Chapter 1: The Two Colonels

March 20,1972

With his back to the wall, Colonel Wynn waited patiently, seated at the corner table of the restaurant. He was waiting for his lunch companion to arrive. His eyes danced around the room, taking in the handful of other patrons scattered discretely around the room. There was the occasional uniform of an Amra or East Vam officer, but the majority of patrons were businessmen from Amra, East Vam, and Franka.

It was kind of strange that so many businessmen were gathered here, since East Vam didn’t have any real exports with the exception of drugs or any imports except weapons. The country only produced enough rice and other agricultural products to feed its own population. There weren’t any major mineral resources except for an old played out jade mine, and there were no manufacturing facilities at all.

This was the finest restaurant in Sage, the capitol city of East Vam. The white linen table cloth, real silver tableware, crystal glasses, and Frankan plates complimented the luxurious wood walls, crystal chandeliers, and the hand woven carpet on the floor. If one didn’t know that the restaurant was located in Vam, one would swear that they were in one of the finest restaurants in Ranis, Franka.

Colonel Wynn checked his wristwatch. It was a few minutes after noon. His normally prompt dining companion was running late. He frowned while speculating as to what might be keeping his friend. It wasn’t like his friend to show up even a minute late. Unconscious of his action, his hand slipped down to his side to check his weapon.

With a frown on his face, Colonel Nguyen entered the restaurant. He hated showing up for an appointment late, but General Luc had kept the normal mid-week briefing an hour longer than normal. The extra hour was more about politics than military matters; although in this particular war, it was hard to distinguish the two. Too often, they were one and the same.

The Maître D’ greeted Colonel Nguyen in flawless Frankan, “Your dining companion is waiting for you at your usual table, Colonel Nguyen.”

Colonel Nguyen was one of the rare exceptions among members of the East Vam military, in that he was addressed by rank. Most East Vam military were addressed using their given name. Colonel Nguyen was addressed by his family name. It was a practice instilled while a cadet at the Frankan Military Academy which followed the practices of the West.

“Thank you, Pierre,” the Colonel replied in equally flawless Frankan. “There’s no need to show me to the table.”

“Thank you, Colonel Nguyen.”

With his classic Vam features, Pierre did not look like a Pierre. However, it was his real name and not a pretense, as many customers believed. He had been born in Ranis, Franka and, as a result, had dual citizenship. His father had given him the name Pierre hoping that it would ease the child’s time in Franka. Pierre had trained at one of the finest restaurants in Ranis.

Although Pierre hadn’t attended the Frankan Military Academy, he was one of the few Vamese whom Colonel Nguyen had known while a cadet at the Academy. Colonel Nguyen’s father had been the military attaché, stationed at the Vam consulate in Ranis, while Pierre’s father had been the chef there. The two young boys had played together at the consulate. Even to this day, the two men remained close friends and visited each other’s homes quite frequently.

Colonel Wynn spotted Colonel Nguyen the moment he entered the dining room. He rose from his table in the corner of the room, to greet his friend. They shook hands before Colonel Nguyen took his normal seat with his back to the wall. Thus, the men sat catty corner to each other, so that each faced the other patrons, with their backs to a wall. Although both men were security conscious, the seating arrangement was more one of convenience than security. They often shared articles and sitting in those positions facilitated their discussions.

“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“That’s okay. I haven’t been here long. I hope there wasn’t a problem.”

“There wasn’t a real problem. General Luc decided today was a good day to review the history of the war.”

“Let me guess – West Vam is a foreign country that is invading East Vam.”

“Yes. It seems there is a rather nasty case of amnesia going around. No one remembers that this is a civil war.”

“I had a similar briefing Monday. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.”

“This war is a mess,” Colonel Nguyen said with a low growl.

“And it’s going to get messier now that the politicians have decided to rewrite history.”

Relaxing a little, Colonel Nguyen said, “I missed having our normal weekly meeting, last week. How was your trip to the Rock?”

The Rock was the name for the building which held the War Ministry of Amra. It was located just outside the Amra capitol city of Varish. Built almost a hundred and fifty years earlier to house the major ministries of government, it remained one of the largest buildings in the world. As a result of the continued expansion of Amra, the building ultimately became too small to hold all of the government ministries. The War Ministry grew to fill the entire building, while other ministries moved into buildings of their own.

