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Speaker 1: Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and

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death spy stories and the amazing devices and operations that

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made them possible. Now, let's get started.

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Speaker 2: And welcome back everybody. Sorry for the long delay, but

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I'm back. The Perfect Spy How a Vietnamese agent masquerade

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as Times top reporter. During the height of the Vietnam War,

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American military commanders, CIA operatives and journalists all turned to

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one man for his penetrating analysis of the conflict. Fombje On.

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That's Pham x U a n a n Time Magazine's

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most trusted correspondent in Sygon. However, what none of them

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knew was that their confidant was actually Vietnam's most valuable intelligence. Recently,

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these classified documents and interviews with former colleagues revealed how

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it orchestrated, how On orchestrated what many intelligence experts now

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consider one of the most successful espionage operations of the

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twentieth century. For nearly three decades, he provided North Vietnam

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with critical and military intelligence while maintaining his cover as

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a respected Western journalist. His genius lies in his authenticity.

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He didn't just pretend to be a journalist he became

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one of Vietnam's finest reporters. Born in nineteen twenty seven

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to a prominent Vietnamese family, Fom's path to espionage began

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in nineteen fifty with modest assignments tracking French military movements.

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His superiors, recognizing his exceptional talent, sent him to study

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journalism in the US. Upon returning to Vietnam, he executed

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a bold move that demonstrated his tactical brilliance. He approached

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South Vietnam's counterintelligence chief directly requesting work. This audacious strategy

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not only confirmed his cover remained intact, but provided him

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with high level access to the South Vietnamese government. His

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journalistic career flourished. Time magazine and Reuters competed to hire him,

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with Time ultimately winning services for about seven hundred and

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fifty a month, which is actually quite a bit in

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the nineteen sixties in Saigon. But Fom's real currency was trust.

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He cultivated an extensive network that included military commandersia operatives,

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and government ministers, all of whom shared sensitive information with

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their new respected colleague. The intelligence he gathered was so

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precise that North Vietnamese leaders would later remark were inside

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the American headquarters. Over his career, he transmitted nearly five

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hundred detailed intelligence reports to Hanoi, many containing critical strategic

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information that would shape the war's outcome. Perhaps most remarkably,

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even after his role as a spy was revealed in

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nineteen seventy five, many of his American contacts main had

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their respect for him. Until his death in two thousand

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and six, he never disclosed the name of his sources,

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citing not just professional ethics but human dignity. Today, intelligence

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professionals study his methods as a master class in human

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intelligence gathering. What makes his case unique was his ability

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to maintain authentic relationships while operating at the highest levels

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of deception. In the world of espionage, folks, that's the

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ultimate achievement.