David Truong

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David Truong (born Truong Dinh Hung) was a South Vietnamese national who lived in the United States and partook in the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. Truong was the son of North South Vietnamese politician Truong Nhu Tang, who served as Minister of Justice in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG). The PRG was an underground government opposed to the South Vietnamese government supported by the United States. The PRG included delegates from the National Liberation Front, a major antagonist of the American and South Vietnamese military forces engaged in the Vietnam War. The PRG was a signatory to the 1973 Paris Peace Accords as a separate party. It eventually became the provisional government of South Vietnam following the 1975 military victory of North Vietnam. On July 2, 1976, the PRG and North Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Truong and his co-conspirator Ronald Humphrey were arrested for passing diplomatic cables and classified information to Vietnam. They were convicted of espionage in 1978.

Spying for Vietnam

Truong was arrested in January 1978, and a search of his apartment revealed two Top Secret State Department documents in his possession. The documents had been provided to him by Humphrey, a United States Information Agency employee, which were then were passed on by Truong to Vietnam via a woman who turned out to be a double agent for the CIA and the FBI. The spy ring routed purloined classified information through Vietnam's United Nations mission in New York and its French Embassy in Paris. In retaliation, the American government, which lacked formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam at the time, expelled Dinh Ba Thi, Vietnam's UN legate, from the United States. The ambassador had been named an unindicted co-conspirator when Truong and his accomplice, United States Information Agency employee Ronald Humphrey, were indicted.[1]

In 1978, Truong was tried with co-conspirator Humphrey. Charged with six counts, including conspiracy, espionage, theft of classified information and failing to register as agents of a foreign government. Humphrey's defense was that he was trying to purchase the release of his common-law wife and her four children from Vietnam.[2][3] Truong and Humphrey were convicted of spying for Vietnam and both were given a 15-year prison sentence.[4] It is the only case of military espionage to come out of the Vietnam War.[5] The case involved passing on documents through the wife of a naval attache, Yung Krall, codenamed "Agent Keyseat".

References

  1. ↑ "U.S. Voice Spy Protest to Vietnam". Associated Press (Toledo Blade). 3 February 1978. Retrieved 28 August 2013. 
  2. ↑ "FBI Continues Spy Case Investigation". Washington Post. 21 May 1978. 
  3. ↑ "Cables in Spy Case Larded With Gossip". Washington Post. 24 May 1978. 
  4. ↑ "A Convicted Spy, Freed From Jail". Associated Press (Toldeo Blade). 19 September 1978. Retrieved 28 August 2013. 
  5. ↑ Bell, Griffin B. (1986). Taking Care of the Law. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. pp. 107–12. ISBN 978-0865542655. 
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