Three into Ten: A Sequel to Three into Nine

By Peter R. Brumlik

The Vietnamese have claimed victory over the French, culminating in the final battle of the Indochina War. As thousands of legionnaire survivors move forward on a trail leading to imprisonment, two men are not among them. Sadly, the young Auschwitz survivor, Avram, and the German Army deserter, Jaehne, have not survived. Only Sal, a dedicated combat medic, remains. But even his life remains in question as the battle for food and water becomes a daily struggle.

Meanwhile in Paris, René is filled with melancholy and missing Sal. Now as she returns to work as a nurse at the hospital where she met and fell in love with Sal, René focuses on bringing new energy to her work. While she continues hoping that one day she and her beloved will be reunited, Quinn, a Vietnamese physician, works feverishly to prepare for an onslaught of patients at the hospital near the Chinese border, even as he realizes he is ill prepared for such a situation. In these intervening years between the French and American wars in Vietnam, Sal, René, and Quinn soon realize that only one thing is guaranteed in this new chapter: uncertainty.

In this compelling sequel, redemption, love, and premonitions surround 1954 Vietnam as three survivors of Dien Bien Phu attempt to move forward into the unknown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jul 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781480893078

Peter R. Brumlik

Peter R. Brumlik immigrated from England to the United States as a child, eventually appearing in numerous Broadway productions culminating in the Tony Award winning “Inherit the Wind.” He enlisted in the air force and served three combat tours in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Dr. Brumlik earned his PhD while serving his country and eventually retired after twenty years of active duty. Currently, he teaches history and the humanities at the University of Colorado. His other novels include; The Pope of Camden Town and Three into Ten the sequel to Three into Nine.

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Copyright © 2020 Peter R. Brumlik.

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-9306-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9307-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020913153

Archway Publishing rev. date: 07/30/2020

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Preface

1    Captivity

2    Paris

3    The Dying

4    Quinn

5    Politics

6    Restoration

7    Welcome Home

8    Medical School

9    The Proposal

10    Quinn’s Re-Education

11    Escape

12    Legionnaire to Surgeon

13    Lansman

14    Kimeo

15    Thich Quang Duc

16    Truk

17    Assassination

18    Three into Ten

Dedication

This book is dedicated to two comrades in arms, Col. Greg Dillon, US Army (Retired) and Col. Dana Kwist, US Army (Retired). Both of these Vietnam Veterans served their country during a time when no one uttered the words Thank you for your service. They each continue to serve their country and do it gladly because it is their sense of duty and privilege. Each of these men could write a book of their own. This book is also dedicated to my wife, who has never failed to encourage me. Lastly, I wish to remember Audrey Hamill, a British National Health Service nurse in Norfolk, England, whose memory will always remain with me.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my editor Sue Dillon whose tireless efforts and dedication brought clarity and life to the prose of this book.

Preface

Much has been written about America’s failed foreign policy in Southeast Asia and the tragic war in Vietnam. Vietnam has become America’s albatross, and those men and women who survived the war, wear that burden daily as they try to make sense of what they had been asked to do, and how they were thanked for their service.

On the other hand, prior to the American adventure in Vietnam, the French too failed to win the hearts and minds of a colony that refused to obey, and in fact, were beaten mercilessly. It was inconceivable that in the twentieth century, a peasant army could vanquish military modernity. It was implausible that in 1954, the Vietnamese would claim victory over the French, culminating in the final battle of the Indochina War in the valley of Dien Bien Phu.

The story of the French Indochina War was told in my first novel Three into Nine as it followed three companions from very different backgrounds throughout a period of nine years. Three into Nine is also a tale of the French Foreign Legion, told through eyes of Sal Hecht, a young American recruit. The Legion’s history, traditions, and its abandonment by the French in Indochina unfold as Sal is joined by his friends: Avram, a young Auschwitz survivor, and Jaehne, a sergeant who deserted the German Army shortly before the end of World War II.

