While working for the secret service, he moved to the Viet News Agency (VTX). Pham Xuan An explained that, while in America, Nguyen Thai – VTX General Director – had asked him to work for VTX after completing his tudy. Thai was one of ten people who had studied in the United States and been brought back to Viet Nam to serve Ngo Dinh Diem’s¹ regime. Pham Xuan An already knew Thai thanks to being introduced by a relative. At that time, VTX was receiving aid from the Asian Culture Agency and was about to organize a journalism course (at this time, there was no press training school). Thai wanted Pham Xuan An to move to VTX in order to take charge of this course. The Presidential Office’s secret service’s official name was the Political, Cultural and Social Research Agency, and Pham Xuan An was in charge of the Cultural section. Tran Kim Tuyen dispatched him to work for VTX but he remained an employee of the secret service.

A power struggle between the Ministry of Information and VTX meant that the ministry did not allow the running of a press training course. As such, Pham Xuan An was to take charge of journalists working oversea. There were many protégés of Tran Kim Tuyen in VTX, including a number of journalists who had studied abroad and had been sent to do espionage  in several Asian and African countries. Based on the influence of the secret service, they behaved very arrogantly and paid little respect to Thai. Thai didn’t want to get tough with them for fear of angering Tran Kim Tuyen. When Pham Xuan An went to work in VTX, Thai was very happy, saying: “You can take charge of these guys. You’re free to treat them in any way you like.”

Pham Xuan An assumed the job, pretending not to know anything about the intelligence activities carried out by these journalists. He handled them under professional principles. He recalled:

“The overseas journalists sent home very few articles. Some people didn’t bother writing a single article for months, while some sent home articles from foreign newspapers. I wrote an official letter on this to the VTX General Director. Thai told me on his behalf to inform these journalists that they had to send sufficient articles, at least once a week. Otherwise, they would be sacked.”

The journalists got very angry, and told Tuyen: “In VTX, there is a very impertinent man telling us we need to send him news articles. If he persists in doing so, how will we have time to do intelligence service?” Tran Kim Tuyen called Pham Xuan An and asked why he was so tough on them. He answered:

“Thai doesn’t want to speak out because he respects you so much. As for me, I don’t know much about intelligence work but I see that your plan of using the press as a screen for intelligence work has been discovered. Being a journalist means having to write news and articles.” Having no reasons to counter-argue, Tuyen had to correct the journalists’ working style and said to them: “An is a professional pressman. He has studies in America. If you are not serious in your work, he will handle your duty.”

In early 1960, the British News Agency Reuters signed an agreement with VTX to share information and needed a Vietnamese to undertake the project. Pham Xuan An was chosen for the position. He said “At that time, I got paid from three sources: the Presidential Office, VTX and Reuters. However, after a while, I said to Tran Kim Tuyen, “Being paid from three sources was abnormal and harmful.” Tuyen agreed with him. From early 1961, he only worked for Reuters but still kept a close relationship with the Presidential Office.

After 1954, 60,000 cadres and Party members stayed in Nam Bo to continue revolutionary activities. Vietnam respected the Geneva Accords and pursued the political struggle and demanded the U.S and Diem government observe the Accords. We refrained from carrying out armed struggle. Meanwhile, the enemy intensified their “Denounce Communists” and “Annihilate Communists” drives in the years from 1957 to 1959, dragging their guillotine throughout all of South Viet Nam, barbarously cracking down on revolutionary bases and mass movements. The communists forces in the south suffered great losses. In Sai Gon and east Nam Bo alone, 85 percent of our cadres were killed or jailed. At that time, Pham Xuan An used his secret service position to collect a lot of the puppet regime’s top secret information.

Unfortunately, he could not contact with his network. He said: “The major principle of intelligence work is that senior leaders are entitled to contact you and not vice-versa.”  But he could not just wait. He intended to asked Mrs. Huynh Tan Phat  (the wife of architecture Huynh Tan Phat – president of the future Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republish South of Viet Nam) for help, because he had used this network to follow orders from Pham Ngoc Thach. However, she was arrested just before he came to ask for her help (1960). Later that year, through a liaison officer of Muoi Huong, he met Cao Dang Chiem, a cadre leader in charge of the regional security matters. Only until this moment did he receive new orders. His direct superior was Muoi Nho.