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

The Spy Who Loved Us 207
Tu Cang takes my notebook and draws in it a map of the
rubber plantation he supposedly owned sixty kilometers north
of the city and all the landmarks he passed on Route 13 as he
traveled into town to meet Pham Xuan An. With couriers and
safe houses along its length, Tu Cang knows every inch of the
route we are traveling.
For ten slow miles we honk our way through swirling eddies
of Hondas, Vespas, oxcarts, and rickshaws, until we cross a
canal that feeds the Saigon River. Here the countryside opens
into emerald green rice paddies and fish ponds edged with
palm trees and coconuts. White cranes flit over the fields, which
are dotted with black water buffalos and women in conical
hats. Schoolchildren walk along the highway, wearing neatly
pressed white shirts and red kerchiefs tied at the neck. Tu
Cang draws another map showing me the battle plan for the
1968 Têt Offensive, including the feints on the U.S. embassy
and the Presidential Palace which were supposed to draw
American troops into the city and leave Saigon’s perimeter momentarily
undefended. “We had two divisions here, hiding in
the rice paddies,” he says, pointing out the window. “There
were ten thousand soldiers on this road, but they never made
it to the city. Our cover was blown. The 25th Infantry Division
attacked and killed many soldiers in these fields.”
Tu Cang taps me on the shoulder and points over a weedy
parade ground toward a mass of low-lying buildings. “This was
the American base, the 25th Infantry Division, Tropic Lightning,”
he tells me. All the gas and tunnel rats, Rome plows
and pesticides which for years were directed at killing him
came from here. We drive on through countryside covered
with dwarf trees. “We were not successful,” Tu Cang says of the
Têt Offensive. “We caused panic. It was a psychological success,
but it was not a military success.” He tells me that the strategy
was borrowed from the Tay Son warrior Nguyen Hue, who in
1785 defeated the Chinese by catching them off guard during