Coordinates: 10°46′36.8″N 106°42′02.9″E / 10.776889°N 106.700806°E / 10.776889; 106.700806
Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh; IPA: [tʰan fə ho̞˧˩ t͡ɕɪj˧ mɪ̈n˧]), formerly named and still also referred to as Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn; IPA: [sâj ɣɔ̂ŋ], French: Saïgon), is the largest city in Vietnam. It was once known as Prey Nokor, an important Khmer seaport prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh (although the name Sài Gòn is still unofficially widely used).
The metropolitan area, which consists of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area, Thủ Dầu Một, Biên Hòa, Vũng Tàu and surrounding towns, is populated by more than 9 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Vietnam. The city's population is expected to grow to 13.9 million in 2025.
Saigon is a 1948 film starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in their fourth and final film together. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and was one of the last films Veronica Lake made under her contract with the studio. Ladd and Lake made four films together; This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key, both in 1942, The Blue Dahlia in 1946 and Saigon. While the earlier films all proved to be big box office successes, Saigon did not do as well financially. Ladd continued to remain one of Paramount's top male stars, while Lake's career was in decline. By the end of 1948 her contract with Paramount had expired and the studio chose not to renew it.
For Ladd, Saigon was one of a series of globe-trotting adventure tales he made, starting with Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and Calcutta (1947).
World War II has ended and Major Larry Briggs (Alan Ladd) finds out that his friend Captain Mike Perry (Douglas Dick) has only two months to live due to a head injury. Larry and Sergeant Pete Rocco (Wally Cassell) are determined to show Mike a good time before he dies. For a $10,000 fee, Larry takes a flying job working for Alex Maris (Morris Carnovsky) a profiteer. Everything is set until Maris' secretary Susan Cleaver (Veronica Lake) shows up to board the aircraft. Mike falls for Susan and Larry convinces her to play along but she has fallen in love with Larry.
Saigon is the sixth novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels. Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.
The book was first published in December 1964 (Number A122F) by Award Books part of the Beacon-Signal division of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (New York, USA), part of the Conde Nast Publications Inc. The novel was written by Michael Avallone and Valerie Moolman. Copyright was registered in the US.
"Little Paris" where love-talk is wire-tapped and each caress can lead to sudden mayhem.
The story is set in August–September 1964. Claire La Farge, widow of a French intelligence officer, lives in a large rice and tea plantation in North Vietnam. One night she receives a coded message in the form of a knotted belt (quipu) from a former associate of her husband. She sends her trusted servant, Saito, to Saigon to place an advert in the personal column of the Times of Vietnam hoping to contact former colleagues of her husband who can decode the message. Raoul Dupre, a former French intelligence officer and businessman in Saigon, reads the ad and makes contact. Agent Nick Carter, in Saigon posing as a WHO medical observer, answers the ad on a hunch and learns of Dupre's involvement. Dupre's daughter, Antoinette (Toni), has become a heroin addict under the influence of Lin Tong – a Chinese communist spy interested in finding out the truth about her father.
A harbor or harbour (see spelling differences), or haven, is a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather, or are stored for future use. Harbors and ports are often confused with each other. A port is a facility for loading and unloading vessels; ports are often located in harbors.
Harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys, or they can be constructed by dredging, which requires maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of an artificial harbor is Long Beach Harbor, California, which was an array of salt marshes and tidal flats too shallow for modern merchant ships before it was first dredged in the early 20th century.
In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, Australia and San Francisco Bay, California.
Artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, which is at least 4500 years old (ca. 2600-2550 BC, reign of King Khufu). The largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. Other large and busy artificial harbors include:
Harbour (1979–1985) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse. In the early part of 1982 she appeared to establish herself as the best of an exceptionally strong group of French three-year-old fillies by winning the Prix Vanteaux, Prix Saint-Alary and Prix de Diane and decisively defeating rivals including All Along and Akiyda. Her form was less impressive in the autumn and was retired after a disappointing run in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Harbour was a "lightly-made" chestnut filly with a white blaze and four white socks bred and owned by the Head family's Ecurie Aland. She was from the first crop of foals sired by Arctic Tern, whose biggest win had been a victory over Exceller in the Prix Ganay. Arctic Tern went on to sire many other good winners including Bering and was the leading sire in France in 1986. Her dam Here's To You was a descendant of the American broodmare Warrior Lass, making her a distant relative of Bounding Home and Riva Ridge.
Harbour remained in the control of the Head family throughout her racing career, being trained at Chantilly by Criquette Head and ridden in all her major races by her trainer's brother Freddy.