"the journalist-viet-cong spy who changed the course of the vietnam war

How did an become the best spy of the Vietnam War?

But An transformed himself into the best espionage agent of the Vietnam War, one of the top spies in history. He did this by becoming the most Americanized Vietnamese in Saigon, which was the key to his success. American culture is more informal and easily accessible than French or Asian culture.

Was an from Saigon a communist spy?

Years later when it became known that An was a communist spy, Beverly Deepe was the only Saigon reporter to react with anger, besides Wallace Terry, one of the friends I’d told, who had also worked with An. She finally understood why An had refused to work for her full-time.

What did an think of the former Saigon press?

As An saw it, if anyone attempted to dismantle his carefully constructed legacy as the spy who loved Americans, it would be me. He was confident he had most of the former Saigon press corps in his pocket. He had done a masterful job of helping to put American names on The Wall while winning their admiration.

How did the Vietcong work with the CIA?

They worked through their counterpart organizations--CIA with the National Police Special Branch and CIO--MI through the Vietnamese Military Security Service. The Vietnamese organizations were riddled with VC spies. I knew any complaint filed against An would wind up with them, and he would learn about it within a day.

Who is this CBS news anchorman who famously turned against the Vietnam War?

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981).

How did journalism affect the Vietnam War?

Some believe that the media played a large role in the U.S. defeat. They argue that the media's tendency toward negative reporting helped to undermine support for the war in the United States while its uncensored coverage provided valuable information to the enemy in Vietnam.

What is the most famous picture from Vietnam War?

Napalm GirlWednesday marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most important photographs in history. It was June 8, 1972 when Nick Ut took the now famous "Napalm Girl" photo. Many credit it with truly changing the world by giving innocent victims a face, and prompting an end to the Vietnam War.

How might the photo of the execution of the Viet Cong agent have affected the American public watching at home?

But "the image had an impact, and its impact was felt by those people who were on the fences." The photo appeared on front pages, TV screens and protest placards. The Tet Offensive proved a military failure for the Communists, but it fueled the American public's pessimism and weariness about the war.

How did television reporting on the Vietnam War affect American public opinion quizlet?

How did television affect the perception of the Vietnam war? Television showed people images about how cruel and bloody the war is and how U.S soldiers suffer from the war. It affected the image of the war negatively which turned public opinion against the Vietnam War.

How many journalists were killed in Vietnam War?

This article is a partial list of journalists killed and missing during the Vietnam War. The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders tallied 63 journalists who died over a 20-year period ending in 1975 while covering the Vietnam War with the caveat that media workers were not typically counted at the time.

What photo stopped the Vietnam War?

It has been 50 years since Nick Ut, an American-Vietnamese photographer, clicked one of the most defining images of the Vietnam war. The photo, taken on June 8, 1972, captured a young child running to escape the impact of the Napalm bombing of a Vietnam village by the US forces.

What was the bloodiest day in Vietnam?

November 19, 1967 was one of the bloodiest days for American troops in the Vietnam War.

How brutal was the Vietnam War?

An estimated 500 Vietnamese, mostly women, children, and the elderly, died in the massacre. The brutality has been well documented: American soldiers raped, mutilated, and tortured the villagers before killing them; families were dragged from their homes, thrown into ditches and executed.

What happened to captured Viet Cong?

All PAVN and NLF prisoners of war that were captured by the United States and Allied forces during the Vietnam War were turned over to South Vietnamese and ultimately the ARVN, for internment.

How many Vietnam veterans are still alive?

It took a toll on a generation of some nine million members of our armed forces who served during a 20 year period from 1955-1975. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 7.2 million are living today.

Which of the following best describes a tactic used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War?

Which of the following was a tactic used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War? b. disguising troops as civilians. Which of the following is one of the terms often applied the members of the counterculture?

What role did the media play in the Vietnam War quizlet?

The Vietnam War was one of the first wars where there was no media censorship. The media was allowed to report anything from the war. The coverage was pretty positive towards the US until the Tet Offensive. The reports from ABC, NBC and CBS all appeared on television screens all over America.

In what ways did people protest against the Vietnam War?

Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam On October 15, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took part in National Moratorium anti-war demonstrations across the United States; the demonstrations prompted many workers to call in sick from their jobs and adolescents nationwide engaged in truancy from school.

How was the media coverage of the Vietnam War different from the coverage of previous wars?

Television news coverage of Vietnam showed far fewer images of death than the newsreels had in the previous wars. We also found that newsreel coverage of dead combatants was even more graphic in its depictions of death than was CNN's coverage of the invasion of Iraq.

What was the effect of the Tet Offensive in both Vietnam and the United States?

The offensive had a strong effect on the U.S. government and shocked the U.S. public, which had been led to believe by its political and military leaders that the North Vietnamese were being defeated and incapable of launching such an ambitious military operation; American public support for the war declined as a ...

Who was the police chief who killed the Vietcong?

Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the national police chief of South Vietnam, executed a Vietcong fighter, Nguyen Van Lem, in Saigon on Feb. 1, 1968. Credit... Fifty years ago today, the national police chief of South Vietnam calmly approached a prisoner in the middle of a Saigon street and fired a bullet into his head. A few feet away stood Eddie Adams, an ...

Who is the police chief in the Vietnam War?

The police chief, Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, stands with his back to the camera, right arm fully extended, left arm loosely by his side. The prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem, is a Vietcong fighter but wears no uniform, only a plaid shirt and black shorts. His hands are cuffed behind his back.

What was the significance of the photo Adams took after the Tet offensive?

In the months after the Tet offensive, public opinion shifted more rapidly than at any other point in the war, Dr. McMahon said. Adams’s photo won a Pulitzer Prize, and Time magazine called it one of the 100 most influential ever taken.

