[.uk] Saigon Station (ISBN 0595293840)

Saigon Station: The Way It Was:
None of the books I have read to date has so closely approximated my own experiences in Vietnam. "Saigon Station" is not only a wonderful trip down memory lane, filled with nostalgia, but also a poignant reminder of the realities of that period. As was the case with Merle Pribbenow, another reviewer, I, too, recognized and identified with many of those whom the author, Charles "Charlie" Gillen, characterized. His characterizations of case officers Fred and Jake are right on the money. Fred was a good friend, a great colleague, and so very deserving of the accolades accorded to him by Charlie. Falzer was all too real. On one occasion, he deliberately sandbagged me on a polygraph examination, and I had absolutely no respect for him. What he lacked in ability, he made up for in lack of character. Charlie's description of the "Condor Operation" aptly describes how a good operation is run, without drama or embellishment. Charlie was the best interpreter with whom I had the pleasure of working in Vietnam, and "Saigon Station" lives up to what I would expect from him. Nelson DeMille's "Up County" brought back some great memories, but "Saigon Station" actually put me there. Charlie truly captured the essense of wartime Saigon. For the reader who wants to know "how it as" in Saigon during the war, "Saigon Station" is the book.

Saigon Station - the female perspective:
"Saigon Station" revived a lot of long-dormant memories and I enjoyed them all. I agree with the two earlier reviewers that Charles (Charlie) Gillen used his fictional characters to portray an accurate view of the way things were in Saigon, the city and the Station, in the days of which he writes. There is one other aspect of the story that Charlie got exactly right -- the working life of his female Case Officer Patricia. Male chauvinism was nowhere more evident or accepted, at least among the male of the species -- and, after all, they were in charge. It's a detail I am pleased to note that Charlie remembered and thought worthy of note. I'm fairly sure today's young career women have no real idea of what their grandmothers had to cope with!

The intelligence war in Vietnam: Fact and Fiction:
"Saigon Station" should be on the required reading list for any academic course on the Vietnam War, especially those dealing with the intelligence and security side of the war. Although it is a novel, it provides a better understanding of what the intelligence war in Saigon was really like for those who were engaged in it "down in the trenches" than any non-fiction account I have ever read. Much of the novel is based on real people and real events, and the author has captured the "feel" of the city of Saigon and of Saigon Station, the frustration of working against an almost impenetrable intelligence target (similar to frustrations doubtlessly felt by today's case officers pursuing Al Qaeda's elusive terrorist network), the bureaucratic infighting, even the "inside" language spoken by the Agency's "spooks." The descriptions of the two lead case officer heroes of this book, "Fred" and "Jake," (both of whom I knew and worked with) are uncanny. The author has brought these two unsung and now-deceased heroes back to life, with all their strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies, to demonstrate how real intelligence officers think, talk, and carry out their duties. The book is filled with wonderful local color, insights into the Vietnamese psyche, and provides a vivid account of the difficulties that the small handful of Americans who truly knew the language faced in trying to bridge the gap between two totally disparate cultures. I first met Charlie Gillen in Saigon in 1970, when I was a neophyte translator working for "Giselda" (another real-life character). He has been a friend ever since, but I never suspected his literary talent. I hope that this is the first of series of novels on the adventures of "Joe" and "Pat."

"Saigon Station: Spying in the Dark":
Past, present, and future intelligence aficionados all can enjoy this fictionalized account about the what, where, when, how, and why of typical intelligence operations carried out by dozens of officers and linguists who rotated in and out of the biggest CIA station in the "60's and "70's, that of Saigon. As two of a small group of American language experts who supported the good, the bad, and the ugly of many intelligence case officers, the author, Charlie Gillen, and I interpreted for, and baby sat a host of agents, fabricators, prisoners, and other un nameable characters who fed intelligence info, good, and bad, to the book's primary luminaries, "Fred" and "Jake". The real life "Fred" and "Jake's" tried their very best with the utmost integrity to screen and recruit intelligence assets out of the vast pool of characters who could range from a Communist sympathizing member of South Vietnam's House of Representatives, a Viet Cong prisoner brought in by US Special Forces, or even an alleged "agent" "introduced" to us by South Vietnam's Police Special Branch. As the author describes, enumerates, analyzes, and explains in vivid detail the Asian cultural context in which these case officers had to work, the reader will be able to empathize with "Fred", "Jake", and others who struggled with an environment quite different from their former Western European and Slavic cultural backgrounds. In Vietnam, not only was there a shortage of case officers who could speak the language, Vietnamese traditional social interactions tended to be very long and drawn out, indirect, subtle, non-confrontational, and loaded with unspoken body language and social cues so that either party could "save face" if either felt slighted or embarrassed. The author's character "Joe Milano", and I as his sidekick, "Larry Brown" served many hours and days as the voice, spokespersons, points of contact, and sometimes even as the conscience of hundreds of case officers from the classical Ivy League grads, ex-military officers, experienced "cold war" specialists, as well as fresh, brand new graduates of the CIA's human intelligence course. The character "Pat" reminded me of the many resourceful female document translators, analysts, secretaries, and report writers who devoted many hours to convert all the raw intelligence info into finished reports and analyses. I distinctly remember the evening that an Air Force C5 crashed on take off with orphan children who were being flown to The U.S., every "Pat" in the Operations Branch volunteered to go out to the Saigon Airport and help the Emergency Response crews in any way they could. What could the author have added to this story? More intense accounts and detail of many instances when officers and especially agents "let it all hang out"! For example, the non stop crying jags and unexpected argumentation that some so called agents would go into trying to show how valid their information and access to specific organizations of the Viet Cong made incredibly spectacular "human theatre". This book is too short and brief. We need MORE MORE MORE. Another item of note that the author points out was and is our incredible "addiction" to gadgetry; i.e. miniature recorders, radios, "bugging" devices, "phone in the shoes", that often did not work properly, and sometimes completely compromised operations when exposed. Those who are even remotely interested in how military and civilian intelligence is managed in places like Afghanistan and Iraq should read "Saigon Station". The "Green zone" in Baghdad and our embassy in Kabul are managed by the kids and grandchildren of the "Vietnam hands" who learned the hard way that non conventional guerrilla conflict and anti terrorism actions require an intense commitment to cultural and language knowledge.