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

The perfect Spy, never was a title so appropriate. I had planned to read this for several weeks, then it came across my path once more, and I bought it and began to read it. From chapter one I was so hooked. I have read much and studied the period of 1945 to 1961, so I was somewhat aware of the events leading up to what we called the Viet Nam War. I was aware of the bad stewardship of the French in their period of colonization. I knew about Ho Chi Minh and his efforts to get President Wilson and then again President Truman to help get Viet Nam independence, both times ignored. It was little wonder that he turned to Russia and China, he was not a man to give up.In the early spring of 1962, I found myself in Viet Nam. I knew nothing of Viet Nam at the time, had barely heard of it. But soon I found myself smack dab in the middle of that world. I was teamed with a man who had been in the country since the mid-fifties, an ex-WWII Pacific theater, Korean War veteran, that had been working for several years in Viet Nam, I was basically his assistant. I got to know the politics of that world very quickly. I spent about a week around the Continental Hotel on Tu Do Street. And did some exercises with my new boss, then we went to the Central Highlands. But this is not about me. It is about A quiet unassuming man known as Pham Xuan An. My next week or so was filled with OMG’s and Holy Cows, and wow he did that, and man, no one ever doubted him. And I can’t wait to see what next. After finally last evening finishing Larry Berman’s outstanding story, I had to stop and reflect on how the Viet Nam would flowed if An had not been in the place he was, and who he was. Ap Bac, first came to mind. And all the other sorties flown with helicopters. And his influence on Tet, and his influence in the final months of March and April of 1975, when the communist government were so unsure of themselves about taking over the country. I am not going to tell the story, even if I could, but if you served, or someone you were close to served. You need to read this book. Larry Berman, thank You, my education would have been incomplete in my Viet Nam story without this book,“Perfect Spy, The incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, time magazine reporter and Vietnamese communist Spy.” He was a man loved by both his friends and enemies . I will make no judgement of his character, read the story, his character stands for itself. Amazing story about an amazing man, in a troubled time, in a war-torn world.

