Perfect Spy The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent

Pham Xuan An was a Vietnamese nationalist and member of Ho Chi Minh's army in the 1950s. Knowing that war with the United States was inevitable, the Party sent An to America to study journalism (for his cover) and observe its people and culture. He attended community college in California, worked for the Sacramento Bee and traveled across the country making friends. Back in Saigon he worked as a reporter for Reuters and Time in the early 60s. He befriended numerous British and American journalists, including David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan and Stanley Karnow who came to regard him as a friend and trusted source. Meanwhile, he was providing intelligence to Hanoi; his early reports were so accurate that a general joked "we are now in the US war room." For twenty years An lived a lie and no one knew because he was so good at his day job, which was interwoven with his assignment in espionage. Several years after the war, the new Vietnamese Communist government revealed that An had been one of its most effective spies. He was publicly awarded six medals and named a "Hero of the People's Army" one of only two intelligence officers during the war ever promoted to the rank of General and Hero. But An's disaffection with the new government's treatment of their southern countrymen and his close friendships with Americans made him suspicious in the eyes of the Communist government. He was soon placed under housed arrest and to this day he is banned from leaving the country.Berman, Larry is the author of 'Perfect Spy The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent', published 2007 under ISBN 9780060888381 and ISBN 0060888385.