‘It was a mistake, Corley. You regret it deeply and are obviously suffering for it. Why cause her pain as well? You’ve a whole lifetime to make it up to her.’

‘You really think so?’

‘I didn’t know what I thought, other than we were in a place that had different value systems and different interpretations of truth, and for a second I wondered if it might be possible for your view to be dependent on circumstances and in which world you found yourself. But the dubious complexity of that was too much to unravel and so I simply told him that I did. And as we temporarily slowed in traffic he seemed calmer.

‘You’re a good friend, Mikey,’ he said, dismissing my assertion that I hadn’t really done very much.

Then, having donned the mantle not just of loyal friend but of someone suddenly imbued with worldly wisdom, I tried to suggest more consolation by offering, ‘And maybe too, however much you regret it and wouldn’t ever want to repeat it, it’s experience, water in the well. What you were talking about.’

He nodded his head but I could see he wasn’t sure and, thinking it best not to venture further into areas where I had so little experience, I retreated into silence as we returned to Saigon.

On that evening neither of us knew how close we were to the end, or how quickly it would come, and I was aware that, despite Donovan’s and others’ best efforts, there was still a strong school of thought that estimated Saigon could be held until at least the following year, while Martin and to a lesser extent Polgar persisted in their belief that some negotiated settlement could be reached. But because the Peace Accords had proved nothing more than worthless paper, each waking moment was now filled with an apprehension of what was about to happen. In my apartment the martial music being played in Lam Son Square sounded ever more strident and there were night-time warnings from loudspeakers mounted on military vehicles that the curfew was about to begin. Despite the security cordon thrown around the city, it was too late to stop the deluge and soon Saigon was overflowing as more and more refugees flooded in, their ranks swollen no doubt by both army deserters and enemy agents. It was a city bulging at its already crowded seams and in a constant state of flux that threatened to tumble into unmitigated chaos. And everything was for sale, everything had a price, as fear-driven commerce flourished on every street and in every level of society without restraint. Family groups containing young children and elderly parents traversed the city, seemingly carrying everything they owned. Where they were heading was a mystery. And if a smaller number of bar girls still touted for business, most of them had abandoned the garish costumes that proclaimed their trade, while the ARVN soldiers who roamed the streets shouldering weapons looked permanently high and gave the impression they were ready to turn them on anyone who got in their way.