, including English. If you are interested, I am ready to offer you a position as a translator and Vietnamese language teacher on my base.’’
Hoa looked at her with incredulous eyes.
‘’You…you would be ready to do that, even though I was ready to help sabotage your planes?’’
‘’The past is the past, Hoa. The Tet will come in a month: let’s forget our hatreds and divisions and let’s work together to help Vietnam prosper in peace.’’
‘’And the United States, what does it win in that peace?’’
‘’Peace itself! We will not have anymore to face the prospect of a long future war in which we would lose tens of thousands of our soldiers. Only Communist China and the Soviet Union are now left as a threat to our forces in Indochina, but we managed to reign in that threat…for the moment.’’
Joining her graceful hands to those of Ingrid, Hoa thought over her situation for a moment while starring into her eyes. She finally nodded her head, to Ingrid’s satisfaction.
‘’I accept your offer, General. When will I start working as a translator?’’
‘’Tomorrow morning. You will work with the public affairs officer of my air wing. At first, your work will consist in translating in English articles from the local newspapers, until Vietnamese language classes can be organized. You can sleep in my quarters tonight, until I can arrange for a room of your own on the base tomorrow.’’
Overwhelmed by so much goodness from a woman she had considered an enemy, Hoa lowered her head and started to cry again, making Ingrid hug her to comfort her.
‘’The nightmare of war is over, Hoa. Now, it is time for you to enjoy life: you deserve it. Grab your things and follow me.’’
Grabbing the suitcase that contained all of her remaining belongings, mostly clothes, Hoa left her cell and followed Ingrid to the office of the duty MP officer, where she was officially registered as being freed. Going out of the brick guardhouse with Ingrid, Hoa took place with her suitcase in the back of a jeep waiting in front, with a blond American woman in the driver’s seat. Ingrid then presented in English her driver to the Vietnamese teenager.
‘’Hoa, this is my military driver, Sergeant Denise Bateman. Sergeant Bateman, this is Dinh Thi Hoa. She will start working as a translator tomorrow at the public affairs office of the base.’’
Hoa exchanged a guarded handshake with Bateman, a blonde in her twenties who possessed generous curves.
‘’Happy to know you, Hoa.’’ Said the blonde while examining her quickly from head to toe. Hoa didn’t reply, still overwhelmed by today’s events.
Hoa was silent during the trip to the officers quarters of the base, looking eagerly at the base, which seemed fairly quiet at this time. The jeep finally stopped in front of one of the doors of a long, one-storey wooden building with a covered porch. Ingrid unlocked the door for Hoa, who entered with her suitcase and found herself inside a small lounge. Following Ingrid, Hoa then went in an adjacent bedroom with private bathroom. She looked at the large bed, the dresser, the closet and the small work table and chair that were the only furniture in the bedroom.
‘’I must say that your quarters are modest in view of your rank, General.’’
‘’I am not materialistic one bit and am accustomed to simple living conditions, Hoa. Do as if this is your home tonight. You are also welcomed to use the shower. You don’t have objections to sleeping in the same bed as me, I hope?’’
‘’Not at all, General.’’
Ingrid nodded her head, then pointed her work table, on which a few books were lined up against a wall.
‘’I must go take care of a few things tonight. If you get bored, you are welcomed to read through the books on my table. I should be back in a couple of hours.’’
‘’I will manage, General. Thank you again for your goodness.’’
‘’You’re welcomed, Hoa.’’ Replied Ingrid, smiling, before going out and returning to her jeep. She looked with malice at her driver as she sat in the front passenger seat.
‘’What do you think of her, Denise?’’
‘’She is quite young, and also very beautiful, General.’’
‘’Jealous?’’
‘’Envious, really: she looks very appetizing indeed.’’
Ingrid giggled and, checking first to see if anyone was looking at them, discreetly put her left hand on Denise’ right upper leg.
‘’Don’t worry, Denise: I still like very much your services.’’
‘’And me your comprehension, General.’’ Replied Denise, knowing that both were playing a risky game indeed as two members of an armed force that didn’t tolerate fraternization between officers and junior ranks and tolerated even less lesbian and homosexual relationships, even when it involved bisexual persons.
21:52 (Indochina Time)
Major General Dows’ quarters
Da Nang Air Force Base
Ingrid smiled when she found Hoa in bed, reading the book she had published after the Second World War about her career as a fighter pilot.
‘’I see that you found a book that interested you, Hoa.’’