After the final battle in May of 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, the Vietnamese captured 10,000 men, among them Legionnaires, Colonial forces, and men of the French Army. In August, after signing the Geneva Accords that formally ended the war, the prisoners of war were repatriated to France; by then, only 3,000 remained alive. Avram and Jaehne were not among them.

Three into Ten begins where Three into Nine ends with the fall of Dien Bien Phu.

The history of resistance by the Vietnamese went unheeded by the French; eleven years after 1954, history would elude the United States, as well.

Peter R Brumlik

April 2020

1

Captivity

The first day in captivity was the worst, and for some, their last. The Legionnaire survivors of Dien Bien Phu, all seven thousand, dragged and forced their feet to move forward on a trail that would lead them to imprisonment. No shackles were necessary to keep them on course. There were no chains, no cages, or wire to keep them captive. Only the impenetrable jungle that engulfed them on either side prevented their escape. The green mass of foliage, vines, and razor-edged elephant grass proved to be as impassable as any barrier built to house the worst of humanity. These were French Foreign Legionnaires, however, slogging on the muddy trail. They were not among the worst. They were not criminals. They were honorable soldiers who did their duty to the best of their ability. They did the bidding of an ungrateful nation. Now, vanquished, they were on a trail leading to God knows where.

Each of the men, pushing themselves onward as if in a trance, reflected on how circumstances had placed them in what they considered to be the armpit of the world known as Indochina. This was a time when every colonial power in the world had come to accept that the era of colonialization had ended. France alone, out of obstinance and greed, had reclaimed the newly created Vietnam. France had reverted to colonialization at all costs in the region it had called French Indochina. It became the duty of the French Army and French Foreign Legion to maintain peace and order in a country that resisted both. While the French military maintained control of the major cities, the Vietnamese held power in the countryside. With that power, they acquired the loyalty of the peasants who lived there.

For nine years, guerilla actions in Vietnam took their toll on the French. The people of France grew weary of the lack of progress in a colony so far away and for the French, taking and keeping possession of it grew unimportant. The treasury of France suffered as well, since waging war was expensive and little profit from it was realized. The dissolution of the French empire was at hand.

The men of the French Army and, in particular, the French Foreign Legion, knew little of the politics behind their struggle. They were mired in battles and skirmishes that cost them dearly in lives and in equipment that would not be replaced. These soldiers had been manipulated while fighting a colonial war that was lost long before it had begun.

Laboring on the trail that had become a quagmire, most of the captive Legionnaires thought wearily about the last battle that had led them into their present circumstances. Those who no longer puzzled over their defeat and, in fact, no longer thought about anything at all, sat or fell into the mud and died. The Vietminh who guarded them suffered the same privations, fatigue, and hunger, thus abandoning the Legionnaires who fell alone. There was no prodding or abuse. The nearly dead were left alone to become the certain dead.

The valley of Dien Bien Phu had been held together by the sinews, tenacity, and will of the Foreign Legion. They had been sent there by an incompetent French Army general who preferred sacrificing the Legionnaires rather than his own men who found safety in Hanoi. The Legionnaires in the valley, were surrounded by mountains on all sides; mountains upon which the Viet Minh enemy had hauled large artillery armaments by dismantling and carrying them piece by piece, and bolt by bolt, then aiming them point blank at the garrison below. Indeed, the Legionnaires, while believing that their tactical situation was untenable never thought that the enemy was capable of placing guns on the jagged mountains that surrounded them.

In the valley below were little forts which were no more than barricaded mounds and bunkers. These were constructed in order to prevent the ground attack that proved to be imminent. Each fort had been named after the mistresses of the incapable and vain general who remained in the relative security of his headquarters in Hanoi; far from the third circle of hell that was about to be invaded and torn apart.

After a three-month bombardment from above, the Vietminh attacked from below the ground, digging their way beneath each bunker. One by one, the little forts of Dien Bien Phu fell to the little brown people who, like ants, crawled and clawed their way over every inch of the garrison. A Vietminh force of arms that seemed unstoppable, raped outposts and bunkers, blowing each of them to bits, including the men that defended them.

‘Beatrice’, was the first to be blown into vapor with all of its occupants becoming a permanent feature of the valley, a mixture of blood, flesh and mud. Soon after the fall of Beatrice, each of the little bunkers fell to the Vietminh who had conquered each one by tunneling beneath them and setting charges to be detonated from a distance. The occupants of the bunkers were in horror as they heard the digging beneath their little citadel, understanding its implications and realizing that their lives were coming to horrific and speedy end. Evacuating the bunkers was futile for the Legionnaires as they would be targeted by the guns above. At the same time, they knew full well that by remaining inside meant that they would be annihilated by an enemy they could only hear. The battle was over; the conclusion was obvious.

The vanquished, no longer running at a crouch, diving for safety or defending themselves became acutely aware of their surroundings. The Legionnaires stood still, even as the enemy approached, noting the pungent smell of cordite still smoldering in the ground. They could suddenly appreciate the entire valley, verdure velvet emerald mountains, the heights from which death had rained down upon them. And, for the first time in months, there was utter silence; not even the birds that had been ever present prior to the battle were to be seen or heard. The men looked at each other, smothered with mud and, for some, their uniforms and skin stained with the blood of their comrades. They noted the upheaval of the surrounding earth that had been sculpted into a twisted and grotesque landscape of logs, sandbags, and, of course, remnants of soldiers’ bodies. Some of their comrades’ remains were left whole, while others in an assortment of torsos, legs and empty uniforms. And, finally, for the first time in many months, even though they would become prisoners, the Legionnaire’s neck muscles could relax, and deep, full breaths could be inhaled.

Silently, without provocation, the Vietminh collected the weapons that lay on the ground in front of the overpowered soldiers. Almost politely, and only with directions given by hand-signals, the survivors were shepherded by the Vietminh to the trail upon which many were to die and the rest to languish in a prison camp.

Nine years of fighting for French Indochina ended in the valley of Dien Bien Phu. Indochina was no more. Instead, Vietnam had risen from the ashes of an unmanageable colony to a nation that had won its independence. The last glimpse of the valley that greeted the Legionnaires before they marched away was that of a flag being planted into the mound that was once Beatrice; red and blue with a yellow star in its center.

In France, after the final battle, the press held the public’s attention for only one week; then, barely a mention of the land where so many of the French Army men had died. The Legionnaires were given no notice. After all, although they fought for France, they were still regarded as foreigners. Even the focus of a political solution in Geneva was hardly mentioned. The collective domestic shame of what was once French Indochina was conveniently erased from the national conscience. Appropriately, and perhaps for the best, the survivors of the disaster knew none of this. In a ragged column, the proud and honorable Legionnaires, quietly walked into oblivion.

Sal lumbered on at the rear of the column, occasionally feeling the arm of his Sergeant Major on his back as it nudged him forward. From New York to Dien Bien Phu, Sal had journeyed; it was one hell of an adventure. The boy who had missed World War II and had wanted so badly to grow up in a uniform, got exactly what he had hoped for, except for the situation in which he now found himself. The uniform of a French Foreign Legionnaire that he wore, although in shreds, had been earned. Unencumbered by ego, jealousy, or false pretense, the camaraderie of the men he was with was legitimate. After enlisting, the most important part of his quest was recognition as a soldier who stood by his duty and being appreciated in earnest by his friends. Sadly, the imagined glory that Sal sought dissolved slowly in front of his eyes in the fifty-four days it took Dien Bien Phu to bleed to death.

The friends who had shared the great adventure with Sal had been left to rot back in the valley. Jaehne, his sergeant, the German soldier who had joined the Legion to escape an ignoble defeat of a larger European war, had been perforated beyond recognition. He had died slowly, as Avram, Sal’s best friend, gently laid him on the ground and rocked him into a sleep from which he would never awaken.

