Perfect Spy

About this book

"One of the most fascinating figures in Vietnam during the War was Pham Xuan An, a Time correspondent; and, unbeknownst to me and my colleagues who covered the conflict, a clandestine Vietcong agent. Larry Berman has unraveled the mystery of his strange double life in an engrossing narrative." -- Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History and winner of the Pulitzer PrizeThe extraordinary story of North Vietnam's most successful spyDuring the Vietnam War, Time reporter Pham Xuan An befriended everyone who was anyone in Saigon, including American journalists such as David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, the CIA's William Colby, and the legendary Colonel Edward Lansdale--not to mention the most influential members of the South Vietnamese government and army. None of them ever guessed that he was also providing strategic intelligence to Hanoi, smuggling invisible ink messages into the jungle inside egg rolls. His early reports were so accurate that General Giap joked, "We are now in the U.S. war room."In Perfect Spy, Larry Berman, who Pham Xuan An considered his official American biographer, chronicles the extraordinary life of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating spies.