Spies in Saigon - by James P Bevill (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is untold history that the CIA does not want you to read.

Book Synopsis

The Central Intelligence Agency scaled up operations in Vietnam during the early 1950s. Using personal stories, eyewitness accounts, and recently declassified CIA reports from the field, author James P. Bevill describes the agency's clandestine efforts, first to prop up French colonial rule and later to facilitate the creation the Republic of South Vietnam.

Key among these primary sources are the CIA files of Paul L. Springer. Springer arrived in Saigon in May 1950. In 1951 he was named the CIA's first chief of station in Indochina. In this role, during the French war against Ho Chi Minh and the China-backed Viet Minh revolutionary movement, he built the foundations of the American espionage network in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Following the 2019 conclusion of a successful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the records of Paul Springer's CIA files, the CIA information review officer argued that "plaintiff's FOIA request could reasonably be expected to cause damage to national security by disclosing intelligence activities, sources, and methods." Lost in this argument is that all the intelligence records related to Paul Springer's service as chief of station were over fifty-five years old. The countries they pertained to no longer existed, and any of their perceived adversaries had long since died.

Review Quotes

An astonishing tour d'horizon of the CIA's first Chief of Station in colonial Saigon beginning in 1950. By weaving together intelligence, political, and military history, Bevill vividly reveals the surprising depth of American involvement during the French War and the creation of the first Republic of Vietnam which followed. A fascinating must-read for anyone interested in the Vietnam conflict."--George J. Veith, author of "Drawn Swords in a Distant Land: South Vietnam's Shattered Dreams"

This masterful account of CIA covert operations before the American War in Vietnam is one that advances our understanding of critical events in history. Prodigiously researched and personally compelling with the revelation of the first Chief of Station in Indochina, Spies in Saigon is sure to be widely discussed and disseminated. This book is rich in both new documentation as well as its interpretation of pivotal events in America's early involvement in Vietnam."--Larry Berman, author of "Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An"

More than a decade before U.S. combat troops poured into Vietnam, the CIA was fighting a covert war in the divided country. What began as a limited effort to support French colonial forces evolved into a mission to back South Vietnam's authoritarian leader, train its security and intelligence services, and conduct counterinsurgency and psychological operations against the Viet Minh. Drawing on a unique family trove of letters, memos, photos, and newly declassified documents, Bevill sheds a new light on the CIA's earliest operations in Vietnam. Spies in Saigon is a masterly and intriguing account of this pivotal period in Cold War history."--Stuart A. Reid, author of "The Lumumba Plot" and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

SPIES IN SAIGON is a must read - a well-researched, rollicking, and engaging story of the critical role of the CIA's earliest years in Vietnam. Based on a wealth of primary sources, it couples the rough and tumble history of the time with the extraordinary work of Paul Springer, Ed Lansdale, Rufus Phillips and other CIA operatives, as well as their North Vietnamese counterparts in Saigon. From the Viet Minh war against the French, through the Geneva Accords, and through the rise and fall of Ngo Dinh Diem, this eye-opening prequel to the American war in Vietnam belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history of the conflict." --Andrew Wiest, University Distinguished Professor of History at the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi and author of "The Boys of 67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam"