Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent
By Larry Berman
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
During the Vietnam War, Time reporter Pham Xuan An befriended everyone who was anyone in Saigon, including American journalists such as David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, the CIA's William Colby, and the legendary Colonel Edward Lansdale—not to mention the most influential members of the South Vietnamese government and army. None of them ever guessed that he was also providing strategic intelligence to Hanoi, smuggling invisible ink messages into the jungle inside egg rolls. His early reports were so accurate that General Giap joked, "We are now in the U.S. war room."
In Perfect Spy, Larry Berman, who An considered his official American biographer, chronicles the extraordinary life of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating spies.
Larry Berman
Larry Berman has written four previous books on the war in Vietnam: Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam; Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road To Stalemate in Vietnam; No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger and Betrayal in Vietnam and Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent. He has been featured on C-SPAN Book TV, Bill Moyers' The Public Mind and David McCullough's American Experience. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow in residence at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He received the Bernath Lecture Prize for contributions to our understanding of foreign relations and the Department of the Navy Vice Admiral Edwin B. Hooper Research Grant. Berman is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis and Founding Dean of the Honors College at Georgia State University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Read more from Larry Berman
Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter & Vietnamese Communist Agent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt, Jr. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrooked Bamboo: Inside the Diem Regime and South Vietnam's Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Perfect Spy
Related ebooks
Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Risk Taker, Spy Maker: Tales of a CIA Case Officer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death and Life of Dith Pran Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soong Sisters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Red Notice: by Bill Browder | Includes Analysis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam: The Necessary War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan at War in the Pacific: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire in Asia: 1868-1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFormosa Betrayed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall: Three Generals Who Saved the American Century Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Year that Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voices of New China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Giap: The General Who Defeated America in Vietnam Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations that Helped Win the Cold War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vietnam Labyrinth: Allies, Enemies, and Why the U.S. Lost the War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Asian History For You
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pillow Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Voices from Chernobyl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Yakuza: life and death in the Japanese underworld Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCapitalism: A Ghost Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Caste (Oprah's Book Club): by Isabel Wilkerson - The Origins of Our Discontents - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMyths & Legends of Japan: Study of Japanese Folklore (Illustrated Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'brainwashing' in China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shinto the Kami Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962—1976 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan: With an Extensive Introduction and Notes by Alexander Bennett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Perfect Spy
13 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's always a strange story when a former enemy tries to write about a former enemy. Pham Xuan An was a Communist spy in Saigon during the Vietnam War. However he was also a journalist for Time magazine and he cultivated contacts with both South Vietnamese and Americans. He also got away with it, he was a very good spy. The book seeks to answer how he succeeded and for so long. I think it does provide answers to these questions. The author very much liked his subject and that colours the entire book. I'm not sure if it hurts or helps the book. It very much reads not as history but as a tribute to a dear friend, who it just so happens was an enemy spy. The author asks who is the real Pham Xuan An, I'm happy with the answers presented in the book. A much harder question to answer is why so many of those he betrayed are so ready to forgive.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating story. I had never heard of this guy. It's an entirely different slant on the familiar story of the disaster in Viet Nam.