Face to Face with the CIA

Nguyễn Tài (1926–2016) was a prominent Vietnamese revolutionary and senior communist intelligence officer whose life was deeply intertwined with Vietnam’s fight for independence, from resisting French colonial rule to leading counterespionage efforts during the war with the United States. After the country’s reunification, he came under suspicion of cooperating with his American interrogators but was eventually cleared and subsequently held influential positions in the postwar government before retiring in 1992.Quan Manh Ha is professor of English at the University of Montana. He is the cotranslator of Other Moons: Vietnamese Short Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath (Columbia, 2020) and Bảo Ninh’s Hà Nội at Midnight: Stories (2023), among other books.Merle L. Pribbenow is a former CIA Vietnamese language and operations officer who since his retirement has been a researcher and author specializing in the Vietnam War. He is the translator of Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 (2002), among other works.Lien-Hang T. Nguyen is Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia at Columbia University.

Face to Face with the CIA is the riveting memoir of one of communist Vietnam’s spymasters during the Vietnam War. In this beautifully translated book, Nguyễn Tài tells the story of his time in a South Vietnamese prison and his battle of wits against his Vietnamese and American interrogators. Tài takes us into one of the least understood battlefields of this conflict—the war of the intelligence services. It’s a fascinating read.