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

94 THOMAS A. BASS
of the sects, and Diem’s rigged presidential election. Soon he
began learning the master’s tricks. Other able teachers arrived
in Saigon as Lansdale staffed his Saigon military mission with
the best spooks in the business. Some of these people became
An’s lifelong “friends,” although a friendship in which you neglect
to mention that you are your friend’s sworn opponent is a
curious thing to contemplate.
“When the Americans came to our office with their bad
French, there was only one person they could talk to. And
when he was away, I was the only one they could talk to,” An
says. “Soon I was the liaison officer between the Americans
and the Vietnamese. First there was Lansdale and then Lansdale’s
people and then other military officers. I made friends
with all sorts of Americans and even their families.”
Fifty years later, An remembers every detail about these encounters
with his American friends and their children, for
whom he had a real fondness. “I became friends with a master
sergeant named Frank C. Long and his wife, Mary, and their
three children, Kathy age six, Peter age four, and three-year-old
Amanda. I was working at the American military headquarters.
He was the officer in charge of setting up the training
program for the Vietnamese. I saw him every day at the office,
and then on weekends we would go to the swimming pool. I
practiced my English with his wife, who was a legal secretary.
She taught me shorthand and American culture, and I played
with the children. Actually, they were my teachers when I was
learning about American culture.
“I was impressed that the Americans taught their children
to behave so well. They knew how to be friends with the Vietnamese
children and play with them at school. I was so impressed
by these children that I took them to meet my family.
‘They are very beautiful children,’ my father admitted. ‘But they
are not as well groomed as French children.’ This was his prejudice.
He always thought the French were the most beautiful.
I disagreed. ‘They are not like French children,’ I said. ‘They are