In this chapter, John returns to Wisma in Bandung. Once again Rasy and his friends took John out for a night that would show him how Americans are seen by average people in Southeast Asia. The locals were intrigued by this tall American. There was a puppeteer who did a show which included President Nixon (this was during his era) and another capitalist. The puppeteer had Nixon grab Vietnam off the backdrop and the puppet proceeded to devour Vietnam.
This showed John how Americans are seen. That was back in the early to mid-1970s. I can only imagine how this puppeteer would depict us now. Rasy's friends asked John about his thoughts regarding the show. He couldn't tell them outright what his job was. As the night went on the conversation got serious. Rasy's friends really surprised John with their perspective. They discussed a historian, philosopher and researcher named Arnold Toynbee. They mentioned how eventually the Soviet Union would fall in their opinions because it lacked faith of any kind. I don't know if that was a contributing factor or not. Toward the end of this chapter, John talks about the time he and his future ex-wife spent in Paris. They realized that they'd grown so far apart that there was no possible way to reconcile. The years of resentment and his affair were too much for Ann.
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