The Journalist Who Spied

Pham Xuan An, a reporter for TIME during the Vietnam War who was later revealed to be a communist agent, has died. TIME's former Saigon bureau chief remembers him

The Vietnam war produced astonishing stories and personalities. But nothing quite like Time correspondent Pham Xuan An. An's secret life as a spy for Hanoi was not uncovered till long after the fall of Saigon. Until then, he was known simply as the brilliant contributor to Time's coverage of the Vietnam war. An died Wednesday at the age of 78 in what is now called Ho Chi Minh City. Stanley Cloud, Time's Washington Bureau Chief from 1989 to 1993, worked with An from 1970 through 1972, including a period as Saigon Bureau Chief from the summer of 1971 to December 1972. He has written this remembrance of a colleague who loved journalism and his country when it could be dangerous to do both.