Ronald Humphrey (born c. 1936) was a

United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...

(USIA) official who was convicted of spying for

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...

. He and co-conspirator David Truong (born Truong Dinh Hung), the son of a

South Vietnamese South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the French Union, with i ...

politician

Trương Đình Dzu Trương Đình Dzu (born Trường Đình Dũ, 10 November 1917 – ) was a South Vietnamese lawyer and politician who unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the presidency in the 1967 elections against Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and his running ma ...

, were arrested in 1977 and charged with conspiracy, espionage, theft of classified information and failing to register as foreign agents. They were convicted of spying for the North Vietnamese and both given a 15-year prison sentence. Truong was a South Vietnamese expatriate living in the United States who was active in the

anti-Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1965 with demonstrations against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States in the war. Over the next several years, these demonstrations grew ...

movement. His father had run against Nguyen Van Thieu on a peace platform. Supplied with information by Humphrey, Truong passed on diplomatic cables and classified information to North Vietnam and the successor Socialist Republic of Vietnam government. The intermediary was the wife of a naval attache,

Yung Krall Yung Krall (; 1946-2023) is an American former spy born in Vietnam. Her autobiography, ''A Thousand Tears Falling'', recounts her life growing up in the midst of the Vietnam War, as well as her life in America as a spy for the CIA, FBI, and NS ...

, codenamed "Agent Keyseat", who was a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

for the U.S. intelligence services. Some of the documents were used by the North Vietnamese and

Viet Cong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, and ...

negotiators at the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

. It is the only case of military espionage to come out of 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 ...

References

American anti–Vietnam War activists American people convicted of spying for Vietnam People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Living people 1930s births Year of birth missing (living people) {{Espionage-bio-stub