- Inspector Vigot: You know that it is a mistake to say that communism is appealing to the mentally advanced. I think it is only true when the mentally advanced are also emotionally retarded.
- The American: [Somewhat sarcastically, after Fowler has advised him it would be wiser to give the two ARVN guards in the tower their two remaining cigarettes] I wouldn't have thought you suggest using economic aid to but friends...
- Thomas Fowler: [Referring to the two young guards] They're scared. I wouldn't blame them if they handed us over to the Communists. They don't believe in anything either. They just want enough rice. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want.
- The American: You're telling them what they don't want, which is the same thing.
- The American: I'm from a country that's been in existence for less than two hundred years, in a very old world. That same fifty years ago, we were barely taken seriously as a nation, much less a great force for wisdom and decision. But suddenly now, a watch tick of history later, the world waits angrily for us to provide the answers it hasn't been able to find in fifty centuries.
- Thomas Fowler: Have you got a cigarette?
- The American: Keep the pack. I've got some more.
- Thomas Fowler: [Angrily] I asked for one cigarette, not economic aid. I don't want to be impressed by how many packs you've got!
- [He slaps the pack away]
- Inspector Vigot: [Leaving, to Fowler] If you will forgive my attempt at colloquial English, Mr. Fowler; they have made a bloody fool of you!
- Bill Granger: [after having some drinks in the bar] I mean the defense of this country was conceived in the 19th Century and being fought in the 20th from Beau Geste forts that were built a century before the trenches of Verdun.
- Thomas Fowler: [Noticing to the Vietnamese women who are reacting to him] What's all the chattering and giggling about?
- Phuong: They think I have come back to you.
- Thomas Fowler: You'd have made a good priest, Vigot. What is there about you that would make it so easy to confess... if there were anything to confess?
- Inspector Vigot: [Keenly] You mix for yourself a drink, but you're not drinking it.
- Thomas Fowler: It might be unwise. There are no secrets of the confessional in your profession.
- Inspector Vigot: Secrecy is seldom important to a man who confesses. He has other motives.
- Thomas Fowler: [Sarcastically, surprised to see Vigot sitting inside his apartment] You don't seem to be recovering much damaging evidence.
- Inspector Vigot: [while drinking a coke] There is nothing more dangerous than an American soft drink? Care for one?
- Thomas Fowler: [In the restaurant] I didn't know you were here.
- Phuong's Sister: I'm dining with friends.
- Phuong's Sister: Who is that man dancing with my sister?
- Thomas Fowler: An American.
- Phuong's Sister: Is he wealthy?
- Thomas Fowler: That you'll have to ask him.
- Phuong's Sister: He looks quiet and reliable. Is he married?
- Thomas Fowler: I told you you'll have to ask him.
- Phuong's Sister: I would say not. Whenever an American is married, he looks married.
- Thomas Fowler: [Narrating a flashback as the American dances with Phoung] He held her properly - not too close - the way you're supposed to hold another man's girl according to the rules.
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