After Robert Sam Anson’s War News, I started Flashbacks:
On Returning to Vietnam by Morley Safer yesterday. This book by Safer is
mentioned in Perfect Spy.
… Anson was incensed by Safer’s admission that he took
no notes when speaking with An. Safer, accompanied by his assistant and with [Pham
Xuan] An’s help, had polished off a complete bottle of White Horse whiskey
during their conversation… Anson applied for an expedited visa and was on the
next available flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City for a meeting with An.
And told me that he thought the conversation with
Safer was off the record; that is they were two friends catching up and drinking
a bottle of whiskey. “I never thought he would publish our conversation. I was
just so happy to have colleagues to speak with again,” said An…
Safer’s book was scheduled for publication by Random
House, where Anson had recently published Best
Intentions: The Education and Killing of Edmund Perry. Anson called his
publisher. “I beseeched them via a phone call or three or eight and a detailed exegesis
of Morley’s reporting method,” says Anson. He told them the story of his recent
visit with An and asked that Random House and Safer edit the attributions
before publication, which they agreed to do. (Larry Berman, pp. 251-252, Perfect Spy)
And I’ve just read this passage:
We (Safer
and Professor Nguyen Ngoc Hung) are sitting in a corner of my room [at the
Thong Nhat Hotel in Hanoi] sipping scotch and chasing it with Heineken. (Morley
Safer, p. 43, Flashbacks)
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