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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The spy who duped the Saigon press corps..., April 28, 2007
This review is from: Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent (Hardcover)
Professor Berman's latest book is highly readable and fascinating. An the spy left Saigon in 1957 (at that time, dozens, maybe hundreds of South Vietnamese also came to the United States including my father who arrived for pilot training with the Air Force) for Orange Coast College (OCC), smack in the middle of John Birch's conservative Orange County, California, now the de-facto capital of ex refugees who fled after An's North Vietnamese Army overran their homeland.
And yes, An played a major role in that victory. Just ask the much-heralded Saigon press corps and the likes of Neil Sheehan, Stanley Karnow, and Morley Safer. The late David Halberstam knew An fairly well too. Most of them have seen An in the years since the war had ended and have raised money to send his son to the University of North Carolina in the 1990s. Toward the end of the book, there's a picture of An's son standing next to President Bush during his "first" visit to Vietnam in late 2006. The son was serving as a translator. Time Magazine, An's last American employer, still had a pension for him.
Berman, an occasional marathonist with plenty of energy for an academic, had traveled to Vietnam numerous times to visit with An. He defly weaves a terrific narrative that takes readers through the Vietnam War and An's relationships with South Vietnamese officials and his American counterparts. The rehashing of key events during the war sometime bog down the pacing of the book. What I found most fascinating was An's time at OCC, where he was remembered as being outgoing, flirtatious and even fell in love with an American student, a blonde haired, blue eyed editor of the school's newspaper. He later befriended the daughter of newspaper mogul, C. K. McClatchy.
No one had a clue about the identity of this double mole who somehow survived a war that killed 58,300 Americans and 3 million of his fellow Vietnamese. Couldn't this "hero" and general have done more to end that quagmire sooner? Yet hardly any of the American correspondents who knew him expressed any remorse when they found out who An really was.
During an interview on NPR, Berman was asked by the host if An had lied to him. "An probably took 80% of his secrets with him to his grave," admitted Berman. Personally I believe many younger Vietnamese Americans could care less about An. Those of An's generation had family members on the Communist side as well. I do wonder about some in the Saigon press corps who tried to get An to attend their 2005 reunion in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 30 years after it had been renamed. An politely declined, giving health problems as his reason.
With spies like An, who needed allies in Vietnam?
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Spy and His Enablers, May 12, 2009
Larry Berman's book, The Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An is a fascinating read on many levels. First, I believe the book should be considered an indispensable volume in the vast collection of Vietnam War literature. It is more than an intriguing tale of espionage and history of the Viet Nam War, it's an enlightening view into the soul of the American press corps and how they provided cover and legitimacy to North Vietnam's most successful spy. An, working for his communists' masters, successfully deceived and manipulated the foreign press corps as well as U.S. and South Vietnamese security officials for the duration of the war. Truly An was one of the great spies of the Twentieth Century, whose chief enablers were well-known members of the American press corps. The book unfortunately is colored by the author's desire to make An's treachery something we should accept and forgive, notwithstanding his direct culpability in the deaths of U.S. servicemen and untold numbers of South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. If I had a nickel for every time An was referred to in the book as "charming" or "helpful" I'd have a nice start on my son's college fund. For the most part, these "friends" served as useful idiots to An, who played them like a fiddle. The larger question that remains unanswered is to what degree An succeeded in coloring press stories critical of U.S. policy. The book points out that almost all the newly arrived American correspondents in Viet Nam sought out An because he was a man of uncommon insight and was reputed to have the best sources. An surely fed anti-American or anti-war views to the Viet Nam press corps, many of whom arrived in Viet Nam profoundly opposed to the war. He essentially gave them what they wanted to hear. An's impact on the U.S. press reportage must have been enormous. Despite An's professions of love and friendship for his American press colleagues, he must have been utterly amazed at how easily duped and trusting the anti-war journalists were. The author quotes Frank McCulloch of Time who said of An, "I can say in retrospect that being a spy never warped his journalism." How could it not? I've never heard a more ridiculous statement and the book is full of quotes by An's former American colleagues that are equally ludicrous. But then they are trying their best to justify their association with this utterly charming and helpful communist spy. Robert Sam Anson was quoted as saying that the "delicious irony was that all the while the empire of Henry Luce, the great Asian anti-Communist, had been paying his (An's) salary." In truth the most delicious irony here is that anti-war journalists like Anson were willing pawns in planting communist slanted stories influenced and/or partially written by a North Vietnamese agent, who successfully manipulated the American press corps for years. An, like all good spies, was calculating and cold blooded, but above all he was a master at manipulation. How else can one