THE TIME OF THE HAWK

Could this be melodrama?... There is a cease-fire in Vietnam. American troops are confined mainly to compounds while the South Viets prepare for an election. Brooks Baldwin III has been dispatched by the President to help bolster U. S. policy in Saigon; meanwhile, back in the States, Brooks' brother is running for the Presidency (both brothers are Senators). Now, on his typical working day in Saigon, here is what happens to Brooks: Government troops enter an apartment where Brooks is talking with a student leader; they kidnap the student and shoot his girl. A few hours later an embassy portfolio is delivered to Brooks and in it is the student's head. That evening Brooks sits downing martinis at his twice-divorced South Vietnamese mistress's apartment and eating rognons de veau and gets properly seduced by her; he then attends a secret meeting with South Vietnam's Premier. Next morning, just as an aperitif, a Buddhist monk immolates himself in front of Brooks' Lincoln Continental as he sets out on another day's work.... Far from faint-hearted, Brooks is soon sitting with some barebreasted Viet girls eating ""chilled vichyssoise, melon, and prosciutto, New York sirloin steaks, baked Idaho potatoes, green beans, and Baked Alaska; wine, coffee and brandy."" Soon there is a coup; Brooks' closest friend is revealed as a traitor, and his famous enemy from Peking is actually in the pay of the President.... This melodrama? No. Unconscious satire.