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

Confidence
Game
O
n returning to Saigon, An was so frightened about of having
been exposed as a spy that he hid in his house for a
month before settling on a plan of action: rather than waiting
for the police to come and arrest him, he would go to the police
and learn what they knew about him. Using his family connections,
he contacted Tran Kim Tuyen, the former military
surgeon who ran South Vietnam’s intelligence network for President
Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.
This extensive, CIA-supported network of spies and clandestine
military forces operated out of the president’s cabinet under the
anodyne name of the Office of Political, Cultural, and Social Research.
If Tuyen hired him, An figured he would be safe from
arrest, at least for the moment.
In short order, An became Tuyen’s assistant, his factotum
and confidant. At times, it looked as if An were the sole man
Tuyen trusted in Saigon. An handled Tuyen’s business and even
laundered his money. “Tuyen controlled the shipment of opium
from the high plateaus down to Saigon,” An says. “Actually, it
was the owner of Saigon’s Floating Restaurant who owned the
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