The Spy Who Loved Us_ The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game ( PDFDrive )

88 THOMAS A. BASS
but the two men also shared jokes and stories and got on famously
well with each other. “I met Lansdale quite often,” An
says. “Those were very cheerful days.”
As he traveled around Saigon, Lansdale was accompanied
by a large black poodle, but it was the German shepherd breed
that came to be associated with him. “Lansdale explained to me
about dogs,” An says. “You have to watch the behavior of your
dog. They live by instinct. You have to learn to observe what
your dog is telling you. He will show you if you have to be vigilant
of your guest. Your dog can protect you. Lansdale gave me
good advice.”
Alden Pyle, the CIA protagonist in The Quiet American, also
travels around Saigon with a dog at his side. The footprints of
Pyle’s dog, imprinted in the wet cement in front of British journalist
Thomas Fowler’s apartment, implicate the journalist in
Pyle’s death. In this case, the dog fails to save his master but he
fingers his murderer.
“Soon after Lansdale left Vietnam, I went to the dog market,”
An says. “I saw a beautiful German shepherd for sale.
The man who was selling it said, ‘This is the dog of Mr. Lansdale,
chief of intelligence, who has just left the country. This is
a very intelligent dog.’
“I walked around the corner and saw another German shepherd
for sale. ‘This is Lansdale’s dog,’ said the owner. That day
every German shepherd in the market was ‘Lansdale’s dog,’
and you were supposed to pay more, because it was so intelligent.
After that, there wasn’t a German shepherd in Vietnam
that hadn’t formerly belonged to Lansdale.”
From Lansdale An acquired the practice of traveling around
Saigon accompanied by a dog. He kept a German shepherd nestled
at his feet in café Givral or heeling on the terrace at the
Continental Hotel. As An drove through town in his little green
Renault, his dog sat upright in the passenger seat looking out
on the road. Most importantly, his dog guarded his house at
night while An worked in his darkroom copying documents and