“It was disturbing,” Colonel Wynn answered with a frown.

“In what way?”

“I ran into a number of anti-war protests while I was back in Amra. The anti-war movement is getting very strong and the War Ministry is losing political support. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll be pulling out in a few years.”

“I hope for our sakes, that the Great Khung was wrong,” Colonel Nguyen said deftly turning the subject to the topic of this week’s lunch.

Colonel Nguyen, despite being a member of the East Vam Army, had undergone officer training at the Frankan Military Academy back when Vam was still a protectorate under the Frankan government. As was the practice at the Amra Military Academy, all graduates earned a college degree in a military related field. His degree was in military history, and that subject remained a passion of his even to this day.

Colonel Wynn was a graduate of the Amra Military Academy. As was Colonel Nguyen’s, his college degree was in military history, also. He continued to read everything he could find on the subject.

The two men had met when Colonel Wynn was stationed in Vam as the Amra military intelligence liaison to the Vam military intelligence agency. It didn’t take the two men long to discover that they both had a common passion for military history. Each man recognized that the history they had studied was ‘West’ centric. They had decided to meet each week to discuss a different military topic that was ‘East’ centric. The weekly meetings had become the high point of each man’s week.

“What are you hoping that he was wrong about?”

“He said that there are no innocent bystanders in war. Once a country chooses a path of war, the leadership must support the war, while the military fights it. The population either provides material support, or works to undermine the war effort. If the population undermines the war effort, no general ... no matter how skilled he may be ... can win the war.”

“He wasn’t wrong about that. Khung always targeted the general population when advancing into new territory. All he had to do to conquer a city was to convince the people that they would be better off surrendering their government officials to him, rather than support the military in a war,” Colonel Wynn replied.

Although neither man had ordered, the waiter placed drinks in front of them: a Gin Martini for Colonel Wynn and a Whiskey on the rocks for Colonel Nguyen. Neither man had ever ordered anything different in their past visits to the restaurant.

The waiter interrupted, “Excuse me, gentlemen. I don’t mean to interrupt, but before you get too involved in your discussion may I take your order?”

Although such an interruption was normally outside the accepted behavior of a waiter, in this case it was appreciated. There had been times in the past that their conversations lasted through the dinner hour before either man gave thought to ordering a meal.

“That’s a good idea,” Colonel Wynn said.

“I’ll take my usual,” Colonel Nguyen said.

“The Trout Almondine?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take my usual,” Colonel Wynn said.

“The Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll put your orders in now,” the waiter said.

“Thank you.”

“Where were we?”

Colonel Wynn answered, “There are no innocent bystanders in war.”

“That’s right.”

“The Great Khung waged a psychological war on his enemies as much as a martial war. He would allow the handful of survivors of cities that failed to surrender to him to travel to the cities that were next on his campaign. The survivors would tell stories about how his army had slaughtered men, women, children, goats, cats, and dogs of any city that put up any kind of resistance. It only took a few days of telling and retelling of events before the town’s people were terrified.”

“The West says that he was a blood thirsty monster, but I bet that he didn’t have to kill nearly as many people as would have been required using any other strategy,” Colonel Nguyen said.

“I think his reputation as a blood thirsty monster is a result of the millions he killed in Palarma rather than his tactics.”

“Palarma was retribution. He was making a statement for History. It wasn’t a war.”

The Great Khung had sent an ambassador to Palarma. The King of Palarma killed the ambassador and sent the body back to the Great Khung. The Great Khung sent another ambassador with the message that an attack on his ambassador was the same as an attack on his person. The King of Palarma was not impressed. The ambassador was killed and the mutilated body returned.

The Great Khung let loose his Onor hordes with orders to lay waste to the land of Palarma. The Onor swept through Palarma killing everyone and everything. Fields were salted, wells were poisoned, and buildings burned to the ground. By the time his horde finished, there was nothing left of Palarma.

For ten years, he had a small army that periodically swept through Palarma killing anyone who dared move into the dead lands. Even after seven hundred years, Palarma hadn’t fully recovered. It remained one of the poorest regions of the world.

Colonel Wynn said, “I agree with you, but most historians don’t. All they see is that he killed millions of people.”

