“IN Indochina I drained a magic potion, a loving cup which I have shared since with many retired colons and officers of the Foreign Legion, whose eyes light up at the mention of Saigon and Hanoi.”1 So wrote the English novelist and part-time intelligence agent Graham Greene of his first visit to Vietnam, in early 1951. It was a sentiment shared by countless Westerners, including Edward Lansdale, who first arrived in French Indochina for a three-week visit with an American advisory mission in June 1953 while on a brief sabbatical from the Philippines.
