First A Torch

Bix, just graduated from a South Dakota high school, looks for his big adventure before settling for a lifetime on the farm. He rescues Chau, a wealthy French-educated Vietnamese, from the racist violence that permeates American society in the early 1950’s. As their friendship grows, Chau explains his education to European culture and convinces Bix to join the French Foreign Legion and help save his country from the communist Viet Minh. After teaming up with Steve, a street-wise ex-con, they take a wild ride across America before delivering Chau to a ship in San Francisco. Chau soon discovers his country has changed forever. Bix and Steve eventually join the Legion and befriend a German Legionnaire and is prostitute lover. Bix finds Chau during the siege of Dien Bien Phu. But something has changed. Chau is now fighting for the Viet Minh.Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French colonialism in Vietnam and the accelerated U.S. involvement in the region. Although they supplied Ho Chi Minh and his struggling army with arms and training to fight against the Japanese, U.S. intentions quickly deteriorated after World War II in an effort to stem the spread of communism. At Dien Bien Phu the finest European-trained French officers, and their professional military, backed by the U.S., were defeated by a history professor, a ship’s cook, and a highly determined peasant army.

Winner of many writing awards including the Ernest Hemingway Award for short fiction. A disabled Vietnam Veteran called in one article "Vietnam's strangest Veteran" because he was wounded twice while on patrol with the 4th Infantry Division Band. An accomplished photographer and musician he was named by American Photo magazine as one of the world's best sports photographers and has played trumpet with many groups including Mel Torme' and Woody Herman. He often plays at Minh's Jazz Club, in Hanoi. He published "Calotype, " a photography magazine for students, and "Boxing Prospects," a news magazine for emerging boxers. He was formerly the road manager for boxing champion Roberto Duran. Exceptionally Qualified to Write "First a Torch" Because Baker lives part-time in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he is an editor of an English-speaking Vietnamese magazine, "Vietnam Cultural Widow," he is uniquely capable of telling the story from both sides of the conflict, something exceptional in literature where writers often struggle to see opposing viewpoints and cultures. He fully understands war, having participated in one, and its psychological impact. (His book "Looking for Jimmy Wilde" is used as a reference in several V.A. hospitals)