Pham Xuan An, 73, displays his press card from 1965 as he is interviewed by the Associated Press at his home in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in this April 26, 2000 file photo. An, who led a remarkable and perilous double life as a communist spy and a respected reporter for Western news organizations during the Vietnam War, died Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006 in Ho Chi Minh City, according to his son. He was 79. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) Associated Press
09/21/2006
HANOI, Vietnam — Pham Xuan An, who led a remarkable and perilous double life as a communist spy and a respected reporter for Western news organizations during the Vietnam War, died Wednesday at age 79.
An, who suffered from emphysema, died at a military hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, said his son, Pham Xuan Hoang An.
In the history of wartime espionage, few were as successful as An. He straddled two worlds for most of the 15-year war in Indochina as an undercover communist agent while also working as a journalist, first for Reuters news service and later for 10 years as Time magazine's chief Vietnamese reporter — a role that gave him access to military bases and background briefings.
He was so well-known for his sources and insight that many Americans who knew him suspected he worked for the CIA.
Before Saigon fell to the communists in 1975, An worked to help friends escape, including South Vietnam's former security chief. An later revealed his true identity as a Viet Cong commander, but said he never reported false information or communist propaganda while in his role as a journalist.
In a 2000 interview with The Associated Press, An said he always had warm feelings for his press colleagues and for the United States, where he attended college in Fullerton. But deep down, he remained a "true believer" in the communist cause as the best way to free Vietnam of foreign control.
"I fought for two things — independence and social justice," he said.
Former media colleagues expressed mixed feelings, from bemusement to a sense of betrayal, after An revealed in the 1980s that he had been a spy.
Outside critics vilified An for his role in espionage activities that may have led to the deaths of many Americans and South Vietnamese.
But most of An's ex-colleagues refrained from criticizing his deception.
"If ever there was a man caught between two worlds, it was An. It is very hard for anyone who did not serve in Vietnam in those years to understand the complexity," said David Halberstam, who covered the early years of the war for The New York Times.
Stanley Karnow, a former Time-Life correspondent in Asia and author of the seminal 1983 book, "Vietnam; A History," said that despite his secret role, An was always reliable.
"I was struck by how much he knew and was willing to share," Karnow said. "He said later that his function as a spy was not disinformation, it was to gather the best info he could for them (the Viet Cong)."
An, by his own account, was born near Saigon and at age 16 joined a nationalist movement that later became the communist Viet-Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh.
Following Vietnam's independence in 1954, he served as an aide to Col. Edward Lansdale, the U.S. intelligence officer who played an instrumental role in early U.S. support for the fledgling anti-communist regime in Saigon in the late 1950s. Lansdale was believed to be the model for a main character in Graham Greene's novel, "The Quiet American."
An told ex-colleagues in later years that he made secret trips to the jungle to confer with Viet Cong leaders. He said he knew in advance of major communist initiatives, including the 1968 Tet Offensive and North Vietnam's 1972 invasion aimed at destroying the Saigon regime.
An insisted he remained true as a journalist — never planting false or misleading information, realizing this could reveal his clandestine role.
"The truth was that I knew many things that I never told anyone," he said. "And because of this I was able on a couple of occasions to save Time from major embarrassment by telling them that a certain piece of important information was not true."
His greatest risk of exposure might have been in secretly arranging freedom for another Time staffer who had been captured by guerrilla forces in Cambodia in 1970.
Just days before Saigon fell in 1975, An helped his family to escape along with some Vietnamese news assistants and the former South Vietnamese security chief. But he stayed behind, and his relatives eventually returned.
An's Western connections caused senior Hanoi officials to distrust him despite his wartime record. They sent him to a postwar "re-education" school, and in 1997 refused him an exit visa to take part in a Vietnam War symposium in Washington, D.C.
He sometimes spoke candidly of being disillusioned with Vietnam's victorious leaders. In a meeting with three former American press colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, An described them as "much more corrupt" than the Saigon officials he knew during the war.
At the same time he was made a brigadier general in retirement and a few years ago was promoted to major general.
Given his familiarity with the French, Viet-Minh, Viet Cong, South Vietnamese and American armies, An said in the 2000 interview, "I told them they should make me a five-star general. I don't think they understood my sense of humor."
————
AP reporter Richard Pyle, who contributed to this report from New York, covered the Vietnam War for five years and was AP's Saigon bureau chief from 1970-73. Margie Mason reported from Hanoi.
An, who suffered from emphysema, died at a military hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, said his son, Pham Xuan Hoang An.
In the history of wartime espionage, few were as successful as An. He straddled two worlds for most of the 15-year war in Indochina as an undercover communist agent while also working as a journalist, first for Reuters news service and later for 10 years as Time magazine's chief Vietnamese reporter — a role that gave him access to military bases and background briefings.
He was so well-known for his sources and insight that many Americans who knew him suspected he worked for the CIA.
Before Saigon fell to the communists in 1975, An worked to help friends escape, including South Vietnam's former security chief. An later revealed his true identity as a Viet Cong commander, but said he never reported false information or communist propaganda while in his role as a journalist.
