Điệp Viên Z.21: Kẻ Thù Tuyệt Vời Của Nước Mỹ - Goodreads

Jump to ratings and reviewsWant to readBuy on AmazonRate this bookĐiệp viên Z.21: Kẻ thù tuyệt vời của nước Mỹ

Thomas A. Bass, Đỗ Tuấn Kiệt (Translator)

4.06Want to readBuy on AmazonRate this bookÔng là người mà người ta cần tìm đến ở Sài Gòn – một nhà phân tích chính trị của báo chí Phương Tây tại Việt Nam, nhà báo thạo tin nhất nước, “ông Tướng Givral” với khiếu hài hước thông tục và sự dí dỏm độc đáo. Nhưng là đầu nguồn của một “lưới tình báo hạng nhất”, ông chính là vũ khí chiến thuật và chiến lược bí mật của miền Bắc Việt Nam để giành chiến thắng. Không dùng đến bất kỳ phương tiện gì phức tạp hơn mực vô hình và những cuộn phim chụp báo cáo giấu trong những chiếc nem, Phạm Xuân Ẩn đã gửi cho cấp trên của mình những thông tin tình báo hữu ích đến nỗi họ đã phải xoa tay sung sướng mà thốt lên: “Chúng ta đang ở trong phòng tác chiến của Hoa Kỳ!” Đi sâu tìm hiểu, phân tích con người kỳ lạ này, vượt qua mọi khó khăn và vỏ bọc cố hữu của một điệp viên sừng sỏ, Thomas Bass đã vẽ nên chân dung chi tiết và sự nghiệp phi thường của Phạm Xuân Ẩn, kẻ thù của nước Mỹ đồng thời là người yêu nước Mỹ. Nghịch lý luôn tồn tại trong những nhân cách lớn. Vượt qua những định kiến, Phạm Xuân Ẩn hiện ra như một anh hùng, một học giả, một người yêu nước, một nhà nhân văn chân chính, đồng thời và luôn luôn, một điệp viên bậc thầy.
    GenresHistoryNonfictionBiographyWarEspionage

408 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

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Thomas A. Bass

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4.065 stars36 (33%)4 stars48 (44%)3 stars17 (15%)2 stars5 (4%)1 star1 (<1%)Search review textFiltersDisplaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviewsProfile Image for david.david86 reviewsMarch 18, 2014Excellent backdoor history of the Vietnam War. I interviewed Pham Xuan An in Ho Chi Minh City a few years back and I've read a few books about him. This is by far the most in depth and most interesting account of one of the world's most successful spies. It's also a great backdoor history of our tragic involvement in the war in Vietnam.P.S. Thomas uses an interview I did with Time's Saigon Bureau Chief and An's boss, Frank McCullough. So, for all you Dave Felsen fans, here's you chance to see my name in print! Profile Image for Ming Wei.Ming WeiAuthor 12 books279 followersMarch 13, 2020I eye opening, very impressive read, by the end of the novel you really get a understanding what life was like as a spy, the techniques in getting people to trust you and give out private information, the book makes the reader feel like they are embedded into the story line, set in the Vietnam War, the spy used a technique, which today would be called social engineering to obtain the information he wanted, from the book you understand that a spy needed to be alert 100% of the time, otherwise the game was up. A really good read, giving more indepth detail to the Vietnam war, (other than the normal war movies you see), you learn about something going on in the back ground, pulling the strings of decision making. I really like it, was well written, the authors writing style is easy to understand and keeps your concentration to the end of the novel, never gets boring or dull, the story line is easy to following and moves at just the right pace which allows the reader to absorb all which the story is giving to them. No editorial errors which I could see, maybe the book cover lets the book down a bit, but this is just saying something negative for the sake of it. In conclusion, really good, reminds me of the TV spy series Reilly, from maybe the 1980s or 1990s.
    read-vietnam-related-booksread-war-related-books
Profile Image for YBV.YBV129 reviewsAugust 15, 2017Should be read in conjunction with The Sympathizer.
