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

256 THOMAS A. BASS
more than I did. They sacrificed their families. They sacrificed
their lives. People only know about me because of my American
friends, and because I speak English.”
I give him the stack of books and handful of magazines I
have brought as presents. An picks up the latest copy of Foreign
Affairs, intrigued to see a cover story on “Vietnam and Iraq” by
former defense secretary Melvin Laird. “He was very smart,” An
says. “He was the architect of Vietnamization.”
“But Vietnamization was a failure,” I say.
“Not because it was a bad policy,” An says. “It failed because
of mistakes made by the Vietnamese.”
Looking like a heap of bones covered with the cement
paper on which he used to write his secret messages, An gathers
every ounce of breath left in him to spend the night talking
and joking about his beloved Vietnam. He is the perfect confessional
subject. Out tumbles a torrent of talk, brilliantly mixing
everything from military strategy to bawdy jokes. How
could An be hiding anything when he talked so freely about
everything? He seemed the most guileless and forthcoming
guy in Vietnam. So convincingly did he don the persona of a
pro-American, westernized, English-speaking journalist, no
one ever suspected his allegiances lay elsewhere. An spent a lifetime
hiding with words the place where his true self was operating,
and by now the method has become a habit so ingrained
in his character that he can’t keep himself from filling the night
with talk and more talk.
Some photos lying on the coffee table near An’s bed show
him in his white pajamas surrounded by three of the surviving
members of his network, Chin Chi and her sister Tam Thao and
a smiling Mai Chi Tho, the former head of Communist intelligence
in the south, Vietnamese minister of the interior, and
mayor of Saigon. An tells me that their gathering was a command
performance, filmed for the twelve-part TV series the
Party is making about him. The old spy, having come in from
the cold, must now fend off the warm embrace of the state.