“To understand the war better, it’s necessary to know why combat decisions were made, and how those decisions were the product of good or bad intelligence.”
WHY DID THE United States lose in Vietnam? Was an American victory in Southeast Asia even possible? What factors contributed to the failure?
After decades of debate, Americans find themselves once again grappling with these questions. They’ve been resurfacing in recent years like old wounds every time the country marks another 50th anniversary of one of the conflict’s pivotal moments: Tonkin, Ia Drang, Tet.
And what’s more, America’s Vietnam saga seems especially relevant today as citizens ponder the forever wars of our own era — Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hoping to bring fresh insights to the discussion comes filmmaker Michael Reiter.
His latest documentary, Agents Unknown, explores the conflict anew, this time through the eyes of intelligence operative John Murphy.
A military intelligence advisor with the U.S. Army, Murphy was tasked with cultivating a network of Vietnamese spies, agents and covert operatives and passing the intel they gathered in the field up the chain of command. It was frequently ignored with tragic results.
Using never-before-seen archival footage, documents and photos, the hour-long film lays bare the secret war in the jungles and hamlets of South Vietnam and explores how the failure of the United States to win the crucial intelligence campaign ultimately helped bring about America’s most crushing defeat.
MilitaryHistoryNow.com recently caught up with Reiter to talk about Agents Unknown. Here’s what he had to tell us.
Americans likely think that know enough about the war in Vietnam. How does Agents Unknown change their perspective?
Agents Unknown deals with aspects of the war that haven’t been covered in depth: the role of the on-the-ground advisor and intelligence-gathering/analysis. The advisor was the front-line ‘face’ of the U.S. to the Vietnamese people, both as collector and analyst of the intelligence they provided. But the advisor-Vietnamese relationship was fraught with trust issues. Who was on our side? Were they corrupt or honest? What information was reliable?
Overall, the role of military intelligence was crucial, as in any war, but it hasn’t been shown in movies, books or on television. Why? Because the intelligence collection process is less about ‘action’ and more about relationships and analysis. It’s a mix of detective work, journalism, politics and culture. It deals with grey areas where the ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ aren’t always clear. The collected information then flows from the local level up to the top brass and ultimately the president. But there’s no action without the intelligence.
To understand the war better, it’s necessary to know why combat decisions were made, and how those decisions are the product of good or bad intelligence.
Agents Unknown is also the story of John Murphy. Tell us a little bit about who he is and how he fits into the picture.
John served in MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) as an intelligence analyst, advisor and operative. His role was unusual in that he worked with both the U.S. and Vietnamese intelligence services, and their bureaucracies. But he was also out in the field, dealing with the Vietnamese people. In many ways, he was a ‘hub’ of the intelligence wheel. His world is unexplored territory, and he’s got great stories.
You mentioned much of the intelligence war in Vietnam had to do with building relationships. How would you describe John’s relationship with the Vietnamese?
Like that of the U.S. and Vietnamese governments – it was multifaceted, complex and conflicted. On the one hand, he got along with the local population and ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) officers. There was mutual respect. Many U.S. officers didn’t want to appear like ‘colonial rulers,’ or create the impression that they were forcing the Vietnamese to do anything the ‘American way’ in terms of intelligence collection and processing. On the other hand, that is exactly what the U.S. was trying to do. So John found himself in a ‘culture clash’ situation, both with the officers and civilians. Part of his job was to befriend the locals and get them to become spies. The conflicting methods and goals of the two countries created grey areas that he had to navigate.
Explain the relationship between intelligence and America’s defeat in South East Asia.
This is a huge topic, and I’m not a historian. John was a political-science professor, and when he returned from his tour, he was asked to teach at the Army Intelligence School, where he wrote the original four-hour block of instruction on intelligence-gathering in Vietnam. John articulates the issues far better than I. To put it simply: bad information flows up the command structure for political, cultural, and bureaucratic reasons, and that misinformation may lead to disastrous policy.
Why do you think commanders in Vietnam didn’t make better use of the information they were getting from people like Murphy?
The usual problems: politics and bureaucracy. Different intelligence services (U.S. and Vietnamese) didn’t share information. When intel went up the command structure, John’s superiors didn’t want to deliver the bad news. So, they said whatever their bosses wanted to hear, and on and on up to the White House. But again, John deals with this in the film far better than I can explain it.
What made you want to tell this story and why now? How does Agents Unknown help us understand the world today?
I felt that the subject was an unexplored angle on the war, and one that is relevant to our current conflicts. In fact, the film addresses this to an extent. Doing publicity, we spoke with several ex-military intelligence advisors who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they literally said: “We couldn’t believe it when we saw your film — nothing has changed.” Every week there’s another story about bad information, whether it’s war-related or something else political. Viewers will come away with a better understanding of the nuances of the intelligence process, and how it fits into the big picture of war, politics, and history.
Agents Unknown is available for viewing on Amazon Prime in the U.S., Amazon Prime in the U.K. and Pluto TV. Watch the trailer below.
Agents Unknown – Trailer from Cow Lamp Films on Vimeo.
Bernard Fall used Open Source Data ( again) to show that both US and South Vietnamese 4’o’clock follies were BS.
He went through the Obituaries, and discovered that every Headman appointed by the Diem Regime in the Delta had been killed by the VC.
Despite Westmorland’s claims of victory, Fall knew that everything north and west of then Saigon was VC controlled and the city was surrounded.
Thank you for telling your story. It parallels my husbands story, MACV same area, 1964-65
He watched the MARINE’S move into the area in ’65. He wrote me, it was going to be a needless war but here comes the PX, air conditioning…