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

The Spy Who Loved Us 173
two weeks of study,” says Thuong. “I cooked his food and took
care of him while he was there.”
“What was he studying?” I ask. “The policy of the Central
Committee,” says Thuong. “This was expected of everyone in
the Party.”
Thuong presided over a network of men and women who
met three times a week in the park in front of the Catholic
cathedral next to the statue of the Virgin Mary. After picking up
messages concealed under a bench, he traveled north on National
Route 13 into the forest. He carried an array of fake
IDs. One said he was a captain in the Republican army. Another
said he was a farmer. In special cases, as a last resort, he brought
out an ID which identified him as a police intelligence agent.
“Sometimes I carried An’s messages directly from Saigon to Cu
Chi. Other times, they passed through many hands,” he tells me.
Thuong reaches into a tin box, an old Lipton tea container,
and hands me a picture of himself. It shows a handsome young
man wearing a sweater vest over a white shirt and black trousers.
His eyes hidden behind lightly tinted sunglasses, he looks like
a young professional on his way to work. In 1969, after fifteen
years on the job, he was unmasked by a Communist agent who
had gone over to the other side. “Many years later, after I was
released from prison, someone told me that the documents I
was carrying concerned plans to attack Cambodia. There was
another document with the names of thirty-six spies who had
been inserted into the Communist network.”
One leg of Thuong’s brown-checked pajamas dangles to
the floor. The other is tucked under him, but the material is so
thin that I can see the stumps of what used to be his legs moving
under the fabric. I try to focus my gaze on Thuong’s eyes as
a fan blows hot air over us and he continues his story. Thuong
was riding a motorbike down the road to Cu Chi when a helicopter
swooped overhead. The “open arms” informer was onboard,
pointing at him. A voice boomed out from a loudspeaker,
calling him by his secret name, while soldiers used a rope ladder