explain the loyalty of his former Time colleagues felt towards An even after they learned he betrayed them and their country. The most extraordinary part of the story is that An was able to continue to manipulate his press friends long after they found out he had duplicitously used them. With very few exceptions, his former war time press friends seemed all too happy to overlook An's treachery to forgive and even praise. This reveals quite a bit about the American Viet Nam press contingent, many of whom have gone on to make a great deal of money criticizing America's involvement in the war. They are eager to forgive enemies, but are less magnanimous when it comes to forgiving Westmoreland and Nixon. Most of these Viet Nam era journalists viewed the U.S. government/military as the main adversary so it is understandable they would be so quick to forgive An. There is much that An does not share, by the author's own admission, presumably because it would be even too much for his loyal American friends to stomach. An claims that he only provided detailed analysis of events to North Viet Nam leadership. He also admits to helping plan the successful assaults on Saigon during the Tet Offensive (how many Americans and ARVN died in Saigon during Tet?) and to passing to the North Viet Names advanced warning of impending offensives. Despite his denials, An undoubtedly provided lists of anti-communist South Vietnamese officers and officials that would eventually be liquidated by the Viet Cong. It strains credulity that An would not provide such lists. One can only guess what the brutal Viet Cong would do to those found on such a lists. What other murderous acts An conducted on behalf of NVA/VC one can only speculate? An has quite a bit of blood on his hands, but we should forgive him, according to many sources quoted by the author, because he was a "nationalist" and loved his country. When the war was over, An even had the gall to send his family to the safe confines of America and later even persuaded his former friends at Time to underwrite An's son's education in the United States. It's ironic indeed that these journalists, whose careers were made by their so-called "principled" stand against the Viet Nam War, owe so much to a North Vietnamese spy. Fearing they were being used by the American military, our journalists were oblivious to the spy in the room who helped them write their stories. I highly recommend the book, but one has to read between the lines to understand the true value of the book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, and Eerie!, September 8, 2007
This review is from: Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent (Hardcover)
Pham Xuan An was recruited by the Communist Party in Vietnam and sent to the U.S. in 1957 to learn journalism as a cover - long before the U.S. took a major role in the conflict. An quickly came to admire the U.S., did well in his studies (Orange Coast College) and internships, and was had several attractive offers for permanent work upon their completion. Yet, despite fear that he would be arrested by the South Vietnamese government upon returning to Vietnam, An returned, first reporting French troop actions, then also working for various government military figures (eg. teaching English to future VN spies; helping set up the Vietnamese spying service), and finally for various American publications - Time magazine in particular. Several times the CIA even tried to recruit An, with no success.
Early in his career An risked exposure to save the life of a Time reporter captured by the VietCong in Cambodia because he knew the reporter had saved a number of Vietnamese children's' lives from various Cambodian army massacres. This conflict between his spy role and friendship with Americans continued up to America's last day in Saigon when An helped a Vietnamese friend who had worked for the Americans escape. These actions, however, did not dull An's effectiveness - his insights and reports based on conversations and documents played key roles in VietCong/NVA tactics and strategy development. After the war ended, An was promoted to Maj. General, and collected his ten top-level medals.
An received no formal spy training - instead, he read a number of books by others who were past masters. Communications involving An were almost entirely one-way - towards nearby VietCong and much farther away NVA leaders in Hanoi. His methods were to use melted rice as invisible ink (revealed by pouring iodine over the paper), and secreting both the paper and film rolls in food materials handed off to a vendor.
An's career spanned 30 years - longer than any other spy. Consequently, after the war there was considerable suspicion by the communists that this was due to his having played both sides. He was even forbidden from leaving VN to attend a post-war correspondent's conference in NYC.
Some of the most impactful portions of "Perfect Spy" involved stories about eg. another VietCong spy who pushed the Vietnamese government to move peasants into more defensible self-contained villages. His rationale - he knew this would greatly upset the peasants and turn them against the government. An himself declared several times that the U.S.'s biggest failure was to develop a new cadre of leaders after Diem was deposed. It was also quite jarring to read details from the "other side" about so many areas that I had been to - Nha Trang, Siagon, Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Vung Tau, Khe Sanh.
My one wish is that "Perfect Spy" included more planning details from the VietCong and NVA side. Unfortunately, even the author (Larry Berman) sensed several times that An left much more unsaid than revealed.
Bottom Line: I was taken aback by An's working against the U.S. after having made so many friends here, how well the VietCong/NVA infiltrated U.S. planning, and how long ahead their thinking ran. The book also brings an eerie sense of wondering what is happening along these same lines now in Iraq.
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