IN THE MAIL: From Smithsonian Books, Larry Berman’s Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent. The North Vietnamese fed him “scoops” to raise his stature in the magazine, even as he was spying and manipulating on their behalf. I wonder how many similar “infiltrators” are at work in Western press agencies covering the Middle East today. And whether those agencies even care much.

UPDATE: A reader points to this post, too. Also these comments by Ben Stein.