Phạm Xuân Ẩn (September 12, 1927- September 20, 2006) was a Vietnamese general with nickname "Hai Trung" or "Tran Van Trung". He worked in South Vietnam as a reporter for Reuters, Time magazine and the New York Herald Tribune during the Vietnam War, while simultaneously spying for North Vietnam. Pham earned a North Viet Namese war medal, the Viet Minh, after the battle of Ap Bac, and he contributed to the ultimate defeat of the US and Saigon. He was awarded the "People's Army Force Hero" by Vietnamese government on January 15, 1976.[1]
Pham Xuan An was born in 1927 in Binh Truoc, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai province. His grandfather was the headmaster of a school in Hue, and was awarded the King's gold ring. Pham's father was a high-level engineer of the Public Administration Department. His family's service to France did not earn him French nationality. Pham was born in Bien Hoa hospital with the help of French doctors.
When he was a child, he lived in Saigon. Then, he moved to Can Tho and studied at the College of Can Tho. When August Revolution began, Pham left school and joined Volunteer Youth Organisation. Later, he took classes offered by the Viet Minh. In the 1950s he attended Orange Coast College (OCC) and earned an Associate of Arts degree. He wrote for the campus newspaper, then called The Barnacle.
After the communist victory, he was put under house arrest, as the Hanoi leadership suspected him of being "corrupted" by capitalism after decades of living in South Vietnam as a spy.
He died on September 20, 2006 in Ho Chi Minh City in a military hospital from complications of emphysema.
In February 2009 "The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game" by Thomas A. Bass was published.
Towards the fall of Saigon,An obtained transport of his wife and four children to the safety of the US by transport provided by Time Magazine.After the fall of Saigon, he was interrogated by the Communists and put under house arrest after that - to ensure he had no contact to westerners.His family were subsequently allowed to return to Saigon and him.He was realized made a Brigadier General and retired on a pension of around $US30 a month.He told his friend S Karnow,in his book Vietnam A History, that his love for America and Vietnam was like the French song "J ai Deux Amours",but he had like many Vietnamese they had to see their country free.