He seemed to he looking for something in the car, and later he told me what it was. A few days before, he had been reading Ho Chi Minh's works, and had shoved them under the backseat, out of sight. Now he was afraid that they would suddenly find the book, and shoot us on the spot. He therefore decided to get the thing out and shove it under his shirt. He went back to the car, put his hand under the seat, and discovered that the book was gone.By now there was chaos on the streets.

The trucks which had passed us in one direction as we were coming out of Saigon appeared to have returned Clearly nobody knew where to go. There was gunfire at the crossroads just ahead, and I think that we all felt, having lost our car, in great danger. We were saved by a taxi-man who dumped a load of customers and offered to take us back for 4,000 piastres I would have paid whatever I had. We got into the car, put our heads down, and sped back to the city centre.In the Reuters office I was writing an account of what I had just seen when Barron came in again."I don't know what's happening," he said. "I've just seen a tank with the flag of The National Liberation Front." I went to the door and looked out to the left, in the direction of Thieu's palace, and saw the tank. Without thinking, I ran after it and flagged it down just as it turned towards the palace gates.

The tank slowed down and a North Vietnamese soldier in green jumped off the back and went at me with his gun, as if to hit me. In my confusion, I couldn't remember the NLF salute, or how to explain to the soldier that I wanted a ride. I tried everything - a salute, another salute, a clenched fist, a hitch-hiker's thumb. Finally (after, that is, a few extremely nervous seconds) I held out my hand to shake his He took my hand abruptly and indicated the back of the tank. I remember worrying, as I climbed on, that I might touch something very hot.