Hero worship.(High life)

I remember 7 May 1954 very clearly, despite the 50 years that have since passed by. The chaplain at my American boarding school, Dr Gould, opened the dinner prayer by announcing that the siege of Dien Bien Phu had ended, and asked us to pray for the defenders going into captivity. Those were the good old days, when a chaplain could ask his boys to pray for white Europeans fighting far from home. When I looked around the table, no one had the foggiest. My father had kept me informed, however, as had some of the masters. The big news the day before was Roger Bannister and the 3.59.4 mile he had run at an Oxford meet. But my heart sank when I heard the news of the French defeat. I knew the Foreign Legion was there, and that they were …