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

The Spy Who Loved Us 107
which had been recommended to him by an American adviser
in Vietnam. He was possibly the first Vietnamese to live in Orange
County. (It is now home to one hundred and fifty thousand
Vietnamese refugees and their descendants.) Called Confucius
by his classmates, An studied political science, American
government, economics, sociology, psychology, Spanish, and
journalism. He chaperoned eighteen-year-old coeds to the beach
and spent a lot of time working on the Barnacle, the school
newspaper, for which he wrote occasional articles, such as a
movie review of The Quiet American. Finding the movie
potentially confusing, An recommended that it “not be shown
in Vietnam.”
An describes his two years in the United States, which included
internships at the Sacramento Bee and the United Nations,
as “the only time in my life when I wasn’t anxious.” (His
travels across America were financed by the Asia Foundation,
which was later revealed to be a CIA front.) He fell in love with
America and with an American, Lee Meyer, a lithe blonde who
was his editor and writing coach at the Barnacle. “She knew I
loved her, but I never told her,” An says. “We Vietnamese never
tell what we really feel.”
An arrived at OCC on a Saturday, when the commuter
school was empty of students and his dormitory was locked. “It
was lunchtime, and I had no idea where to go,” he remembers.
“Suddenly one of the students arrived back at the dorm.
I told him I was a new student and had just arrived in America.
He offered me some red beans.”
“Then Mr. Henry Ledger, the building manager, arrived.
‘We were waiting for you,’ he said. ‘We kept your room empty
for a month, but we finally had to put somebody in it.’ He had
another room for storing sheets and towels. He emptied it out and
put me in it. It was a nice room with a good view, and I was
alone here, while all the other rooms had two people in them.
He went out and got me a chair and table and a bookshelf for
my books. The room had no dresser, but I didn’t have much