Speaking at the talk “Pham Xuan An’s Dream for Vietnam”
on November 17, Berman told tales of the intelligence agent’s life and his
dream of peace and friendship between Vietnam and the US.
Pham Xuan An holds up his press card from 1965 at his home in Ho Chi Minh City.
“An’s great dream is that war is over,” he said, adding
that An had also helped heal relations between Vietnam and the US.
Berman’s book, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double
Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist
Agent, was released in 2007.
Major General An (1927 – 2006), who was also known as
X6, Tran Van Trung and Hai Trung, began to take part in revolutionary
activities in the early 1950s and was inducted into the Communist Party in
1953.
He was sent to study journalism in the US to create a
cover to penetrate deeper into the government and military of the former Saigon
administration.
After returning to Vietnam, An worked for
Reuters, Time magazine and the New York Herald
Tribune while providing intelligence to the Vietnamese army fighting
against the US invasion of South Vietnam and the former Saigon administration.
After the war, he was awarded the title “Hero of the
People’s Armed Forces” by the Vietnamese Government.
His life was featured in a 12-episode documentary
produced by Vietnamese female director Le Phong Lan. The film was broadcast on
Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) in 2006.
Berman is a professor in the Department of Political
Science at the University of California-Davis.
He has written several books on the Vietnam War,
including Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam and Lyndon
Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam.
He visited Vietnam several times to write his book on An,
and later returned to introduce his book and talk about the spy.
The talk at USSH, which was part of the school’s 60th
anniversary celebration, attracted more than 200 students and lecturers.
Source: VNA