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

The Spy Who Loved Us 203
together. He laughs heartily. “This seemed to be a weak point
in our plan, but I thought we could pull it off. I believed in my
cover. I thought it was solid. I even went to the office of Time
magazine with An.”
Tu Cang pretended to be an old schoolmate of An’s who
shared his interest in birds and dogs. “We spoke French to
each other because An’s dog was trained in French. He was a
German shepherd who once belonged to Nguyen Cao Ky. Nobody
thought Communist spies would walk around the city
with such a high-class dog. I wore what An wore, casual shirts
and slacks. When I first arrived in the city in 1966, he looked at
me and said, ‘This guy has just come from the forest. Your sandals
make you look like a pickpocket. I have to take you to a
shoe store and get you some shoes.’ He also bought me new
clothes that he rumpled up so they wouldn’t look too new.”
Following his makeover, Tu Cang and An “looked like
friends in the city,” he says. “We held Party meetings and discussed
work in luxurious restaurants where the tables were
placed far from each other, and no one could overhear what we
were saying. An always brought his dog with him. It was a very
intelligent dog that understood foreign languages, and people
were afraid of it.”
Tu Cang pretended to be the owner of a rubber plantation
in Dau Tieng, next to the famous Michelin holdings. He knew
the area well because the drivers of the rubber trucks were
part of his network, and he used to ride with them in and out
of the city. In Saigon, Tu Cang played the role of a bon vivant
who had all the time in the world to spend chatting with his
friend An when they met on the Continental terrace or strolled
next door for a cup of coffee at café Givral.
As we discuss his planning for the Têt Offensive, Tu Cang
occasionally grabs my notebook and sketches battlefield maps
and other plans for the campaign. “Our attacks on the U.S.
embassy and Presidential Palace were feints,” he says. “The