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Food was no problem. Marketplaces were filled with green vegetables and raw meat, peanuts were piled high on the pavement on Le Loi, the busiest boulevard in Saigon, and exotic aromas bubbled up from the hot food stalls in front of Saigon's cathedral. Young women crowded the lobby of the Mini Rex Theater every matinee to see Brigitte Bardot in Boulevard du Rhum. Roving photographers armed with Polaroid cameras still tried to hustle a few piasters out of foreign correspondents they mistook for tourists. The piaster rate, perhaps the best war barometer in town, shot up from 2,000 to 3,900 for one U.S. dollar in four days. For a time, a hooker could be hired for less than $1. But when hopes for a cease-fire rose, the piaster rate dropped to 1,500 per dollar.
The Saigonese paid remarkably little attention to the resignation of President Thieu. A day after his departure, he was virtually forgotten and hopes quickly focused on a political settlement that would somehow preserve the city from destruction. Despite Thieu's indictment of the U.S., most Vietnamese were still treating Americans with their customary politeness.
With the Communists closing in, Catholic priests and Buddhist monks gathered at the Basilica, Saigon's cathedral, for the first joint service in the history of South Viet Nam. Prayers were offered to Buddha, in the words of one monk, "to seek harmony and protect and help the Vietnamese people. It would be very good to help us sufferers."
Not all of the city's residents were relying on prayer. On the outskirts, some farsighted Saigonese had on hand a supply of the black, pajama-like garments that are affected by the Viet Cong.