a fortune. With shopping privileges at the base exchange in Kadena, he could buy more clothes, food and gadgets than he had ever imagined possible. He spent $250 on a fancy German-made Contax camera. He opened a savings account at the American Express office on the base. As for the reward money, No believed he was entitled to what the government had promised. But the Americans had taken charge of his life, and he felt they were taking good care of him.

Two days after No landed the MiG at Kimpo, Eisenhower told his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, to pay the reward “under some sort of trusteeship.” The Departments of State and Defense chewed over that order for 16 days. Then Dulles received a telephone call fromjeep, write a personal check and shop in a supermarket. He dined regularly at the homes of American families on the island. His stomach was trained to tolerate hot dogs and other American delicacies. At his first Thanksgiving dinner, he worried about the turkey, expecting it to taste like a tough old eagle, but discovered he liked it.

For several weeks, No worried about the press conference at which he was supposed to reject the money. Brown then returned to Okinawa and told No that the generals in Tokyo had changed their minds, deciding that the U.S. government would look cheap if the press reported that No had been pressured to give up the $100,000.

Brown, though, did not clarify how—or if—the reward would be paid. About a week later,