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

190 THOMAS A. BASS
be another eighteen years before Anson learned for sure that
An had saved his life, but Anson’s wife had begged An for help,
and he had promised to do what he could—a dangerous remark,
implying that he really could do something. “I have a weakness
for crying women and children,” An admits. In 1988, when
Anson visited An in Vietnam, he asked, “Why did you save me,
if you were an enemy of my country?” An replied, “Yes, I was
an enemy of your country, but you were my friend.” To this day,
Anson works with a photo of An on his desk.
Zalin Grant, the Time stringer with a background in military
intelligence, claims that Pham Xuan An was “the first known
case of a communist agent to appear on the masthead of a
major American publication as a correspondent.” This may be
true, but Time has long been a genial home for spies, and
Time Inc. has listed many intelligence agents on its mastheads.
In one instance, the magazine sent a bureau chief spook to
help the CIA lead a military coup. From its inception, Time took
a pro-American stance that turned it into a cheerleader for
military ventures around the world. This sometimes involved
more concrete forms of aid, with the magazine providing cover
for CIA operatives and lending itself to various covert operations.
Time regularly published what it knew to be disinformation
and propaganda, whenever these served what the magazine
considered to be America’s interests.
“World War III has begun,” Henry Luce declared in March
1947. “It is in the opening skirmish stage already.” He called for
the creation of an American empire that would be “worlddominating
in political power, set up in part through coercion
(probably including war, but certainly the threat of war) and in
which one group of people . . . would hold more than its equal
share of power.” Aiding Luce in this crusade was his righthand
man, Charles “C.D.” Jackson. Luce praised him as “one
of the most important experts in ideological warfare.” Hired in
1931 as Luce’s personal assistant, Jackson worked for the OSS