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The spy who loved us: The Vietnam war and Pham Xuan An’s dangerous game
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Praise for
The Spy Who Loved Us
“I enjoyed this book enormously and learned a lot. The Spy
Who Loved Us is a fine read and a gripping story; but, most of
all, it is an object lesson in why human intelligence and a great
spy will always trump the most sophisticated espionage and
surveillance technology. It’s not the simple accumulation of information that counts. It’s the recognition of what’s important
and then knowing what to do with it.”
—TED KOPPEL
“The story of Pham Xuan An is the revelation of a remarkable
life and a remarkable man. Fictional accounts of practitioners
of the Great Game—the craft of spying—come nowhere near
the real thing that was practiced by An. In The Spy Who Loved
Us, An is revealed as a man of split loyalties who managed to
maintain his humanity. Cast prejudices aside and you will discover a true hero, scholar, patriot, humanist, and masterful spy.”
—MORLEY SAFER, correspondent, CBS 60 Minutes and
author of Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam
“Relevant, instructive, funny. The shock of the double never
goes away. Neither does the gullibility of the arrogant intruder.”
—JOHN LE CARRÉ
“This is a brilliant book about a man and his times. It strengthens the feeling I got from meeting him late in his life that
Pham Xuan An was one of the most impressive people I have
ever encountered. He was a man of wisdom, courage, and
clear-headed patriotism. He was also—even if it seems ironic to
say this under the circumstances—a man of extraordinary integrity. He loved us at our best even while confronting us at our
worst.”
—DANIEL ELLSBERG, author of
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
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“Thomas Bass tells a fantastic tale of intrigue, espionage, and
friendship. His book reads as if it came from the farthest shores
of fiction, and I wouldn’t believe a word of it if I hadn’t met so
many of its characters and didn’t know the story to be true.”
—H. D. S. GREENWAY, editor, The Boston Globe, and Vietnam war reporter for Time Magazine and the Washington Post
“Every veteran, every scholar, every student, everyone who
survived the Vietnam war is advised to read this book and reflect on its wisdom. In his thoughtful, provocative biography of
one of the most successful espionage agents in history, Thomas
Bass challenges some of our most fundamental assumptions
about what really happened in Vietnam and what it means to us
today.”
—JOHN LAURENCE, Vietnam war reporter for CBS News and author of
The Cat from Hué: A Vietnam War Story
“This is a chilling account of betrayal of an American army—and
an American press corps—involved in a guerrilla war in a society
about which little was known or understood. The spy here was
in South Vietnam, and his ultimate motives, as Thomas Bass
makes clear, were far more complex than those of traditional espionage. This book, coming now, has another message, too, for
me—have we put ourselves in the same position, once again,
in Iraq?”
—SEYMOUR HERSH, author of
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
“Thomas Bass has rendered a sensitive, revealing portrait of the
strangely ambivalent personality I knew during the Vietnam war.
In doing so he provides us with unique insights into the nature,
conflicting sentiments, and heartbreak of many Vietnamese
who worked with Americans, made friends with them, but in
the end loved their land more and sought, as their ancestors had
for a thousand years, to free it from all trespassers.
—SEYMOUR TOPPING, former Southeast Asia bureau chief and
managing editor of The New York Times
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THE
SPY
WHO
LOVED
US
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This page intentionally left blank
ALSO BY THOMAS A. BASS
The Eudaemonic Pie
Camping with the Prince and
Other Tales of Science in Africa
Reinventing the Future
Vietnamerica
The Predictors
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Pham Xuan An, Ho Chi Minh City, February 2005.
Photograph by James Nachtwey.
© 2005 JAMES NACHTWEY
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THE
SPY
WHO
LOVED
US
THE VIETNAM WAR
AND PHAM XUAN AN’S
DANGEROUS GAME
THOMAS A. BASS
PublicAffairs • New York
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Copyright © 2009 by Thomas A. Bass
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Maps by Jeffrey Ward.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Printed on acid-free, archival-quality paper.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address
PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107.
Portions of this book first appeared in The New Yorker.
The author wishes to thank James Nachtwey and the Richard Avedon Foundation
for permission to reproduce the photographs on pages iv and x–xi.
PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the
U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books
Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200,
Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
Text set in 11.75 New Caledonia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bass, Thomas A.
The spy who loved us : the Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An’s
dangerous game / Thomas A. Bass. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58648-409-5
1. Pham Xuan An, 1927–2006. 2. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—
Secret service—Vietnam (Democratic Republic) 3. Espionage, North Vietnamese—Vietnam (Republic) 4. Spies—Vietnam (Democratic
Republic)—Biography. 5. Journalists—Vietnam (Democratic
Republic)—Biography. I. Title.
DS559.8.M44B38 2008
959.704'38—dc22
[B]
2008021344
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Tristan and Julian
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He felt as though he were turning his back on peace forever.
With his eyes open, knowing the consequences, he entered
the territory of lies without a passport for return.
GRAHAM GREENE,
The Heart of the Matter
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Pham Xuan An,
Time
correspondent,
whispering
in the ear of
Robert Shaplen,
New Yorker
correspondent.
TO THE LEFT,
Cao Giao,
Newsweek
correspondent.
TO THE RIGHT,
Nguyen Hung
Vuong,
Newsweek
correspondent, and
Nguyen Dinh Tu,
Chinh Luan
newspaper.
Continental Hotel,
Saigon,
April 17, 1971.
Photograph by
Richard Avedon.
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© 2008 THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
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xiii
Contents
Maps xiv
Foreword xvii
A Cautionary Note on Agent Z.21 1
Baptism by Fire 11
The Work of Hunting Dogs 45
Brain Graft 75
Travels in America 103
Confidence Game 121
Reliable Sources 145
The Perfect Crime 165
New Year 195
A Country Created by Salvador Dali 217
A Brighter World 241
Acknowledgments 265
Notes 269
Index 281
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