Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double of Pham Xuan An
By Larry Berman
New York, HarperCollins, 2007
More than a secret agent, a reporter, a Communist, he was a friend to many people, a true internationalist and humanitarian. Historian Larry Berman's latest book, Perfect Spy, is a biography of Vietnam's greatest undercover operative, Pham Xuan An, multiply awarded as a hero of his country. It is the tale of a complicated man who risked his life to both save his country from foreign invasion and to save the lives of many people on both sides of the war.
Pham Xuan An joined the Communist Party in the 1940s because he believed in the Party's anti-imperialist ideals and its goal of uniting the country under a sovereign power. Because An enjoyed American culture, could speak English, and made friends with a number of prominent Americans, the leadership of the independence forces centered in the Communist Party approached him about taking on a special mission.
An would travel to the US as a student, study journalism at a California college, and get a job in the press, covering Asia. Ironically, it was a CIA agent who sponsored An for legal immigration status to study in California. Taking his assignment and the need to build an impenetrable cover seriously, An was instantly popular at the college he attended. He became known as an anti-Communist, worked on the school paper, helped start the international club, and formed many strong friendships that lasted his whole life.
Upon returning to Vietnam in the mid-1950's, An took jobs with various news agencies and media outlets covering the growing crisis in his country. He quickly became an indispensable interpreter of Vietnamese language, culture, and politics, working as an assistant to several big-name reporters covering the looming war. In fact, Berman reports that the Vietnamese news assistant portrayed in the 2002 version of Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American (starring Brandon Fraser and Michael Caine) was based on An.
An's press credentials and incomparable knowledge gave him access to military briefings, top rank military officers (in both the South Vietnamese and US militaries), both countries' intelligence agencies, political insiders, business leaders, and so on. An had access to highly sensitive material, like many reporters, that was intended to form the background of pro-US and pro-war media stories.
Often the credible sensitive information gained through these channels became the basis of secret strategic reports An passed along through contacts back to the North Vietnamese intelligence apparatus. An's information is credited for aiding major Vietnamese victories at Ap Bac in 1961, the Tet Offensive in 1968, and the final collapse of the South Vietnamese forces in 1973.
In the intervening period, An forged strong friendships with American reporters and others who opposed his secret aims. But he wouldn't allow politics to interfere with personal friendships, nor could he afford to as his cover depended on it. But it appears that most people who knew him during the war, upon learning his true identity after, maintained a positive and respectful image of him. After all, a man who had been a Communist for six decades would believe that war was not a matter of personalities or patriotism a matter of hating the other, but instead a conflict of systems or peoples born out of the necessity of capitalism to regenerate itself.
A handful of people have attacked him calling him a traitor. But a traitor to what? His country? I don't think so. And there is no evidence that he betrayed humanity, except in participating in a war effort along with millions of others – French, Vietnamese, US – he neither wanted nor started.
While portions of this book may have benefited from a more careful editor's pencil to sharpen the narrative structure, it is doubtful that the thoughtfulness of the author's argument, the depth of his research, and the drama and poignancy of the story could have been improved upon. This extraordinary book is a personal biography set in the context of a complex history of the war in Vietnam going back to the 1940s. But with anecdotes about invisible ink, secret microfilm, and midnight rendezvous with unknown contacts, it could have easily been a spy thriller written for Hollywood.
The Pham Xuan An that Berman portrays in this book is a symbol of Vietnamese and American reconciliation. A staunch revolutionary nationalist, An also represents the potential for Americans and the Vietnamese to cross the divide caused by the war and rebuild a friendship that is worth sharing.
