Why would I provide you what sounds suspiciously like a military mole?Ĭarl, I need a candid, non-State Department point of view on a matter of great importance-and I need it soon. Power frowned as he scribbled Sharkey’s name on his yellow legal pad followed by an overgrown question mark. But I’m asking you to send a bright young officer to Phnom Penh, to your military team that works out of our embassy there.ĭon’t like the sound of that. Power grimaced, recognizing an old friend’s preamble to a humongous request of some kind. I need a big favor but want it kept on a strictly personal basis, if that’s possible. I’m begging, as usual, Carl, said Sharkey. How’s Foggy Bottom this morning? He rotated his chair so he could see the traffic already backed up on the 14th Street Bridge. Hello, Alan, Power had begun the conversation benignly a moment earlier. General Carl Power was an infamous (some said irascible) early worker. The Pentagon office of the Army Chief of Staff already was immersed in mid morning chores. The telephone had rung at precisely 9:10 on an overcast and drizzling morning in Washington, D.C. Of all people! You sure you’re still Assistant Secretary of State Alan Sharkey?" "I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this! Pulling some young, promising officer out of the mainstream Army-ruining his career-just because you can’t get a clear picture of what’s happening from your own damned embassy in Phnom Penh. I salute their dedication and best efforts to save Cambodians and their lovely country from the depredations of the Khmer Rouge. This novel is dedicated to those who served with the U.S. The latter battled the communist insurgents, the Khmer Rogue, in a protracted and debilitating civil war to determine whether the small nation of Cambodia (now known as Kampuchea) would remain an imperfect and fragile democracy or fall to the communist forces of murderous Pol Pot. Military Equipment Delivery Team-Cambodia (MEDTC), a small, scarcely-known group of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel charged with expediting training and equipment for Lon Nol’s Cambodian armed forces. Air Force C-130 (Hercules) aircraft into Pochentong airfield outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. On a hot October afternoon I rode an ammunition-laden U.S. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author. One of the four will be the last American escaping Phnom Penh. The struggle between the army officer, his general, the ambassador plus an embassy political officer stalking Beth ends with the evacuation. How Beth and Briscoe solve their personal problems, while balancing their jobs and precarious positions with the ambassador and general, add to the drama of the helicopter evacuation of Americans from Communist-besieged Phnom Penh. Congressional edict, as well as his own generals admonition against advising. media highlights Briscoes disobeying the U.S. Beth Kellers widely publicized article in U.S. While inspecting Cambodian infantry battalions, Briscoe unwittingly crosses the grey line between advising and assisting about which Cleveland warned. Once the American ambassador, to whom General Cleveland reports, hears about the romance, he tries to blackmail Briscoe into coercing Beth to soften her scathing investigative reporting about diplomatic bumbling at the American Embassy. Briscoes no win job is further complicated by an instantaneous-but forbidden romance-withAmerican freelance reporter Beth Keller. This introduces him to the fraud and graft rampant in the Cambodian armed forces as well as the government. Briscoe quickly discovers that the pay for the non-existent or phantom soldiers goes into the pockets of their commanders. Cleveland also admonishes Briscoe against advising the Cambodians and talking to reporters, particularly American ones. Once in Phnom Penh, Briscoes immediate boss, Brigadier General Cleveland, orders him to eliminate phantom soldiers from Cambodian army payrolls. His new job gains an unexpected dimension when the Army Chief of Staff assigns Briscoe a secret task while in Cambodia which only the Chief of Staff and an Assistant Secretary of State know about. Army lieutenant colonel Sam Briscoe volunteers for a job in exotic, wartime Cambodia to escape the routines of Pentagon duty and an acrid divorce.
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