Frank Warren Snepp, III (born May 3, 1943) is an American journalist and former chief analyst of North Vietnamese strategy for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(CIA) in

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. For five out of his eight years as a CIA officer, he worked as interrogator, agent debriefer, and chief strategy analyst in the United States Embassy, Saigon; he was awarded the

Intelligence Medal of Merit The Intelligence Medal of Merit is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency for performance of especially meritorious service or for achievement conspicuously above normal duties. Notable recipients *Gust Avrakotos *I. Nathan Briggs *George Ca ...

for his work. Snepp is a former producer for

KNBC-TV KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Co ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He was one of the first whistle blowers who revealed the inner workings, secrets and failures of the national security services in the 1970s. As a result of a loss in a 1980 court case brought by the CIA, all of Snepp's publications require prior approval by the CIA.

Background

Born in

Kinston, North Carolina Kinston is a city in Lenoir County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 19,900 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It has been the county seat of Lenoir County since its formation in 1791. Kinston is located in the ...

,Ted Rabinowitz
Frank Snepp ’65, ’68 SIPA Chases the Truth From Saigon to Los Angeles
''Columbia College Today'', Fall 2013 Snepp studied Elizabethan literature at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, graduating in 1965. After spending a year at

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

, he returned to Columbia's

School of International and Public Affairs The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is the List of schools of international relations in the United States, international affairs and public policy school, public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League univers ...

, from which he graduated in 1968.

Career

CIA (1968–1976)

Snepp was recruited to the CIA in 1968, by the Associate Dean of the

School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. SIPA offers Master of I ...

, Philip Mosely. Initially working on

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and European security, he was sent to

in 1969.Glenn P. Hastedt (2011),
Spies, Wiretaps, and Secret Operations: A-J
ABC-CLIO, p711-2 Here Snepp worked as an analyst and counter-intelligence officer, coordinating agent networks and interrogation of captured enemy forces as well as preparing strategic estimates regarding the enemy. Snepp rejected the usual 2-year rotation, and stayed in Vietnam until the US was forced out in 1975. Snepp wrote in 2009 that he was "still haunted" by the "

psychological manipulation In psychology, manipulation is defined as an action designed to influence or control another person, usually in an underhanded or subtle manner which facilitates one's personal aims. Methods someone may use to manipulate another person may includ ...

and torment of a prisoner" he was involved with as a CIA interrogator. Snepp was on hand for the

Fall of Saigon The fall of Saigon, known in Vietnam as Reunification Day (), was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by North Vietnam on 30 April 1975. As part of the 1975 spring offensive, this decisive event led to the collapse of the So ...

and was one of the last Americans to leave the US Embassy, Saigon before the city fell to the North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975. Snepp was evacuated with other American personnel in

Operation Frequent Wind Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Sai ...

. On his return to the US Snepp was awarded the

in December 1975, but he resigned from the Agency in January 1976, upset at its refusal to rescue Vietnamese left behind in the pull-out, and its refusal to acknowledge mistakes made.

Memoir

Snepp wrote a memoir, ''Decent Interval'', about the evacuation of US personnel from Saigon. It was published in 1977 without prior approval from the CIA Publications Review Board. Prior to publication, and while still employed at the CIA, Snepp attempted to tell the inspector general about the problems surrounding the evacuation, but was told that it "could not deal with anything so controversial". After the book was published, CIA Director Stansfield Turner pushed for Snepp to be sued and, despite the objections of some

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

officials, Turner prevailed. Since publication of the book could not be stopped under the constitutional law forbidding

prior restraint Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government or institution, on expression, that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship ...

of the press, the CIA sued Snepp for

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...

. Snepp was accused of violating the

non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...

he had signed when he joined the agency that forbade publication of any material about CIA operations without the prior consent of the agency. Ironically, President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

permitted the lawsuit against Snepp at the same time he had proposed the creation of a special unit to provide protection for civil service whistle blowers. In a press conference, Carter said that Snepp did not qualify as a whistleblower as he did not "reveal anything that would lead to an improvement in our security apparatus or the protection of Americans' civil rights." Carter also claimed that Snepp had "revealed our nation's utmost secrets", a charge which was not part of the government's suit. Snepp enlisted the help of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

in his defense. The CIA won a court verdict against Snepp, with the US Supreme Court ruling that Snepp's book had caused "irreparable harm" to national security due to creating an appearance of a breakdown of discipline in the CIA. The royalties from ''Decent Interval'' (amounting to $300,000 by the time Snepp lost in front of the Supreme Court) were surrendered to the CIA, and Snepp forced to clear all future publications with the CIA.Frank Snepp, ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

'', 3 July 2013
Snowden and a muzzled free press
/ref> Snepp described the court decision as a "ticking time-bomb" which exploded when the cigarette manufacturer

Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancin ...

used the precedent to force

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

not to air an interview with whistleblower

Jeffrey Wigand Jeffrey Stephen Wigand (; born December 17, 1942) is an American biochemist and tobacco industry whistleblower. He is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the developm ...

. In 2001 Snepp published a second book, ''Irreparable Harm'', about his court battle with the CIA.

Journalism (1980–present)

In 1980, following the Supreme Court decision against him, Snepp became an investigative journalist, contributing to publications including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

'' and others. During the late 1980s, he taught a Journalism and the Law course at California State University, Long Beach. He was a technical consultant for the comedy film ''

Spies Like Us ''Spies Like Us'' is a 1985 American spy comedy film directed by John Landis, and starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest, and Donna Dixon. The film presents the comic adventures of two novice intelligence agents sent to the Soviet ...

'' and was interviewed on his Vietnam War experiences for

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

's series '' The Vietnam War and Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War''. Snepp worked in television for ABC's '' World News Tonight'' (1987–92), CBS (2003–05) and NBC from 2005. At '' World News Tonight'' he got Eugene Hasenfus to confirm that he had signed a government secrecy agreement, confirming the government's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. Snepp won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 1997 for an investigation into Mexican drug trafficking. He won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

in 2006 as producer on an investigation for

-Los Angeles of a Los Angeles housing development sited on a toxic landfill. Snepp sued KNBC-TV for age discrimination after he was dismissed from his job in 2012. A jury deadlocked in 2015, and the case was settled in March 2016.

Quotes

"Disinformation is most effective in a very narrow context." ''
Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...
'', February 26, 1985

"We always leave the last war thinking we have all the answers, but we end up having more questions."
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, May 12, 2005

Books

* ''Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam'' by Frank Snepp (1977) * ''Irreparable Harm: A Firsthand Account of How One Agent Took on the CIA in an Epic Battle Over Free Speech'' by Frank Snepp, with foreword by

Anthony Lewis Joseph Anthony Lewis (March 27, 1927 – March 25, 2013) was an American public intellectual and journalist. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and was a columnist for ''The New York Times''. He is credited with creating the field o ...

(1999)

Awards

(16 December 1975)franksnepp.com
CIA on Snepp
/ref> *

(1997) *

(2006)

References

External links

Frank Snepp's Official Website

US v Snepp
US Supreme Court, Feb 19, 1980 *
Frank Snepp's YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snepp, Frank 1943 births Living people American male journalists American spies American whistleblowers Analysts of the Central Intelligence Agency Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA personnel of the Vietnam War Peabody Award winners Recipients of the Intelligence Medal of Merit School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni