In the preface to his second volume of memoirs, "Ways of Escape", Graham Greene quotes W.H. Auden: 'Man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep.' He sought his escape through danger, drugs, alcohol, women, religion and travel, as he criss-crossed the globe in search of adventure and inspiration.
His wanderings took him to such political hot-spots as Haiti, Cuba, Paraguay, Kenya and Vietnam. One of the most evocative sections of the book is a passage from his journal dated December 31, 1953, in which he describes an opium den in Saigon. The same Saigon which is the setting for his book "The Quiet American", first published in 1955.
The book was dismissed in the US as 'Anti-American', but had a few more Generals read it, the whole futile bloody mess that was the Vietnam War may have been avoided. Greene believed the bombings of Saigon Square in 1952 were the result of early US interference, as they tried to find a 3rd Force to take over from the French colonialists and fight the Communists. This army came from the unusual 'Kayodai' religious sect. The book examines the American role in world affairs and asks how far you should go to achieve a goal that is for the good of another country.
The patriotic American Pyle: "They don't want Communism."
The cynical Fowler: They want enough rice. They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want."
Pyle: "If Indo-China goes ..."
Fowler: "I know that record. Siam goes. Malaya goes. Indonesia goes. What does 'go' mean? If I believed in your God and another life, I'd bet my future harp against your golden crown that in five hundred years there may be no New York or London, but they'll be growing paddy in these fields, they'll be carrying their produce to market on long poles wearing their pointed hats. The small boys will be sitting on the buffaloes. I like the buffaloes, they don't like our smell, the smell of Europeans. And remember - from a buffalo's point of view you are a European too."
Pyle: "They'll be forced to believe what they are told, they won't be allowed to think for themselves."
Fowler: Thought's a luxury. Do you think the peasant sits and thinks of God and Democracy when he gets inside his mud hut at night?"
This prophetic novel was turned into a big-budget Hollywood movie, first in 1958 starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrove, and again in a 2002 adaptation with Michael Caine. I have both versions on DVD, plus the book, of course, and today, with Padma in town to get the car serviced for its annual registration after which she will attend the weekly Stitch & Bitch session at the local hall, I have plenty of time to be a 'quiet Australian' and watch one of them again.
