[Canada]: Message to Vietnam

[Owen]

"Dear the President of Vietnam,

My name is Deborah Paul and I am the current Canadian Ambassador to Vietnam. It is my privilege and honour to welcome your government into power and finally seeing an end to the toltalitarian regime of the previous Communist Party. Canada stands firm with all those who wish to pursue democracy and human rights in this world and this is truly a momentous occassion for your country and one which the Trudeau Government fully supports. I wish to meet with you to be able to kick-start a long and deep friendship between Canada and Vietnam and to be able to achieve things which we previously couldn't under the Communist Party's rule. Hope to hear from you shortly.

Sincerely,
Deborah Paul,
Canadian Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam."

 

[Joe]

Ambassador Paul would recieve a reply that the Presidential Palace is currently being prepared for her visit and that an employee of the Presidential Cabinet will arrive later that day to drive her in for an early dinner.

 

[Owen]

The Ambassador would walk outside the embassy gates and would wait outside with two unarmed RCMP officers standing beside her as they waited for the Vietnamese car to come pick them up.

 

[Joe]

For possibly the very first time in decades, Hanoi was quiet. Martial law was still in effect in the city after President Duc's Republic Putsch. As a result, when Officer Cadet Sái Thành Lợi arrived at the Canadian Embassy in a purring Vinfast Lux A2.0, he was quite early. The car came to a halt outside of the embassy and Officer Cadet Sái stepped out. His Navy uniform, dress blues, was impeccable. His hair was neatly combed and his shoes were shined to the point where one could see their own reflection in it. Officer Cadet Sái adjusted his holstered Model 10 and placed his peaked cap on his head, stepping up to Ambassador Paul. He smartly saluted her, raising a gloved hand to his face, and then deftly bowed in a sign of deep respect for the Canadian diplomat.

"Madam Ambassador," He greeted when he arose. "My name is Cadet Sái, President Ngo's aide-de-camp, I will be personally escorting you to the Presidential Palace. Please, come this way."

Cadet Sái was quite young. In fact, he was a fourth year at the Vietnam Naval Academy. As part of Vietnamese political procedure, it was always tradition that the sitting President select a young officer from the Service Academies and handpick them to serve as an aide-de-camp: a personal assistant who usually became a close confidant, trusted adviser, and close family friend. The President was able to have the eye, reasoning, and counsel of a military officer without the political maneuvering that usually came with it. In return, the Cadet was able to learn behind the President himself. It was quite often that the aide-de-camps of high ranking politicians quickly rose through the ranks of their military. However, Cadet Sái's journey to his position was rather unorthodox. As part of his final, culminating year at the academy, he was to embed himself as the aide-de-camp of a young officer in the People's Navy, to ultimately learn and absorb as much as he could.

That young officer was a Vietnamese-American who had come home to Vietnam to serve in his country's Navy, then Captain John Ðức Ngo. When the Communist lunatics fell apart and civil war threatened to take the whole country, Captain Ngo raised his barracks in Hanoi and marched on the Presidential Palace, arresting the Politburo out of his duty to sacred Vietnam. Cadet Sái was right there beside him, loyally following him unto death. When the warhawks finally quieted down, Captain Ngo was deemed the most capable of running the new Fourth Republic, having studied in America and serving in Vietnam. Overnight, he had dismantled the Communist party, arrested dangerous subversives, and put Vietnam on the direction of a bright future that was denied to them sixty years ago.

Cadet Sái opened the door to the luxury car, helping Ambassador Paul into the car. He closed the door and nodded to the RCMP officers, bidding them a good evening and pointing them in the direction of a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant down the street that had delicious noodles. He walked around and climbed into the car, taking off into the night towards the Presidential Palace.

"President Ngo is very eager to meet you," Sái explained, steering the car deftly through the winding roads of Hanoi. "I hope you're hungry. No guest has ever left the Presidential Palace without being stuffed full of delicious food. Do you have any dietary restrictions, Madam Ambassador?"

 

[Owen]

"Lovely to meet you Mr. Sai." She would nod her head at him before proceeding to enter the car. As they drove off she would listen to the Officer Cadet speak.

"Ah that sounds lovely, I'm allergic to shrimp so make sure there is none of that please." She would start texting on her phone letting the Minister know she was on her way to the Presidential Palace.

 

[Joe]

"No shrimp it is," Officer Cadet Sái laughed. "President Ngo is a lover of seafood, but I'm sure he'll be willing to concede for you. I think the First Lady will be able to convince him. The couple are quite in love after all."

Officer Cadet Sái steered the VinFast onto Hùng Vương Avenue. Erupting over the trees was the burnt orange building that was once the home of French Governor-General of Indochina, and the current home of the sitting President, John Duc Ngo. He slowed the car down as it was brought up to the front gate... or where there once was a front gate. The front gate was smashed to absolute pieces when a Army tank with Republican soldiers stormed the Palace to arrest the sitting Politburo only mere weeks ago. The once beautiful grounds were pockmarked with tiny craters were grenades were set off and a few of the windows of the building were shattered. The only thing that was untouched was Ho Chi Minh's carp pond and stilt house around the back. Despite the anti-communist fervor rushing through the Republic, President Ngo had ordered no one touch the house.

An ARVN Armored Cavalry Security Guard stepped up to the car, lowering an AK-74M

"Name and purpose?"

"Officer Cadet Sái," The young aide de camp responded. "Bringing Ambassador Paul from the Canadian Embassy."

