Frank Snepp, a top CIA analyst in Saigon in the war’s chaotic final weeks, tells how officials fatally ignored the warnings of two top spies in the enemy camp.
I was never a "chief anything" in Vietnam. I was with the First Infantry in 66-67 and worked with Ted Albert in the First MID. He had one very good recruited agent he called "Marcell" and registered in Saigon. Later on some believed he went to Tay Ninh and became a resource. I thought it likely to be true. I was in Bien Hoa in 1974 when the connection was checked out in a very superficial way. At the time, that was supposedly our best resource. Now, I believe that it was not. Why tell anyone? My concern now is to doubt all supposed agents. I suspect that most were agents of doubtful loyalty and most often doubled.
Unless my memory has slipped a gear . . . Back in the States after the war, the ambassador was involved in a car accident. The trunk contained a large number of classified documents from the war.
I was never a "chief anything" in Vietnam. I was with the First Infantry in 66-67 and worked with Ted Albert in the First MID. He had one very good recruited agent he called "Marcell" and registered in Saigon. Later on some believed he went to Tay Ninh and became a resource. I thought it likely to be true. I was in Bien Hoa in 1974 when the connection was checked out in a very superficial way. At the time, that was supposedly our best resource. Now, I believe that it was not. Why tell anyone? My concern now is to doubt all supposed agents. I suspect that most were agents of doubtful loyalty and most often doubled.
Unless my memory has slipped a gear . . . Back in the States after the war, the ambassador was involved in a car accident. The trunk contained a large number of classified documents from the war.
Larry Brown
Hunh, interesting. I'll have to go look that up. Amb. Martin was really a shell of a man after the Saigon debacle.
Great interview. A story full of details new to this veteran.