Part 1 Chapter 5 Summary

Pyle leaves early the next morning. It takes Fowler three weeks to get to Saigon. When Fowler gets to Hanoi, he finds that Pyle left a letter for him. This letter makes him even more bitter, because of the underlying confidence Pyle has in winning Phuong. Pyle writes that although he will be in Saigon before Fowler gets there, he will not see Phuong so that Fowler will not feel later that Pyle had been unfair to him. The letter is annoyingly boyish: "I can't begin to tell you how swell you were ... My heart was in my mouth when I walked into that room to find you ... "

Fowler, with nothing else to do, attends a press conference led by a handsome young French colonel. The colonel says that the French have been victorious on several fronts but refuses to give...