In the early autumn of 1962, David Marnin, a foreign service officer, arrives in Saigon to be the Ambassador's Aide. Though young and inexperienced, he brings to the lob a keen intelligence and a rich sense of adventure. He soon becomes involved with one of the most beautiful of Vietnamese women. Unforgettably depicted are scores of characters -- ambitious journalists, Saigon bar girls, diplomats, clandestine agents, a disenchanted general, a Catholic bishop, Buddhist monks, the Secretary of Defense, and many others. This important novel demonstrates brilliantly how and why the US engineered the 1963 coup that overthrew the South Vietnamese government. The coup and murder of the President are shown to be the result of policy decisions emanating from a combination of arrogance plus political and cultural ignorance endemic to the way this country did business in SE Asia.