There are at least two flaws plaguing American intellectuals - not all of them, but most of them - that are increasingly making them irrelevant. First, is "siloing," the tendency to become so specialized that they miss the bigger picture. The second is ideology, allowing one's own prejudice to color their understanding. This is not a left or right phenomenon: it affects both political wings. For instance, conservative free traders excoriate President Trump for his interference with trade with China, but these fervently patriotic intellectuals don't focus on the Idiocy we’ve experienced for 25 years in subcontracting our heavy industry needs to a foreign military rival.This book is ruined by both forms of myopia. Professor Berman is a careful scholar, but he is crippled by these two flaws. His expertise is Washington politics, not Southeast Asia and his liberal anti-Vietnam politics cloud his ability to review evidence dispassionately. As a result, he misses the main contribution of his subject, Pham Xuan An, to North Vietnamese victory.Southeast Asian scholars have a far different and more favorable view of Ngo Dinh Diem than specialists in American politics. An honest, patriotic intellectual, he was hardly a demon. American foreign policy has supported much more authoritarian, even monstrous, figures in Asia, Africa, South America and even Europe. The coup and assassination of Diem that made the war both inevitable and doomed was caused by seven Americans against the advice of the Defense Department, the State Department, the CIA and pretty much everyone who knew what they were doing.Five of these Americans were government officials, including President Kennedy, Ambassador Lodge, Averill Harriman, Michael Forrestal and Roger Hilsman. The other two Americans were journalists who had an excessive amount of influence over the White House: David Halberstam of the New York Times and Malcolm W. Browne of The Washington Post. Sadly, the reportage of another, better, journalist, Marguerite Higgins, never reached the White House, because President Kennedy had cancelled the White House subscription to The New York Herald-Tribune in a snit over an editorial.Pham was an American educated South Vietnamese journalist who had a great deal of influence over most of the American Press Corps in Saigon. He was also a spy for North Vietnam. In a nasty chain reaction, Pham influenced the press against Diem and the press influenced the White House. In a tragically sloppy move, these seven engineered a coup against and an assassination of Diem and his brother. Greedy, incompetent generals created a revolving door of governments which caused an immediate collapse of South Vietnam, revealing, too late, just how effective Diem had been. Even before JFK was killed later in the month, Cambodia had denounced its former alliance with the US because of the coup. Ho Chi Minh was as delighted as he was surprised. In order to contain the disaster, we were forced to intervene, but without a legitimate local government, the outcome was inevitable.Professor Berman misses all this and that is a tragedy for history itself because Pham died soon after he spoke to Berman, making Berman the only Western historian who had an opportunity to Interrogate Pham. Berman devotes a great deal of time on Pham's education in California, for instance, and pages and pages on the press corps' reliance on ad respect for Pham, but spends a single paragraph on whether he influenced the press corps to benefit North Vietnam (no, Pham replied disingenuously, he just educated them as to events in South Vietnam; incredibly, Berman takes this at face value and never considers that a Communist spy’s “events” may not be particularly objective). Pham's reputation as a spy is not based on information stolen from government agencies and, in any event, Berman's coverage of the actual supposed spying activities are almost as weak as his passages on Pham's influence on the American press.The two intellectual flaws ruin this book. The silo prevents Berman from entertaining the contrary opinion of Southeast Asian scholars like Geoffrey Shaw, Michael Moyar and Ellen Hammer. Failure to consider their views prevents him from considering many issues concerning Diem, the coup or Pham himself.The author's ideological bent prevents him from taking the evidence he has assembled so assiduously and examining it properly. Pham tells him that his time in California was the happiest time of his life. Really? He was promoted to General, (though promptly removed from active duty) and treated as a hero ever since and being a student was the high point in his life? On the other hand, Pham makes some statements that could be interpreted as severe disillusion. Perhaps he expected a different victory. Today, two generations later, what was once South Vietnam is still governed almost entirely by citizens from old North Vietnam (in fact, "Vietnam" is entirely a fiction of French colonialism; before the French arrived in the 19th century, Vietnam consisted of three independent and not particularly friendly nations).Sometimes Berman's ideological myopia just makes him look foolish. He talks about the "liberation" of South Vietnam right after citing a North Vietnamese document which refers to its "conquest." He mentions Pham's "miraculous" ability to enter Viet Cong controlled areas without being stopped by Diem's allegedly omniscient secret police without ever considering that his secret police may not have been particularly effective (note to Berman: dictatorships are never deposed by generals; colonels or even sergeants, yes, but disaffected generals are usually the sign of a weak democracy).Ben Rhodes, President Obama's foreign policy guru, told The New York Times how dumb the Washington Press Corps is and how easy to it is to manipulate it. Sadly, gullibility isn't restricted to the Fourth Estate.

This is a really informative and interesting account of part of the Vietnam war.I was recommended it by a local who was there in Saigon.

As described and prompt delivery.

faithful book about one of Vietnam's most notable figures in modern history.

It is hard to understand the US-Vietnam conflict without this book. It is well written and documented. It gives the background and context which explain how the US was so thoroughly beaten and outfoxed by the Vietnamese. The title of the book is no exaggeration. How could a spy so thoroughly infiltrate the US war machine and stay undetected for so many years? All the while passing along details of every major plan and strategy of the US? All in good time for the N Vietnamese to react? And this with no radio or high tech gear? Of great interest too, is the peculiar lack of remorse, once this spy was exposed, on the part of the US media and even government officials who were duped and therefore complicit in the deaths of thousands of their own American youth. Not to mention South Vietnamese. Not only was there lack of remorse, but even financial support and accolades for the spy after the war. How could this happen? This book marks, not the beginning, but rather the first great manifestation of the great divisions we see in US public life today-the self loathing, the media as a policy-making and propaganda tool, the lack of moral compass. The Vietnam war is a greatly underrated and misunderstood milestone in US history. To understand this period one needs to know the dynamics that lurked under the surface but which are not much spoken about today. Similarly, to understand the outcome of WWII one needs to know about the role of the Enigma machine, so in this book you will meet the Enigma machine of Vietnam. Highly recommended.