    non-fiction
Profile Image for Joe Vess.Joe Vess288 reviewsMarch 15, 2010The fascinating story of Pham Xuan An, one of the most decorated and, until 1975, unknown heroes of the Vietnamese military. For about 30 years he worked as a spy for Ho Chi Minh's army, however they were known at any given time, most prominently for the years of the US-Vietnam war when he was a correspondent for Time magazine.Unsurprisingly, he is a spy in the most un-James Bond-like sense. By and large, he never even poked around other people's offices or anything sneaky like that; he just had the trust of many people who told him an incredible number of things. Then he told the army of North Vietnam, which is not exactly what they were expecting him to do. Also interesting, all of his colleagues at the time say that they still have high regard for his journalism skills; he didn't lie or put out propaganga, he did his job well.The connection to The Quiet American is that An knew Graham Greene in Saigon, and worked for some of the people who appear, directly or as composites, in the novel. He apparently was also the inspiration for a character in the recent movie version, which I need to see now. At my Dad's suggestion I read this book and The Quiet American concurrently, which was a good idea. The settings are the same, and it's interesting to read the fiction version at the same time as the non-fiction.I was struck by something in this book that also struck me when I read the biography of Vo Nguyen Giap, the head of the military under Ho Chi Minh and one of An's colleagues. That book and this underlined for me, yet again, how thoroughly and comprehensively the US did not understand Vietnamese culture, people, customs, anything really. In every war we fight we are Alden Pyle all over again; blundering in, trying to make reality fit our bullshit theories, causing incalculable damage, then standing around dazed and confused when it doesn't work according to plan. An clearly cares little about communism, and has a very real and sincere affection for the US. But he did what he did because there was a rapacious foreign power occupying his country. The US desire to believe that he was one of "us," not "them," was and always is fiction. We just keep falling for it again and again.Anyway, a very well-written and -researched story of a fascinating and enigmatic individual. I'm sure I'll read it again.Profile Image for Jan.Jan567 reviews11 followersSeptember 17, 2015"Pham Xuan An was a brilliant journalist and an even better spy. A political correspondent for Time, based in Saigon, he also served North Vietnam as an intelligence agent. Bass argues that An, whose cover was lifted only after his 2006 death, was North Vietnam’s secret weapon in winning a string of Vietnam battles and, ultimately, the war." ---from University of Chicago Magazine, July–Aug/09.Want to have your heart broken (again?) about the war the U.S. fought in Vietnam? Read this book. What a foolish, foolish war, and the story of the trickster Pham Xuan An--a triple agent--shines a spotlight on the cultural narcissism and naivete displayed by American leaders who stepped into a situation they did not even begin to understand.Very glad I read this book. I've come away from it much better informed and also humbled because I imagine--had I been the one "in charge" at the time--I could have been one of the fools who thought there was an easy or obvious road to democracy in Vietnam.
    2015
Profile Image for W.T..W.T.101 reviews3 followersMay 14, 2009Bass is a brilliant madman, both as a professor and author, although he divides himself between the two personalities. My interest in Vietnam and the American Conflict there has been greatly enhanced by the class he taught and the use of this book towards the end of the semester has now enhanced my interest in journalists as spies during times of war.Bass sets out to uncover Phan Xuan An's life as a "Time" correspondent and North Vietnamese spy, recounting An's life during the war and how he became the man that may have single-handedly won the war for the Communist-North as a result of his love and understanding of the American culture as well as his cunning intellect allowing him to keep his cover.
    history-biographylanguage-arts-journalismnon-fiction ...more
Profile Image for Justin.Justin124 reviews24 followersApril 14, 2011This is a solid, well-written account of the life and times of of Pham Xuan An, one of the most successful spies in history. Thomas A. Bass is a New Yorker contributor, so his writing is highly readable and his depictions of real-life characters colorful and interesting. He takes the reader through Vietnam on a string of anecdotes, claiming to tell his story in the same manner as the oral tradition of Vietnamese storytelling. The result is highly conversational, condensing some very complicated situations and relationship dynamics into an entertaining, sometimes even breezy read. Profile Image for Maru.Maru528 reviews68 followersJanuary 13, 2021Phạm Xuân Ẩn là một điệp viên. Ông yêu Tổ quốc, và cũng yêu nước Mỹ. Nhưng hơn tất cả, ông yêu loài người.Ông Ẩn có tài hiểu biết vượt trội về tâm lý con người. Tuy nhiên tôi không nghĩ ông đã dành thời gian đủ nhiều cho gia đình mình. Sau 1975, tôi nghĩ rằng ông đã gặp nhiều khó khăn để thích ứng lại.Một quyển sách thể hiện tương đối khái quát về ông Ẩn. Góc nhìn nhân văn về con người chứ không phải về chiến tuyến.
    americas
Profile Image for Tuyet Lan.Tuyet Lan516 reviews99 followersJune 16, 2020Mình đọc cuốn sách này trong chuyến du lịch trên chuyến tàu Bắc - Nam đúng dịp 30-4. Tàu đi 2 đêm 1 ngày thông suốt từ Bắc vào Nam, đi qua cả nghĩa trang Trường Sơn Quảng Trị (nghe kể là ban đêm ngập tràn ánh nến). Vừa đi đường vừa đọc Điện viên Z.21, mình cảm nhận rõ hơn sự khốc liệt của cuộc chiến, sự kiên định chiến đấu vì độc lập tự do của thế hệ đi trước dẫu cái giá phải trả vô cùng đắt. Vô vàn người đã nằm xuống, vô danh trong nghĩa trang Trường Sơn và dọc dải đất hình chữ S: này. Những người may mắn còn sống thì bị ám ảnh khôn nguôi bởi kí ức chiến tranh.Phạm Xuân Ẩn - vị tướng tình báo với bí danh Z.21- là một trong những người sống sót ấy, là nhân chứng lịch sử, là người hiểu rõ tình hình cả ta lẫn địch thời kì đó. Đọc quyển hồi kí này, chiến tranh hiện ra không còn chỉ là các con số thống kê, không chỉ là văn bản trắng đen, mà trở nên vô cùng sống động. Người đọc "thấy" được xã hội và nếp sống người của Sài Gòn dưới chế độ Ngụy, hoạt động liên lạc bí mật đầy gian nan giữa miền Bắc và miền Nam, và cả những suy tư lo lắng của người chiến sĩ nằm vùng trong lòng địch.
    biographynon-fictionwar
Profile Image for University of Chicago Magazine.University of Chicago Magazine419 reviews29 followersReadApril 25, 2014Thomas A. Bass, AB’73AuthorFrom our pages (July–Aug/09): "Pham Xuan An was a brilliant journalist and an even better spy. A political correspondent for Time, based in Saigon, he also served North Vietnam as an intelligence agent. Bass argues that An, whose cover was lifted only after his 2006 death, was North Vietnam’s secret weapon in winning a string of Vietnam battles and, ultimately, the war."
    college
Profile Image for Anh Thư.Anh Thư15 reviews1 followerJune 14, 2014"Ong yeu van hoc Phap. Ong nguong mo nen van hoa My. Nhung trong nguoi ong khong co mau xuong no le nao, moi quan he duy nhat ong muon co voi ben ngoai la su ton trong lan nhau. Dat nuoc Viet Nam da danh lui quan xam luoc hang nghin nam qua, trong doi bat ki dieu gi khac o mot nguoi Viet Nam yeu nuoc thi dung la tuong tuong ra mot con bao khong co dom" !!!...Karen49 reviewsOctober 7, 2018A brilliant book about a Vietnamese intelligence agent who worked for the Communists and worked in our magazines and newspapers for his entire career. When I was a little girl, I read and was fascinated by a book called Deliver Us from Evil, about Tom Dooley in Laos. In Anś writing, I found out that Tom Dooley was also a spy. This is a wonderful book about the complicated history of Vietnam!Profile Image for Khoa.Khoa256 reviews1 followerSeptember 2, 2012A very good account of Pham Xuan An. Highly readable.Profile Image for Mr B.Mr B223 reviews380 followersMarch 30, 2014Maybe this one is the best book that ever written about him, the greatest spy in Vietnam War.Profile Image for Leanne.Leanne726 reviews71 followersFebruary 25, 2021I have a large collection of books about Vietnam--and this is one of the best! Thomas Bass is a fantastic writer--University of Chicago for his undergraduate degree and on to Santa Cruz for a PhD in the history of consciousness. I am really interested in reading his book, Camping with the Prince, which is about seven scientific expedition he took in Africa with African scientists from 1985 to 1987. This book focuses on African viewpoints to the African situation. It underlines the intricacy of Africa. I read this particular book about the Vietnamese spy, Pham Xuan An when it first came out but decided to re-read it along with Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize winning book, the Sympathizer--which is also absolutely stunning. A reviewer bellow called Bass's book a novel, and it really reads like a novel. He is simply superb at painting the scene. I also appreciated his analysis of An's character and motivations, as well as the feelings of the CIA spies and journalists who were fooled by him. He conducted many interviews, including extensive interviews with An himself. An absolutely brilliant book.#2021 Re-readsProfile Image for Tuan.Tuan22 reviews1 followerOctober 19, 2021This book includes a lot of unfiltered stories and truth about Pham Xuan An, one of the most interesting characters during the Vietnam War. The author did not force his thoughts on the audience with his own analysis. Rather, he lets the audience think for themselves through the many details he cleverly includes with the stories he is telling. Even though the book is about Pham Xuan An, it can make the audience think about much broader topics such as colonization & imperialism, patriotism, journalism, friendship, loyalty & betrayal. The author is also very concise and he does not include more details than needed. I think this is one of the best books about Pham Xuan An and it can act as a biography.
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Profile Image for Huỳnh Dung.Huỳnh Dung69 reviews6 followersMarch 23, 20204.25/5⭐Đọc lại sau vài năm. Vẫn rất hay và cuốn hút như ấn tượng trong đầu của mình về quyển sách này. Ngưỡng mộ Phạm Xuân Ẩn và những gì ông đã làm được. Có thể nói thông tin tình báo mà ông cung cấp góp đến 30-40% vào chiến thắng của phía cộng sản trong cuộc chiến tranh. Sách có một số đoạn bị lặp lại ở phía sau và có vài phần hơi lan man một chút. Tuy nhiên vẫn rất tuyệt 🇻🇳Profile Image for Lewis Weinstein.Lewis WeinsteinAuthor 10 books566 followersApril 12, 2024a fascinating story about an incredible career ... while becoming the most respected journalist in Saigon, covering the Vietnam War for Time and other publications, Pham Xuan An was also a top spy for the North Vietnamese ... how can I not incorporate a character based on Pham into my novel-in-progress?
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Profile Image for Khue Dinh.Khue Dinh152 reviews239 followersReadSeptember 28, 2023Hấp dẫn hơn hẳn cuốn Điệp viên hoàn hảo. Nên kiếm trên mạng bản không bị cắt do kiểm duyệt.Profile Image for Annie Vu.Annie Vu148 reviews23 followersOctober 22, 2023“And what would Vietnam look like if America had won the war?”This is one of the very common whatifs among Vietnamese. And to this question, the allegedly "most well informed man in Saigon" of that time answered “Vietnam would not look like Korea,” An says. “North Viet-nam would have been absorbed into China.”“And South Vietnam?”“The South Vietnamese are not as ruthless as the Koreans.The south would have ended up as nothing more than a minor star in the Western orbit.”This reply, so blunt and accurate, gave me a glimpse into why An was so successful at his craft, the great strategic analyst who earned the respect and trust from both the America and the Communist. He who possessed a encyclopedic knowledge of his country's nuanced history and also trained to understand and think like an American. This book is very well researched. It paints a vivid pictures of life in South Vietnam of its days. Many other key players were mentioned, quoted and interviewed, such as Graham Greene, the author of The quiet American, or Tu Cang or Tam Thao, the most active Communist spies working in the South. Most interesting was probably Edward Lansdale "the king maker", the invisible hand behind the setting up South Vietnam government and their brilliant disinformation campaign "The god has gone south".Through An's journey of becoming an excellent journalist, I also came to appreciate the art of American journalism a bit more, with "objectivity" being their modus operandi.This book is thoroughly entertaining and a lot more believable and less dovey eyed than "The perfect spy", eventhough it assumes readers to have some level of knowledge of Vietnam war. Probably this is why it is much less successful commercially than its counterpart. It answers a lot of my questions about how An got to where he was. Was he double, triple or even quadruple agent as he demonstrably worked for the French, the CIA, the South Vietnam and the Communist?At times it reads like a Jason Bourne novel. Well I did not know that the CIA funded their operation in Vietnam by growing opium. And that the French had to protect Dien Bien Phu eventhough it wasn't of any strategic value and hopeless for defense was because they needed it to fly poppy sap grown in Laos to Vung Tau, for shipping to Saigon. There it would be made into heroine by Binh Xuyen river gang and financed the French army. I also did not know Saigon had the biggest brothel of Asia at that time, Halls of Mirrors.The more you know, the less you know.By reading about An, I understand better why my country's previous generations decided to choose a certain path. Was it the right decision? I think An was one of the finest that Vietnam has ever produced. If he made that judgement, probably there would not have been much other choices.Profile Image for Nguyễn Minh.Nguyễn Minh226 reviews12 followersDecember 22, 2019Ngỡ ngàng, ngưỡng mộ, kính phục, tự hào, tiếc thương và đôi chút mơ hồ là cảm xúc sau khi đọc xong cuốn sách này. Phạm Xuân Ẩn - một trong những nhân vật cốt cán làm nên lịch sử nước nhà, góp một phần tạo nên cái đất nước mà mình đang sinh sống - thật sự đáng kính phục. Kính phục trong công tác, trong phong cách, suy nghĩ, và cả tâm hồn của ông. Chúng ta biết ơn những người chiến đấu ngoài ánh sáng và kính phục thay những người hoạt động trong bóng tối - những con người chiến đấu cho đất nước và chiến đấu với tư tưởng của bản thân. Ngôn ngữ viết giản dị, đôi lúc hơi khô khan, nhưng lột tả được bản chất của sự việc bằng chính sự khô khan đó. Đâu đó trong câu chữ là một sự mơ hồ về những sự việc chẳng bao giờ được tiết lộ.Chiến tranh - thứ chẳng bao giờ tốt đẹp nhưng lại sản sinh ra bao anh hùng.Profile Image for Anh Nguyen.Anh Nguyen26 reviews26 followersJuly 3, 2018Rất cố gắng nhưng không đọc hết được. Cố lết cuốn này trong 3 năm mà mãi ko lết nổi.
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