Whistleblower Frank Snepp

Frank Snepp had been the CIA's top analyst of North Vietnamese strategy in Saigon and was one of the last Americans airlifted out of that city before its April 1975 fall to the communist North.

In the American forces' inglorious and embarrassing departure, many South Vietnamese who had worked for our side were left to be killed or imprisoned, which Snepp could not stomach. He was convinced that the entire evacuation was botched from one end to the other and wrote a book detailing his complaints. The CIA went to court to prevent the book's publication.

The CIA's position in court prevailed because of the employment contract that all CIA employees sign when they join the agency. The agreement states that they will not discuss their agency work without the prior approval from agency brass. The courts denied Snepp any royalties from his book.

Although Snepp lost the battle, he might have won the war by writing a second book about his legal wrangles with the agency. He also taught journalism in California and became a television producer in Lost Angeles.