"Thank you," The Security Guard replied. He stepped away from the car, turning to his radio. "Renegade is arriving. Repeat, Renegade is arriving."

Officer Cadet Sai pulled the car forwards towards the front door of the Presidential Palace. Security was tight around the grounds. The Presidential Guard, well-dressed ARVN soldiers, were conducting patrols in their impeccable dress uniforms by marching slowly and methodically on the stone steps that surrounded the Palace. Even though their polished and shiny M14 rifles looked dated and antiques, they were very much loaded and ready to fire. Their eyes were hiden behind large aviator sunglasses, similar to the ones worn by the B-17 bomber pilots of WW2.

On the front steps of the Palace, President John Duc Ngo stood proudly, next to his beautiful American wife Kristen. The two had met at Boston Logan International Airport when they were coincidentally flying to San Francisco. Kristen was flying for a conference hosted by Johns Hopkins University and John was returning home from a law semester at Harvard. He had seen her reading a favorite book of his, The Slap, a well-known novel in Australia about a Melbourne family. He had decided that she was quite pretty and plucked up the courage to talk to her. Naturally, they had soon become inseparable and met continuously while in California and back in Massachusetts. While the tabloids looked upon an American-born Vietnamese president with disgust, they found the fact that he took a stereotypical white, blonde, American wife as absolutely sinful. Despite this, Kristen Ngo was beloved all across Vietnam for her work at the Republic of Vietnam Public Health Service. They were both young, full of energy, and full of love for the Republic.

President Ngo stepped forward as cameras around them flashed.

"Ambassador Paul, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May I introduce you to my wife, Kristen?"

 

[Owen]

"A pleasure to meet you as well Mr. President." She would shake his hand, she would then turn to his wife.

"Kristen, so lovely to meet you. That's a lovely dress you're wearing." She would shake her hand.

She would then turn to her advisor as they walked inside and would whisper. "Where the fuck did all these Americans come from?" She would turn back smiling.

 

[Joe]

Officer Cadet Sai would overhear. He'd turn towards her smiling softly. If there was one thing that the Vietnamese were good at, it was playing host. It was being polite and friendly when one really did not mean it. He'd incline his head politely. "San Francisco, as a matter of fact. President Ngo was born in the United States of America but due to his heritage, possessed Vietnamese citizenship and all of it's benefits. He grew up in California and attended school in Massachusetts, but when his mandatory service to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam arrived, he did not renounce or back down... rather, he postponed his graduation to serve as an officer in our armed forces. He is as Vietnamese as the rest of us and earned every position he has received in blood, I assure you. Madam Ngo, on the other hand, is a bit more different."

The Canadian Ambassador was led to the interior of the Presidential Palace, where a ceremony was held in the Grand Ballroom. High-class Vietnamese politicians and socialites were all in attendance, and clamoring to meet with the Canadian Ambassador and at least get their name known. After all, this was the first true Western diplomat that was ever allowed in the Presidential Palace. On the high wall, next to the large portrait of Ho Chi Minh, the Canadian flag was hung just below the Republic of Vietnam. As per tradition, the Vietnamese hosts would put forward a delightful series of events, starting with a live band performance covering songs from AC/DC to Coldplay, to a traditional Dragon Dance backed by the roaring tempo of tanggu drums. All the while, Ambassador Paul was seated directly next to President Ngo and the First Lady.

Once the festivities ended and dinner began to be served, President Ngo would politely strike up conversation.

"We were quite pleased to hear that your government wishes to extend it's hand of friendship to our humble nation. Times are troubled as of late and it is comforting to know that we have friends around us. Surely we can make this friendship profitable to both sides," President Ngo began.

"Come now, darling... you shouldn't discuss business until you've eaten," Kristen sniffed.

"Too right, dear." President Ngo laughed. "But all the same, I think the Canadian government would be very interested to know that if Canadians wish to have a foothold and a prescence in Asia, militarily or economically... the only route to do it would be through the Vietnamese... isn't that right, Ambassador Paul?"

 

[Owen]

"Lovely." She would reply to herself. After sitting down and listening to the President talk the Ambassador would think to herself, knowing damn well that Vietnam was not as important as China or Japan.

"Yes, that is quite the case and that's why I'm here today.."

She would start eating the food, non-shrimp delicacies of course.

"You know if you were throwing this much of a party we would've brought the Prime Minister down for a visit."

 

[Joe]

President Ngo would cock his head. As a military officer, he had a knack for analysis. He had to, of course, in his field. He had to be able to take in a plethora of information, break it down, and distribute orders all in the matter of seconds... and he was damn good at it too. He was doing that now with the Canadian Ambassador, drumming his fingers on the table.

"I don't doubt that Prime Minister Trudeau would've enjoyed a visit to our beautiful country. As a matter of fact, I do wish to meet him in person down the road. However, I think it's quite obvious that even his presence wouldn't be enough to convince us otherwise that Canada has very much little to offer in comparison to what the Republic can offer them. Wouldn't you say so, Ambassador?"

 

[Owen]

The Ambassador would let out a smile as he said that last bit.

"Certainly, Mr. President..." She would pretend she didn't hear that and continue eating.

"Lovely food, I must say."

 

[Joe]

"Why thank you," President Ngo would reply. He'd say little else, turning his attention to his wife.

 

[Owen]

"Hmm, what do you call this dish?" She would say pointing to a random delicacy.

 

[Joe]

"Rice."