The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An’s Dangerous Game

by: Thomas A Bass

Published by: Public Affairs/Perseus Books Group

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

This is a complicated book – probably because Pham Xuan An was a complicated man. Thomas Bass decided to detail the working life of this man who was well-known to journalists during the Vietnam War as “the man to see” in Saigon, who had an inside track on many issues and whose name appeared on the masthead of Time Magazine. What they didn’t realize until after An’s death in 2006 was that he had been a full-fledged double agent working as a spy for the North Vietnamese all along.

Pham Xuan An completely was a Vietnamese loyalist. He first became active during the 1950s as the country tried to relieve itself from its French colonial shackles. His ability to speak French was beneficial and he was noticed as someone worth training. His superiors sent him to college in the United States to study journalism – seeing that profession as a potential cover for an informant. When the American advisors began to arrive in Vietnam, An worked with them, making friends and contacts wherever he went. But as he realized that the Americans were really only taking over for the French instead of removing outside powers, An had no trouble taking the information he gleaned from his American friends and turning it over to Ho Chi Minh’s army.

Throughout the war years, Pham Xuan An maintained the appearance of a respected Western journalist while he was serving as both a strategic and tactical analyst for the North Vietnamese. Several key battles were probably lost to the American/South Vietnamese because of advance information that An passed along to their enemies. Yet, An cared for his American friends and frequently went out on a limb to help the friends he cultivated.

The book is difficult reading because of the Vietnamese names and places, but it is a strong history of a man who was caught between cultures.
His first and possibly only goal was liberating his country from foreign domination. Because the book also shows how Americans went into a war with little understanding of the culture, people or language, some critics have said that this book could be a warning of similar situations in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Armchair Interviews says: Most interesting view of that time and war.

Author’s Web site: http://www.ThomasBass.com