Little Tho

INDOCHINA

"Cambodians are gentle people," Jean de Raymond liked to say. His job as French Commissioner was to bring the picturesque kingdom* of elephants, sapphires, Siamese dancers and golden temple spires into closer friendship with its old master, France. A pleasant, warm, courageous man with a tiny grey mustache, he had spent 22 of his 44 years in Indo-China.

Into this drowsy, gentle kingdom came the Communists. They smuggled arms from Siam across Cambodia to Viet Minh soldiers in Tonkin. Commissioner de Raymond complained to Cambodia's plump, 29-year-old King Norodom Sihanouk, who sits more easily on a horse than on a throne. The Cambodians answered with a couple of questions: If things are so bad, why doesn't the Commissioner himself take more precautions, especially since the assassination of South Viet Nam Commissioner Chanson (TIME, Aug. 13)? And why did the Commissioner keep a house full of Vietnamese servants? Said De Raymond: "I am so good to my servants that they cannot betray me." He refused guards.

Trusted Servant. Among the servants in the palace was a dark, hollow-cheeked 18-year-old, Pham Ngoc Lan, whom Commissioner de Raymond affectionately nicknamed le petit Tho (Little Tho). He had come into the Commissioner's service last August. Unaccountably, he had not been given the usual security check, but his shy manner and rare smile had won the confidence of the household. He was even allowed to tidy up the fussy Commissioner's air-conditioned bedroom. Last month le petit Tho took a day off, rode a bus 36 miles to Banam, where he had a secret session with an organization called the Viet Minh Assassination Committee.

One day last week, after Commissioner de Raymond had eaten a heavy lunch and was enjoying his usual siesta, le petit Tho, armed with a sledge hammer and a Boy Scout knife, slipped into the air-conditioned bedroom. With one blow of the sledge hammer he smashed the Commissioner's skull. He plunged the knife several times into his chest and spleen, finally cut the Commissioner's throat, leaving the knife embedded in the wound. Le petit Tho then carefully rifled the Commissioner's effects, taking his watch, ring and pistol. He left the room, locking the door behind him. Downstairs he washed his shirt, took a shower, dressed and bicycled away.

Call It Patriotism. The alarm, sounded a few minutes later, set off the biggest manhunt in Cambodian history, but failed to catch up with le petit Tho. Said General de Lattre de Tassigny: "Never before has terrorism revealed itself with more cruelty, cowardice or dishonor." At week's end the Viet Minh radio announced that "the patriot who liquidated Commissioner de Raymond is now safe."

* Indo-China, like all Gaul, is divided into three parts: Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. Cambodia, the smallest, is about the size of Oklahoma.

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