18 Facts About Frank Snepp

Frank Snepp was one of the first whistle blowers who revealed the inner workings, secrets and failures of the national security services in the 1970s.

Frank Snepp was recruited to the CIA in 1968, by the Associate Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Philip Mosely.

Frank Snepp rejected the usual 2-year rotation, and stayed in Vietnam until the US was forced out in 1975.

Frank Snepp wrote in 2009 that he was "still haunted" by the "psychological manipulation and torment of a prisoner" he was involved with as a CIA interrogator.

Frank Snepp was on hand for the Fall of Saigon 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.

Frank Snepp was evacuated with other American personnel in Operation Frequent Wind.

On his return to the US Frank Snepp was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit 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.

Frank Snepp wrote a memoir, Decent Interval, about the evacuation of US personnel from Saigon.

Frank Snepp was accused of violating the non-disclosure agreement he had signed when he joined the agency that forbade publication of any material about CIA operations without the prior consent of the agency.

Frank Snepp enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union in his defense.

The royalties from Decent Interval were surrendered to the CIA, and Frank Snepp forced to clear all future publications with the CIA.

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

In 1980, following the Supreme Court decision against him, Frank Snepp became an investigative journalist, contributing to publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Village Voice and others.

Frank Snepp was a technical consultant for the comedy film Spies Like Us and was interviewed on his Vietnam War experiences for Ken Burns's series The Vietnam War and Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War.

Frank Snepp worked in television for ABC's World News Tonight, CBS and NBC from 2005.

Frank Snepp won an Emmy Award in 1997 for an investigation into Mexican drug trafficking.

Frank Snepp won a Peabody Award in 2006 as producer on an investigation for KNBC-TV-Los Angeles of a Los Angeles housing development sited on a toxic landfill.

Frank Snepp sued KNBC-TV for age discrimination after he was dismissed from his job in 2012.