Cover of the book Lật Lại Những Trang Hồ Sơ Mật – Những Bóng Hồng Điệp Viên, roughly translated as Turning Over the Secret Files – Rosy Spy Girls. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Publishing House has published a book featuring the secrets of world-famous female intelligence agents to mark the 95th anniversary of Việt Nam revolutionary journalism (June 21).

The book titled Lật Lại Những Trang Hồ Sơ Mật – Những Bóng Hồng Điệp Viên, roughly translated as Turning Over the Confidential Files – Beautiful Spy Girls, is the seventh book of the series Lật Lại Những Trang Hồ Sơ Mật (Turning Over the Confidential Files) and comprises information and documents published in the column Hồ sơ - Tư liệu (Profile – Documentation) of Tin Tức (News) newspaper under the VNA. The series has been published and reprinted many times since 2008.

It is also a collection of articles and added with interesting and new details, including 26 articles which are new documents having been declassified for the first time about the world of female spies and associated with major historical events.

The book focuses on the danger of intelligence collecting, and while male spies had a lot of difficulties in keeping their activities secret, females suffered much more severe conditions that required them to have an iron will.

The book features some agents who became spies to prove their patriotism and hatred toward wars while others who simply wanted to protect the country.

There are some whose achievements have been recognised since they were awarded medals but also others who were unknown.

The book posits that glory and bitterness always go hand in hand in these silent careers, but the information they provided undeniably made a great contribution to changing the wars.

Among the spies mentioned are Mata Hari, Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall, Noor Inayat Khan, Josephine Baker, Olga Chekhova and Chevalier d’Éon.

Hari, for example, was a professional dancer and mistress who became a spy for France during World War I. Suspected of being a double agent, she was executed in 1917.

Atkins was an influential female agent who managed an entire intelligence network with hundreds of members.

Hall was one of the most successful spies in World War II, first for the British and then for the Americans, despite a hunting accident that cost her left leg.

The VNA Publishing House said in a statement that the book aimed to celebrate Việt Nam revolutionary journalism day. VNS