All the Indochina hands were back for the last act, which to the Americans meant the evacuation. The Washington Post staff had now been ordered, under pain of dismissal, to leave with the embassy. The New York Times had also ordered its journalists not to stay behind, and the American networks were planning to evacuate. Everyone was talking about the secret password, which would be broadcast when the time came: an announcement that the temperature was 105 and rising, followed by the song ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’.

James Fenton, Granta