While serving as an 18-year-old sailor aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War I witnessed a bevy of journalists coming aboard as the warship was anchored in Da Nang Harbor in South Vietnam.
I worked in the USS Kitty Hawk’s communications division, and we were told to keep the journalists clear of our top secret areas. As I planned to major in journalism in college after leaving the Navy, I was interested in our visitors from the major newspapers, TV networks and Time magazine.
I don’t recall Pham Xuan An, a Time correspondent at the time, being one of the journalists who came aboard that day. Which was good – as we later discovered that An was a spy for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese communists.
In the annals of modern espionage, Pham Xuan An (1927-2006) ranks as a top spy. During the Vietnam War, An befriended, guided and advised journalists and American and South Vietnamese military and government officials. He obtained vital intelligence from his many “friends” and passed it on to the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese.
Larry Berman, a professor of political science at the University of California who opposed American involvement in Vietnam, was chosen by An to be his American biographer. Berman interviewed An in Vietnam before the spy died. His book is called Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent (Smithsonian Books).
This book is a gushing, loving and uncritical view of the spy. It ought to be called Perfect Spy, Prefect Fools. Like many of the reporters An befriended during the war, Berman’s left-wing, anti-war views cloud his judgment of An.
An was by all accounts a likeable, earnest, humble and helpful friend to all those he came into contact with. Just like any good con artist – or spy.
A spy since 1952, An was sent to study journalism in the United States as part of his training and cover story – or “legend,” as they say in the trade. With his American friends and his insights into all things Vietnamese, An took jobs with Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor and then Time. For the elite of the American press corps, An was the go-to guy.
An’s critical intelligence aided the communists throughout the war, especially during two key battles: the 1963 assault on Ap Bac and the 1968 Tet Offensive. Countless South Vietnamese and American soldiers died in these bloody battles thanks in large part to An.
Even today An’s journalist friends refuse to believe that he misled, used or betrayed them. “Who in our egotistical trade would admit to being a dupe, conscious or otherwise?” Joseph Goulden wrote in his review of Berman’s book in The Washington Times.
Goulden also noted that Arnaud de Borchgrave, a Newsweek correspondent during the war, disagreed with his colleagues and accused An of spreading disinformation to American officals and journalists.
More on Pham Xuan An in my next blog.
Paul Davis also writes about American crime for GreatHistory.com. His web site is http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/site/ and his e-mail address is daviswrite@aol.com.
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Trace Dawson said:
“Who in our egotistical trade would admit to being a dupe, conscious or otherwise?” Joseph Goulden wrote in his review of Berman’s book in The Washington Times.
Are these the same journalists or their protégées who are today clamoring about the limited media access to the military? Evidently the military learned their lesson from the war, but it is still difficult for the journalists to comprehend.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Jack Radey said:
So, what’s your problem with An? He was a Vietnamese patriot. He was fighting for his own country, in his own country. He killed no one in the United States, nor did any Vietnamese. Don’t assume because he seemed friendly, he was duping people. Many Vietnamese patriots, fighting to defend their country against American aggression, expressed admiration for the young Americans who came to their country, WITH THE INTENTION TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY. They weren’t, of course, and the leadership of our government had no interest whatsoever in the welfare of the people of Vietnam (as evidenced, among other ways, by the fact that we killed maybe 2 million of them, and destroyed, with bombs, artillery shells, and poison, much of the country. But the Vietnamese even today hold little animosity against Americans. By the way, the man who expressed that admiration of the idealsim of America’s young soldiers? Among other names he was known by, such as Nguyen Ai Quoc, was Ho Chi Minh, talking to David Dellinger in maybe 1966, 1967.
August 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Paul Davis said:
Well, Mr. Radey, in addition to help kill the Americans he claimed to love so much, as well as his fellow Vietnamese, An supported an evil, murderous communist regime.
After the fall of the South Vietnamese government , thousands of Vietnamese were killed, imprisoned and tortured by the “Vietnamese
patriots” like An.
(By the way, the communists defeated the South Vietnamese Army in 1975, not American forces. At that time, there were no American combat forces engaged in the battle. The communists never won a battle over company strenth against American forces)
Thousands of Vietnamese so feared the communists that they endured the high seas and piracy, rape and murder to leave the communist way of life. They also indured God-awful living conditions in camps before striking a new home in counties that allow freedom. An’s own daughter being one of them.
The Vietnamese patriots, in my view, were the ones who fought the communists.
Paul Davis
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 am