Legendary Vietnamese female spy comes from a noble family

The person mentioned is female intelligence officer Nguyen Thi My Nhung, alias Tam Thao, born in 1932, former officer of Intelligence Group H63, Group J22, Research Department, General Staff ( Ministry of National Defense ).

Ms. My Nhung was born into a wealthy, powerful family, her parents doing business at Ben Thanh market. At the age of 12, seeing female soldiers distributing leaflets, she gradually became fascinated with this job. 4 years later, she decided to follow the revolutionary path by working as a liaison, rowing boats to transport cadres across the river. From there, she became involved in intelligence work. During those boat trips, she met the famous intelligence officer Pham Xuan An.

Resourceful and charming, My Nhung was assigned to transport secret documents collected by intelligence officer Pham Xuan An to the war zone. To have a good cover, she had to create a ladylike style, practice ballroom dancing, learn English and French...

Mrs. Tam Thao when she was young. (Photo: Archive)

In 1964, due to mission requirements, Ms. Tam Thao had to find a way to infiltrate the enemy's headquarters. With her fluent English, she applied to work as an interpreter in a US Navy agency. Here, she worked as an assistant and interpreter for successive US intelligence chiefs and advisors. Taking advantage of these advantages, she accessed documents to provide for the resistance.

Mrs. Tam Thao once confided: "In cases where I cannot bring documents home, I have to think of a way to copy the content into my memory. With Vietnamese documents, I translate them into English and English documents into Vietnamese, and I do it over and over again to remember them well. This method is very effective, helps me remember for a long time, and remembers accurately, but there were times when I got into trouble and almost got caught."

Not only did she outwit the enemy, with her intelligence and skillful improvisation, Mrs. Tam Thao also excelled in fooling the advanced American lie detector, gaining the trust of American officers, making the intelligence mission more favorable.

She said that the lie detector is just a method to weigh the brain and test the psychology, there is no machine that can measure the bravery of a person. When answering the questions, you have to be calm and keep a cool head because if you show any nervousness or anxiety, the machine will give you a different result.

One of Mrs. Tam Thao's outstanding achievements was transporting 24 important documentary films from Saigon city to the war zone, helping us understand the intentions and measures to implement the "Special War" strategy as well as the US's coordination plan with the Republic of Vietnam to suppress the revolution in the South.

She also obtained diagrams, force deployments, and assessment documents from the US and the Republic of Vietnam about the attack on Saigon - Gia Dinh, contributing significantly to the strategic planning for our war to reach final victory.

After the peace , Ms. Tam Thao continued to work at the Research Department, General Staff. In 1979, she transferred to the Department of Culture and Information of Ho Chi Minh City. Since 1993, she retired and lived in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City.

In 2018, Ms. Tam Thao was honored to be awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces.

Libra

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/nu-tinh-bao-huyen-thoai-viet-nam-xuat-than-tieu-thu-la-ngoc-canh-vang-ar944251.html