The teenager, wearing her underwear and lying in a semi-reclined position, raised her nose from the book and gave her an envious look.
‘’I must say that your career would make many girls dream, General. You succeeded in many things that most women would consider out of reach.’’
‘’That’s because I was lucky enough to be adopted by a woman that taught me that nearly nothing is impossible to someone who makes the necessary efforts and sacrifices.’’
‘’I would have loved very much to have met that Nancy Laplante. She seemed to have been a fascinating woman.’’
‘’She was, on top of being most tolerant and having a huge heart. If you will excuse me for a moment, I will go have a shower.’’
Hoa, returning to her reading, discreetly glanced at Ingrid as the latter was taking off her clothes besides the dresser, to then walk naked into the bathroom. Ingrid returned in the bedroom twenty minutes later, still naked, then slipped under the bed sheets and lay besides Hoa with a sigh of contentment.
‘’What a day! I really need a few hours of sleep.’’
‘’You have to wake up early, General?’’
‘’At dawn. You can call me simply Ingrid in private, instead of ‘General’. You can continue reading if you want: the bedside lamp’s light doesn’t bother me.’’
‘’Thank you…Ingrid.’’
Hoa then soon found herself in a half-darkened room, with Ingrid asleep besides her. The teenager thought for a moment about the irony of that scene: only a few days ago, she would have used such an occasion to try to kill Ingrid while she slept. Now, she owed her a new life in an independent Vietnam.
14:38 (Moscow Time)
Thursday, January 22, 1953 ‘C’
Politburo conference room
Kremlin, Moscow
U.S.S.R.
Vyacheslav Molotov, Assistant Vice-Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and member of the Politburo, the most powerful political organ in the U.S.S.R., could see that Joseph Stalin was in a foul mood. That didn’t surprise Molotov in view of the recent events in Indochina and China, but that did nothing to reassure the ex-foreign affairs minister. Normally, when Stalin was angry, heads rolled, often many heads. The fact that both Molotov’s influence and power had been in decline for many years added to his anxiety today. Looking around the long table, Molotov examined discreetly the body language and expressions on the faces of the dozen or so generals, admirals and marshals that had been summoned to this special meeting of the Politburo to discuss the situation in Asia. As could one expect from a collection of men that had climbed the ladder of power in a state as brutal as the U.S.S.R., those general officers were apparently impassive. However, more than one had moist hands or glanced discreetly at Stalin and at Lavrentiy Beria, the minister for security and the ex-chief of the secret police, now called the MGB. Stalin then opened the discussion by speaking in a firm tone to the other men around the table.
‘’Comrades, what happened last month in Indochina and in China is nothing less than a humiliation for the Soviet Union and a disaster for the cause of world communism. Apart from identifying and punishing those responsible for this fiasco, we will have to decide today how to counter the imperialists in Asia and elsewhere. Comrade Bulganin, you and your generals had ample time to analyze the causes for the defeat of our air force and invasion force. What are your conclusions?’’
Nikolai Bulganin, the minister of defense, wiggled nervously in his chair before opening a file on the table in front of him and answering the old dictator.
‘’Comrade Stalin, I am pained to have to say that the Americans managed to develop in utter secret a series of revolutionary aircraft, which our own aircraft encountered over Indochina in December. The new American F-83 fighter-bomber in particular proved to be murderous. The F-83 is capable of top speeds of about three times the speed of sound, is very heavily armed, including guided air-to-air missiles, and has a very long range. As for the new B-50 heavy bomber, it also proved to be supersonic, with a huge bomb-carrying capacity.’’
‘’Is that B-50 able to deliver a nuclear bomb over transcontinental distances?’’ Asked pointedly Stalin. Bulganin then looked at one of his air marshals.
‘’Marshal Zhigarev?’’
Zhigaref, the head of the Soviet Air Force, hid under the table his left hand, which was shaking nervously. He was very much aware that he was literally risking his head today and that he made a perfect sacrificial lamb for Stalin.
‘’Comrades, I regret to say that the American B-50 CONDOR can, according to my experts, carry a minimum of one atomic bomb from the continental United States to the U.S.S.R. and back. Worst, its top speed basically makes it immune to interception by our actual fighters.’’
Stalin, like the other members of the Politburo, flared up at those words, while his eyes threw lightning bolts.
‘’And such a bomber was developed and put into service without us hearing a thing about it? What was the GRU{1} doing?’’
Bulganin took on him to answer the last question from his master.
‘’General Vatukin could only give me evasive answers on that subject, Comrade Stalin. I then relieved him of command, along with Colonel Mishenko, the head of the North America section at the GRU.’’
Stalin nodded his head at that, partially satisfied: both of those men were already dead in his mind.
‘’That will not help us much in countering that new threat to the motherland, Comrade Bulganin.’’
‘’True, Comrade Stalin, but that threat is still minimal, actually. In fact, the American air units that opposed us in Indochina constituted practically the only American units to be equipped with those new planes, according to our best intelligence. We believe that the Americans have in service to date only two operational squadrons of B-50 heavy bombers and at the most three squadrons of F-83 fighter-bombers. Further, the person responsible for developing all those new planes, Major General Ingrid Dows, personally led in combat those squadrons in Indochina. This reinforces our belief that those American squadrons in Indochina are actually operational test units, with a very limited quantity of new aircraft in service.’’
Stalin’s eyes narrowed as he mentally analyzed that information.
‘’And how much time before the American Air Force gets large quantities of those new planes?’’
‘’Four years at a minimum, maybe more, Comrade Stalin. The production capacity of the American aeronautical industry does not allow them to do it faster, unless they switch to wartime production, something we would detect at once. Those new planes are very sophisticated and also very costly to produce. Training the ground support crews for them will take a lot of time as well.’’
‘’And our own aeronautical industry? What can it produce quickly to counter those new American aircraft?’’
Bulganin suddenly started to sweat profusely, a wave of fear coming down on him.
‘’Uh, I am afraid that even our most advanced projects could not compete with the American F-83, Comrade Stalin. Please understand that General Dows used technological information from the future in order to develop the F-83 and the B-50.’’
‘’THEN LET’S GET THAT DAMN INFORMATION FROM THE FUTURE, DAMMIT!’’ Exploded Stalin, banging his fist on the table. He then looked at the head of the MGB, the Soviet secret police, and pointed an index at him.
‘’Comrade Ignatyev, since the GRU proved incapable to do its job properly, I am putting you in charge of finding everything you can about those new American aircraft. I also want you to eliminate in an anonymous manner that young General Dows: she has already caused us way too many problems.’’
‘’My services will get on those cases right away, Comrade Stalin.’’ Promised Semyon Ignatyev, the man in charge of dirty jobs for Stalin. The latter then looked again at Bulganin and at his collection of general officers.
‘’The Soviet Union will not wait for those American imperialists to become truly unbeatable in the air before reacting, gentlemen. We wanted since 1944 to take control of Eastern Europe, in order to create buffer states and thus prevent any new invasion of the motherland. Well, now that we also have the atomic bomb, we will not let the British or the Americans intimidate us again with their nuclear weapons. I want our strategic plans for an invasion of Eastern Europe to be reviewed and updated at once, so that our forces could be ready within a year at the most to take the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania.’’
Vyacheslav Molotov stiffened on hearing that: as the ex-foreign minister, he was probably the one present best able to appreciate the military and industrial potential of the West, and particularly of the United States. He also knew the real state of Soviet power, which hid behind an impressive military façade a weak economy and a general state of poverty and backwardness. He however didn’t dare object to the orders of Stalin, knowing that any man that would contradict him now would sign his death warrant. Already seriously shaken, Molotov was further shocked on hearing the next order from Stalin, given to Semyon Ignatyev.
‘’Comrade Ignatyev, I believe that now is a good time to effect a purge of the Jews in the Soviet Union, as we discussed about in the last months. By deporting en masse our Jews towards Palestine, we will create there new problems that will not fail to mobilize the attention and the assets of both the Americans and the British. This could thus only help facilitate our invasion of Eastern Europe. Comrade Vyshinsky and his foreign affairs ministry will assist you by giving to the operation the appearance of a mass voluntary emigration by our Jews towards Palestine. Use this occasion as well to get rid of the Jews that are in our various work camps.’’
Molotov nearly cracked then but barely managed to keep an impassive appearance, as Stalin glanced at him to see how he was reacting to his last order. Molotov’s wife, a Jew, had been arrested on orders from Stalin in 1948 under trumped up accusations and then condemned to forced labor in a work camp in Siberia. Despite the fact that he had not dared oppose Stalin in 1948 to protect his wife, Molotov still loved Polina, whom he had married thirty years ago. Glancing discreetly around the table, Molotov saw that Beria, who had many Jews among his aides and collaborators, also appeared alarmed for a very short moment before