What was the impact of the execution of the Vietnamese in 1968?

In South Vietnam, the execution image resonated in a different way. To Americans in 1968, it conveyed that North Vietnam and the Vietcong were far stronger than they had been led to believe. To South Vietnamese, it conveyed the opposite: Those forces “no longer had the kind of aura of omnipotence that they had had before,” said Mark Philip Bradley, a historian at the University of Chicago.

When did the Tet attack happen?

The execution happened on Feb. 1 , 1968, two days after Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces launched the coordinated attacks of the Tet offensive. Suddenly, insurgents were in dozens of cities, in almost every province of South Vietnam. They were in the streets of Saigon, the capital. They were even inside the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy.

Who assured the Americans that the enemy was on its last legs?

It was a shocking sight for Americans, who had been assured by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top general in Vietnam, William C. Westmoreland, that the enemy was on its last legs.

Who fired a bullet into the head of a prisoner?

Fifty years ago today, the national police chief of South Vietnam calmly approached a prisoner in the middle of a Saigon street and fired a bullet into his head. A few feet away stood Eddie Adams, an Associated Press photographer, eye to his viewfinder.

Why did the Vietnamese study journalism?

An studied journalism because he thought it would give him a good cover for his spy work. His communist superiors agreed. They encouraged him to immerse himself in American culture. While studying in California he improved his English. He spoke the language well though not as fluently as other Vietnamese I knew. But he read English perfectly which helped when he was taking notes from Time magazine’s confidential files to send to Hanoi.

Who was the only reporter to react to An's anger?

Years later when it became known that An was a communist spy, Beverly Deepe was the only Saigon reporter to react with anger, besides Wallace Terry, one of the friends I’d told, who had also worked with An. She finally understood why An had refused to work for her full-time. She said she would never speak to him again. Other journalists rushed to Saigon to interview An and to proclaim their friendship.

What was the real job of Tran Van Trung?

And his cover name was Pham Xuan An.) An’s real job was to collect intelligence that could help his side kill Americans and drive them out of Vietnam.

What happened in 1963 in Saigon?

Actually, Saigon politics wasn’t that hard to analyze. The 1963 Diem coup set off a chaotic power struggle between the older generals and the younger officers, which was never entirely resolved but finally tamped down after a cautious general named Nguyen Van Thieu was able to neutralize his more flamboyant rival, Nguyen Cao Ky. Thieu had the support of the U.S. Embassy.

Why was Beverly Deepe fired?

When An worked part-time for Beverly Deepe he had disappeared for days. After he took a job at Reuters he was fired for pulling his unexplained disappearing acts. Now he was doing the same thing at Time. I was convinced he was a spy.

How many helicopters were downed in Vietnam?

Five helicopters were downed, three Americans killed. The Viet Cong victory at Ap Bac became famous in the history of the Vietnam War—for the U.S. and the Viet Cong. An was awarded the Medal of Honor, communist style, along with the Viet Cong ground commander.

Why did Larry Berman confess to his biographer?

An preferred to talk about his career as a reporter. He insisted that he was always an objective journalist because that was what he believed in with all his heart and soul.

Who ran the secret war against Hanoi?

military's Saigon-based Studies and Observations Group tried to capitalize on that, according to a 1999 book, The Secret War Against Hanoi, by national security historian Richard H. Shultz Jr.

How did Pham's handlers in Hanoi concoct fake intelligence reports for him to send to?

According to World Security 's account, Pham's handlers in Hanoi concocted over 300 phony intelligence reports for him to send to Saigon, including misleading map coordinates for missile sites, bridges, rail lines, factories and other top targets of U.S. warplanes. They also devised clever radio methods to dampen any suspicion in Saigon that Pham was under Communist control and transmitted fake reports on how their supposed spy was narrowly avoiding capture. Meanwhile, Pham's regular reports that his equipment had been captured prompted MACV-SOG to send more resupply missions north, which always ended in the death or capture of their men.

What did Pribbenow say about Nguyen?

Pribbenow says the failed torture of Nguyen should serve as a warning to CIA interrogators tasked with breaking today's committed Muslim radicals, among other fanatics. "I am not a moralist. War is a nasty business, and one cannot fight a war without getting one's hands dirty," he wrote in 2007.

What did Pham tell the local spy?

Engaged in conversation by the local spy, Pham dropped his guard, telling him "the truth, that he had returned to conduct operations" against North Vietnam. A few days later, the security forces rolled him up, along with his radio and other spy materials.

What is the acronym for the Hanoi spy operation?

military outfit known by its acronym MACV-SOG, or Military Assistance Command Vietnam/Studies and Observations Group.

Where did Pham send his intelligence reports?

According to World Security 's account, Pham's handlers in Hanoi concocted over 300 phony intelligence reports for him to send to Saigon, including misleading map coordinates for missile sites, bridges, rail lines, factories and other top targets of U.S. warplanes.

Who was defeated by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam?

He died amazed that Tourison, one of the Americans he had been closest to in Saigon, still wasn't sure which side he had been on. "That is truly incredible," Pham wrote in a private memoir for his intelligence service. "This means that Tourison and the CIA in South Vietnam were defeated by North Vietnamese Public Security and that the United States was defeated by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam."

Overview

Phạm Xuân Ẩn (September 12, 1927 – September 20, 2006) was a Vietnamese journalist and correspondent for Time, Reuters and the New York Herald Tribune, stationed in Saigon during the war in Vietnam. He was also simultaneously spying for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War and was made a general of the People's Army of Vietnam after the war. His nicknames were Hai Trung and Tran Van Trung. He was awarded the title of People's Army Force Hero by the Vietnamese gover…

Early life and education

Career

Safer interview of 1989

See also

External links

Further reading