NortonPete PO2
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 Posts: 385
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Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:34 pm Post subject: Spy Reporter during Vietnam war, worked for Reuters, Time. |
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This reporter was a communist spy during the Vietnam War.
Quote: | In the history of wartime espionage, few were as successful as An. He straddled two worlds for most of the 15-year war in Indochina as an undercover communist agent while also working as a journalist, first for Reuters news service and later for 10 years as Time magazine's chief Vietnamese reporter — a role that gave him access to military bases and background briefings.
He was so well-known for his sources and insight that many Americans who knew him suspected he worked for the
CIA. |
and
Quote: | An told ex-colleagues in later years that he made secret trips to the jungle to confer with Viet Cong leaders. He said he knew in advance of major communist initiatives, including the 1968 Tet Offensive and North Vietnam's 1972 invasion aimed at destroying the Saigon regime.
An insisted he remained true as a journalist — never planting false or misleading information, realizing this could reveal his clandestine role.
"The truth was that I knew many things that I never told anyone," he said. "And because of this I was able on a couple of occasions to save Time from major embarrassment by telling them that a certain piece of important information was not true." |
I don't think much has changed. Hopefully we are getting smarter via the internet blogs.
Freedom of the press seems to mean free access to the enemy of our plans and obfuscation of news to the American public |
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