In a 2000 interview with The Associated Press, An said he always had warm feelings for his press colleagues and for the United States, where he attended college in Fullerton. But deep down, he remained a "true believer" in the communist cause as the best way to free Vietnam of foreign control.
"I fought for two things — independence and social justice," he said.
Former media colleagues expressed mixed feelings, from bemusement to a sense of betrayal, after An revealed in the 1980s that he had been a spy.
Outside critics vilified An for his role in espionage activities that may have led to the deaths of many Americans and South Vietnamese.
But most of An's ex-colleagues refrained from criticizing his deception.
"If ever there was a man caught between two worlds, it was An. It is very hard for anyone who did not serve in Vietnam in those years to understand the complexity," said David Halberstam, who covered the early years of the war for The New York Times.
Stanley Karnow, a former Time-Life correspondent in Asia and author of the seminal 1983 book, "Vietnam; A History," said that despite his secret role, An was always reliable.
"I was struck by how much he knew and was willing to share," Karnow said. "He said later that his function as a spy was not disinformation, it was to gather the best info he could for them (the Viet Cong)."
An, by his own account, was born near Saigon and at age 16 joined a nationalist movement that later became the communist Viet-Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh.
Following Vietnam's independence in 1954, he served as an aide to Col. Edward Lansdale, the U.S. intelligence officer who played an instrumental role in early U.S. support for the fledgling anti-communist regime in Saigon in the late 1950s. Lansdale was believed to be the model for a main character in Graham Greene's novel, "The Quiet American."
An told ex-colleagues in later years that he made secret trips to the jungle to confer with Viet Cong leaders. He said he knew in advance of major communist initiatives, including the 1968 Tet Offensive and North Vietnam's 1972 invasion aimed at destroying the Saigon regime.
An insisted he remained true as a journalist — never planting false or misleading information, realizing this could reveal his clandestine role.
"The truth was that I knew many things that I never told anyone," he said. "And because of this I was able on a couple of occasions to save Time from major embarrassment by telling them that a certain piece of important information was not true."
His greatest risk of exposure might have been in secretly arranging freedom for another Time staffer who had been captured by guerrilla forces in Cambodia in 1970.
Just days before Saigon fell in 1975, An helped his family to escape along with some Vietnamese news assistants and the former South Vietnamese security chief. But he stayed behind, and his relatives eventually returned.
An's Western connections caused senior Hanoi officials to distrust him despite his wartime record. They sent him to a postwar "re-education" school, and in 1997 refused him an exit visa to take part in a Vietnam War symposium in Washington, D.C.
He sometimes spoke candidly of being disillusioned with Vietnam's victorious leaders. In a meeting with three former American press colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, An described them as "much more corrupt" than the Saigon officials he knew during the war.
At the same time he was made a brigadier general in retirement and a few years ago was promoted to major general.
Given his familiarity with the French, Viet-Minh, Viet Cong, South Vietnamese and American armies, An said in the 2000 interview, "I told them they should make me a five-star general. I don't think they understood my sense of humor."
————
AP reporter Richard Pyle, who contributed to this report from New York, covered the Vietnam War for five years and was AP's Saigon bureau chief from 1970-73. Margie Mason reported from Hanoi.
3 comments:
How many double agents like Pham Xuan An are living in Cambodia as disguise as policeman, as political leaders, and as average Cambodian people! I believe that they all should be executed right on the spot!
Dear fellow,
The MOST DANGEROUS SPY in our
country is:
VIETTEL
VIETNAM-MILITARY-SPY TELECOM
High alert
Dear fellow
Tell your close relations, your friends that
they are on dangerous ground
If they have the telephone installed with
Viettel
Vietnam-Military-spy Telecom
Comment
-Those Cambodian people who sign up the Vietcong telecom will undoubtedly give out many personal information about themselves and it is these Cambodian people who can be tracked down by tapping into their telephone system or computer system for easy listening or reading computer files!
-Now it makes alot of sense if AH HUN SEN need the help of the Vietcong to gather sensitive information electronically to control Cambodian people and at the same time AH HUN SEN will share the profit with the Vietcong!
-I used to work in the Internet Service Provider before and man there are so many information that the ISP can use to track down their customers! If the information get into the wrong hand, all Cambodian people who use the Viettel are fuck!
-Are you confident enough to talk on their network
- The Vietcong are ear-dropping on Cambodian people conversation!
PROCLAMATION OF STATE OF EMERGENCY
ON...........2006 AT..., THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN CONVENED AND HAS VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO REMOVE NORODOM SIHAMONI AS A KING OF CAMBODIA, ABOLISHING THE MONARCHY AND DECLARING CAMBODIA A REPUBLIC WITH YUON XEN, WHO IS CURRENTLY PRIME MINISTER, AS THE PRESIDENT FOR LIFE WITH GRANTED EMERGENCY POWERS..
From Government spokesman and
Information Minister KHIEU KANHARITH
7:45 AM
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