“His destruction of Palarma established that Ambassadors are to be protected, not killed or subjected to torture. Modern diplomats owe their special privileges to him. He defined ‘diplomatic immunity.’”

“You’re right. Unfortunately, historians focus on the deaths.”

Bitterly, Colonel Nguyen said, “Most historians wouldn’t recognize a war if they saw one. They think war is men in uniforms killing men in uniforms. They don’t realize that war is about one state forcibly imposing its will upon another state ... usually with the intent of eliminating it.”

“I don’t think the Great Khung would agree with you,” Colonel Wynn said.

“Why do you say that?”

Colonel Wynn said, “More often than not, he left the government of conquered territories in place. He demanded tribute, but he left the governmental, cultural, and spiritual structures alone. He kept the political power using just a handful of people. For example, when he conquered Chen, he killed off the royal family and a handful of ministers. The rest of the government remained the same. As far as the rest of the population was concerned, it was as if the next Emperor had ascended to the throne. Nothing changed except for the guy at the top.”

Colonel Nguyen said, “When he marched through Vam, we weren’t a unified country. We were more like a dozen different kingdoms. His occupation was a little more brutal here than that.”

“You had a lot of rulers and their sycophants die, maybe even a small town or two. It still didn’t change Vam. You have to admit that Vam retained a unique cultural identity despite a hundred year rule by the Onor.”

Colonel Nguyen said, “That’s true. I hadn’t thought about it like that, before.”

“Chen, Sun, Japa, Kor, Vam, Filop, Yuraga, Cartoom, Thaison, Troy, Venu, and Joma all have very different cultures. All of them are different than Onor. The exception is Khung which was settled by the Khung’s Onor horde upon his death.”

After the Great Khung had united the Onor tribes, he marched his horde to the north conquering Chen, Sun, and Japa. Despite the huge distances involved, that initial campaign only took five years. Chen, whose population was a thousand times greater than Onor, fell to the horde without much of a fight. Sun and Japa were a little more difficult to conquer, but ended up being easier to rule.

Once those regions had come under his full control, he sent his horde eastward conquering Kor and Vam. His horde continued eastward, island hopping along the Pathway Islands to the Eastland continent.

When his horde reached the Eastland continent, they were faced with a patchwork quilt of independent countries. He conquered a huge area and then united the individual kingdoms into one country which he named after himself. He sent his son in law there to serve as ruler of the Eastern Capital of the Khung Dynasty. Upon the Great Khung’s death, Khung ultimately became an independent country with loose ties to Chen.

The Onor marched across the Eastland continent continued through Venu and Joma. Then came the problem with Palarma. The hordes march eastward halted after it had destroyed Palarma, since his horde wasn’t willing to have a wasteland in the middle of its supply line. Rasbi, Hamasada, Ulamb, and Grete escaped his attention.

Colonel Nguyen said, “I could argue that he negotiated the surrender of all of those countries. Those surrenders weren’t the result of war. The kingdoms and towns that resisted him, were destroyed totally. Their destruction was the result of war.”

“You’re saying that because he was able to bully most countries into surrendering to him with the threat of war that he didn’t have to go to war with them. The countries that resisted his bullying were destroyed by the war he had threatened them with,” Colonel Wynn said.

“Yes.”

Colonel Wynn was about to reply when the waiter placed a plate of food in front of him. It was only then that he noticed he hadn’t even started on his drink. He took a sip of his Gin Martini.

The two men each tasted a bite of their food.

“I am reminded that the Great Khung’s campaign eastward was not a continuous flow east, but one of conquer, consolidate, and incorporate. He moved in little leaps so that he was always in a position of strength when he faced a new opponent.”

Looking thoughtful, Colonel Wynn paused while cutting into his pork chop.

He said, “Although the history books say that he conquered Kor and Vam, it’s a little misleading to say that he conquered either one. The history books are using modern geographic areas denoted by the current geopolitical boundaries of Kor and Vam. Neither of those regions were actual states under a single rule at that time.

“The geopolitical entities within that region were actually small independent kingdoms encompassing maybe one or two hundred square miles each. Fighting a small kingdom is a much different thing than fighting a unified Kor or Vam.”

“That’s true,” Colonel Nguyen said. “It’s easy to forget that there wasn’t such a thing as Kor or Vam at the time.”

