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

The Spy Who Loved Us 175
but I knew many of them. I could have led them up to the
top, giving them the names of the most important spies who
worked for us. They knew I was the key to cracking our intelligence
network in the south.”
Thuy Duong, the most beautiful of the temptresses, visited
him one last time, pleading with him to join the American side.
On refusing, he was whisked into another room, where the
beating started. Eventually his captors crushed his feet and
began amputating his limbs. Here the story gets a bit vague, for
understandable reasons, but I suspect that it also takes on whatever
coloration is required by the nature of Thuong’s audience.
In some versions, a Korean cuts off his legs. In others, a South
Vietnamese and in others, an American. When I press for details,
he tells me that Korean and American surgeons took turns.
“They cut off my right foot. I passed out. They cut off my
left foot. Two months later they cut more. Every two months
they cut off more of my body. Altogether, they put me on the
table and cut my legs six times. The American colonel told them,
‘You can cut away his entire body. Just be sure to leave his
tongue in his mouth.’”
I feel lightheaded as the fan continues blowing hot air in my
face and the house fills with the smell of rice and frying meat.
Thuong was sent to a prison where Ba Quoc worked. This was
the nom de guerre of Dang Tran Duc, a Communist intelligence
agent who was employed by Dr. Tuyen and the secret police.
The two men recognized each other but neither revealed the
other’s identity. Thuong was finally sent to Phu Quoc, an island
prison camp like Poulo Condore. In 1973, following the signing
of the Paris Peace Accords, after “four years and four days
in enemy hands,” he was released.
“Many years later I met Pham Xuan An, and he thanked
me,” Thuong says. “‘Surely, you saved my life by hiding those
documents,’ he said.” Thuong riffles through his tin box to
pull out another photo of himself at an official government