Tale of Two Daughters

February 1953: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a sergeant in the French army in Indochina, bids a reluctant goodbye to his two-month-old daughter Martine and her Vietnamese mother, Nguyen Thi Hue and goes home to Central Africa.

November 1970: After years of searching, Bokassa--now President of the remote little Central African Republic and the father of eleven children by his present wife--receives word that the South Vietnamese government has found his first family. Martine, a shapely Saigon shopgirl, flies 11,000 miles to Bangui, her father's capital. Though she arrives at 4:30 a.m., a visibly moved Bokassa and thousands of his cheering countrymen are on hand to greet her.

December 1970: The Saigon news paper Trang Den says Martine and her mother are impostors, and the real Martine is found hauling 110-lb. cement bags in a Saigon factory. A Paris paper quotes Tran Van Lam, Saigon's Minister of Foreign Affairs, as saying: "We haven't dared tell him yet, but there are at least 17 other candidates for the role of Martine Bokassa."

January 1971: Tearfully, the President welcomes Martine II and her mother. The second Martine shows a scar on her foot, which Bokassa remembers, and some snapshots he took years before: her 36-year-old mother reminds him of a motorcycle accident in Saigon in which he broke a finger.

The President is convinced. But what will he do with the first Martine? Last week he attended diplomatic parties holding both Martines by the hand. But at week's end, he appeared to have decided to send Martine I back to Saigon.

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