Colonel Wynn cut off a small piece of pork chop and speared it with his fork. Before putting it in his mouth, he said, “What do you think the Great Khung would do regarding this war?”

Colonel Nguyen finished chewing on a bite of his fish. He took a sip of his drink before answering.

“I think he wouldn’t fight it the way we are. All of East Vam is a battlefield. We’ve got West Vam sending troops into our country. We’ve got hundreds of rebels inside East Vam supporting the West Vam war effort. The first thing he’d have to do is unify the country. He’d start at one end of the country and slowly gobble up the towns making sure that he eliminated all opposition to unification.”

“So what would he do with the rebels inside East Vam?”

“He’d kill them. He’d destroy entire villages that are hiding rebels who are supporting East Vam.”

Colonel Wynn said, “You’re saying that he’d do what that unit of our guys did a couple months ago.”

He was making reference to a situation in which a squad of Amra soldiers had overreacted while searching a village which was hiding rebels. The villagers had loudly, and angrily, protested the search of their homes. An old woman was beating on an Amra soldier when a rebel had charged out of a building firing upon the Amra soldiers. Surrounded by angry villagers, the Amra soldiers opened fire, indiscriminately killing nearly everyone in the village.

Then the press became involved. With a body count of five dead rebels and eighty dead villagers, the world declared it a war crime. It didn’t matter that some of the villagers were trying to push the soldiers out of their homes. The world pointed an accusing finger at the Amra military. The Amra military pointed an accusing finger at the squad of soldiers, declaring they weren’t following the ‘rules of engagement.’

This had become an event that had given the anti-war protesters ammunition for their protests. Amra soldiers were cast into the role of baby killers. It was true that a baby had been killed, but it wasn’t an intentional act. It was just one of those things that happens in the heat of battle when men are convinced they are surrounded by the enemy. Bullets fly, not necessarily at anyone, and then they abruptly stop somewhere. If a baby is at the place where the bullet stops, the baby dies.

It didn’t matter. The civilians were dead and it was soldiers who had killed them. Now it was the time for the soldier to pay. The military was scrambling to explain how it was executing the war effort while the press and protesters were undermining the ability of politicians to justify the war. The clock was ticking down towards the inevitable withdrawal of Amra from the Vam War.

“Yes. He would have rewarded those guys instead of charging them with a war crime.”

“There were innocent civilians in that village.”

“There are no innocent bystanders in war, and that is particularly true in this case. In a village of a hundred people, It’s impossible to hide five rebels without everyone in the village knowing it. By hiding them, the entire village has chosen a side, actively supported it, and lost their innocent bystander status,” Colonel Nguyen said.

“They were afraid of what the rebels would do if they didn’t give them safe harbor.”

“It doesn’t matter if they were afraid or not. It’s their actions that count. They surrendered to the enemy and then supported them by giving them safe harbor. They became rebels.”

Knowing that he was about to push a hot button, Colonel Wynn said, “The Sviss Treaty One says otherwise. They were civilians and, hence, not to be attacked.”

“The Sviss Treaty One was probably the stupidest treaty ever signed in the history of mankind.”

“It was signed for a noble reason,” Colonel Wynn said.

From a humanitarian perspective, the first of the Sviss Treaties was noble. It outlined a theory of war in which there were combatants and bystanders. It was right and just for combatants to fight each other, but they were not to involve the bystanders. It required combatants to have visible insignia, i.e. uniforms, that identified them as combatants. This allowed one to know on which side they were fighting. Anyone not wearing a uniform was a civilian.

In Colonel Wynn’s mind, the treaty invoked images of children merrily playing in a playground secure in the knowledge that they were safe even though a battle waged around them. Bullets were to change trajectory to avoid injury, and shrapnel was to drop to the ground at their feet. It was very naive in vision and impossible in practice.

“I disagree with that. The myth is, that it was set up to make war appear more humane, but that is ludicrous. Humane? There’s nothing humane about war. It’s an ugly, brutal, violent act that should sicken any sane man. Pretending that war is humane, is hypocrisy of the worst kind.”

“It might be a little hypocritical.”

“A little hypocritical? I think hypocritical is the wrong word. It’s diabolical.”

This was the strongest statement that Colonel Nguyen had ever made about the Sviss Treaty One. Colonel Wynn was curious.