Spotlighting Viet Nam’s leading spy

A book about the incredible double life of Pham Xuan An, reporter for Time Magazine and Vietnamese secret agent, has been released in the US.
The Perfect Spy by Larry Berman, professor at the University of California, is the story of An’s extraordinary double-life; both as a well-respected Vietnamese journalist and communist intelligence agent gathering information during the American War in Viet Nam.
An began his military career in the 1950s when he was a member of the Viet Nam People’s Army. After the French left the country, the Vietnamese army sent him to America to study journalism and to observe its people and culture. There he attended community college in California, worked for the Sacramento Bee, interned at the United Nations, and travelled across the country making friends.
Later, in the 1960s, An returned to his homeland to work as a reporter for Reuters and Time Magazine.
Meanwhile, he was providing intelligence to the Vietnamese army fighting against the US invasion of South Viet Nam.
It was a dual-life that was to continue for 20 years.
In recognition for the contributions made by An, the Vietnamese Government awarded him six medals and named him Hero of the People’s Army. He is one of only two intelligence officers during the war ever promoted to the rank of General and Hero. He died last September in HCM City.
Larry Berman is professor of political science at the University of California, Davis and the director of the UC-Davis Washington Programme. He is the author of three books on Viet Nam.
Berman met An in 2001 in HCM City where they quickly became friends. Over the next five years, the US professor made more than a dozen trips to Viet Nam and spent hundreds of hours interviewing An.
In return, the retired general allowed Berman to peruse through his personal belongings, including photographs and books he had read and was influenced by.
The Vietnam News Agency’s Publishing House holds the right to publish The Perfect Spy in Vietnamese. — VNS