Avram was no doubt the bravest of the three friends and was more of a brother to Sal than a friend. He refused a second captivity in a land so alien from his own. He refused to be interred in an Asian Auschwitz in the jungle and, by doing so, he declined a chance to live, and was shot by his captors while breaking free of the column. It was, as many of the captives witnessed, a futile attempt to gain freedom. No one could find freedom in the interwoven web of vines and trees so thick that even walls would be no more efficient in keeping the prisoners on course and on the muddy trail.

Sal, moving slowly, as if in a delirium, thought about the three of them during their short lifetime together as he made his way through the quagmire and human waste that made up the trail. This fetid, sweltering, hostile and unforgiving land is where their great adventure had come to an end. Three friendships forged out of mutual respect for each other and for the Legion unit in which they had served. Sal, Avram, and Jaehne, relegated by fate, together over a period of nine years; now, only one remained alive.

The march toward the North was as difficult for the Viets as it was for their captives. This was not to be a Bataan death march; deprivations as well as what little food existed was shared between the victors and the vanquished. The oppressive heat was not selective, and no one was immune to its power to drain one’s vitality, or even one’s life.

Attempts were made to revive men who had dropped from exhaustion or from the festering wounds that brought them to their knees. After the third day of struggling on the trail, it became difficult to distinguish the captors from their prisoners. The entire column became an intermingled blur of men in rags blending in with the red mud of the landscape. Maggots and lice made no distinction between winners and losers; they plagued each other’s wounds equally and without reservation. Survival for all on the march depended on cooperation. The Legionnaires knew it and, more importantly, the Viets knew it, as well. The victorious had been issued orders to keep as many of their charges alive as possible because the political command thought they represented potential capital when going to the bargaining table. The tattered Legionnaires were to be pawns in an international quest for the recognition of independence by a people who, although mostly peasants, were as sophisticated as any other players on the world stage.

Escape, by even the most determined Legionnaire was unthinkable. The jungle, oppressive, impenetrable, and without light, erased any thoughts of freedom. Legionnaires knew all too well through years of fighting in Indochina that the jungle was capable of swallowing a man who ventured off the known paths. The Viets, far from becoming comrades in arms, at least extended humane courtesies toward their prisoners. Sal, who had been trained in medicine, worked side by side with Viet medics who did what they could to keep men alive with little or no medical supplies. Sal’s physical strength, however, was ebbing away as the torment of men he was treating took its toll on his ability to be attentive.

Ironically, the first man to die was the battalion surgeon, Dr. Grauwin. Sal had spent countless hours with him operating on the shredded bodies of men struck down by the most accurate bombardment of guns the Viets had placed in the mountains high above the valley. Operating by the light of a kerosene lamp in the damp bunker smelling of mold and blood, this gallant surgeon never wavered in practicing his skill while under constant fire. He neither recoiled nor stopped operating as ballistic rounds landed nearby, even when the earth trembled, and showers of dirt and debris fell over him and Sal, and sometimes into the wounds of the unfortunate one on the operating table.

Grauwin died on the trail after stumbling and falling to his knees, he looked at Sal, then dropped face forward into the mud. He died not so much from thirst or disease as from exhaustion; by this measure he should have died weeks ago. The loss of their brave and resolute doctor was an added blow to the already sagging morale of the Legionnaires. Death for him came swiftly and, compared to what lay ahead for the others on the march, he died mercifully. Sal pulled Grauwin to the edge of the trail and noticed that his doctor had left a death mask imprinted in the mud. Sal made a weary attempt to revive him, but he knew instinctively that Grauwin was dead.

As the doctor was left on the side of the trail, Sal rejoined the column without looking back. Almost immediately, he thought of René; remembering how he had practically thrown her onto the last helicopter in time to leave safely, and how fortunate she was to have escaped the valley unharmed. He remembered watching the helicopter gain altitude, tearing them apart by miles yet, knowing their hearts