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

240 THOMAS A. BASS
Lansdale, had an intelligent dog who one day saved him from
being poisoned to death.
I see from the inscription on the flyleaf that Tongas’s book
was given to An by the head of the Asia Foundation, the CIA
front organization that sponsored his travels in America. The
title alone seems pregnant with meaning: J’ai Vécu dans
l’Enfer Communiste au Nord Viet Nam et J’ai Choisi la Liberté
(I Have Lived in the Communist Hell of North Vietnam, and
I Have Chosen Liberty).
“It’s a very important book, a true book,” An says. “You
must read it before you write anything.”
In the afternoon, when the rains have blown off, An shuffles
through the kitchen and out the back door into the driveway
where his desk and files are stored under a plastic canopy.
Opening his desk drawer to find some old photos, he dismissively
flings aside some newer pictures that show him in his general’s
uniform standing next to the prime minister and other
members of the Vietnamese Politburo. “They wanted to see
what I looked like,” he says. “They spent the war in the jungle
and had never met me before.”
I reach in the drawer to fish out a medal attached to a red
ribbon. “What’s this?” I ask.
“They just give me these things,” he says. “I have no idea
what they mean. I worked in obscurity. I die in obscurity,” he
says, shutting the drawer.