| Oscar Arellano | Head of CIA-sponsored Operation Brotherhood in South Vietnam. |
| Patrocinio “Pat” Yapcinco Kelly | Lansdale’s guide to Huklandia; mistress; second wife. |
| Ramon “Monching” Magsaysay | Defense minister, 1950–53; president, 1953–57. |
| Manuel “Manny” Manahan | Newspaper publisher; Magsaysay aide. |
| Juan “Johnny” Orendain | American-educated lawyer. |
| Elpidio Quirino | President, 1948–53. |
| Carlos Romulo | Ambassador to Washington, 1952–53, 1955–62; presidential candidate, 1953. |
| Manuel Roxas | President, 1946–48. |
| Frisco “Johnny” San Juan | Head of the CIA-sponsored Freedom Company in South Vietnam; a leader in the CIA-sponsored National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in the Philippines. |
| Luis Taruc | Huk military leader, 1942–53. |
| Napoleon “Poling” Valeriano | Philippine Army officer who worked with Lansdale in Vietnam in 1950s and 1960s. |
| Bao Dai | Emperor of Vietnam, 1926–45; chief of state, 1949–55. |
| Bui Diem | South Vietnam’s ambassador to the United States, 1967–72. |
| Cao Van Vien | Chief of South Vietnam’s Joint General Staff, 1964–75. |
| Duong Van Duc | South Vietnamese officer who oversaw pacification of Ca Mau Peninsula, 1955. |
| Duong Van Minh (“Big Minh”) | General who led anti-Diem coup in 1963. |
| Ho Chi Minh | Vietminh leader, 1941–54; North Vietnam leader, 1954–69. |
| Le Quang Vinh (“Ba Cut”) | Warlord of the Hoa Hao sect. |
| Le Van Vien (“Bay Vien”) | Leader of the Binh Xuyen criminal empire. |
| Le Duan | North Vietnamese leader, driving force behind the war against South Vietnam. |
| Le Van Kim | South Vietnamese officer, commanded pacification of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces, 1955. |
| Jean Leroy | French-Vietnamese Catholic warlord. |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | Prime minister and then president of South Vietnam, 1954–63. |
| Ngo Dinh Nhu | Ngo Dinh Diem’s brother and chief adviser. |
| Tran Le Xuan (“Madame Nhu”) | Wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu. |
| Nguyen Duc Thang | South Vietnamese general, minister of revolutionary development in the mid-1960s. |
| Nguyen Ngoc Tho | Vice president of South Vietnam, 1956–63; prime minister, 1963–64. |
| Nguyen Khanh | South Vietnamese general; president, 1964–65. |
| Nguyen Loc Hoa | “Fighting priest” who led the village of Binh Hung. |
| Nguyen Van Hinh | Chief of staff, South Vietnamese armed forces, 1952–54; pro-French. |
| Nguyen Van Thieu | South Vietnamese general; president, 1965–75. |
| Nguyen Van Vy | Nguyen Van Hinh’s successor as chief of staff; pro-French. |
| Nguyen Cao Ky | South Vietnamese air force commander; prime minister, 1965–67; vice president, 1967–71. |
| Pham Duy | Folk singer. |
| Pham Xuan An | North Vietnamese spy and Lansdale friend. |
| Pham Xuan Giai | South Vietnamese officer in charge of psychological warfare, 1950s. |
| Tran Van Don | South Vietnamese general; a leader of the 1963 anti-Diem coup. |
| Tran Van Soai (“Nam Lua”) | Hoa Hao warlord. |
| Trinh Minh Thé | Cao Dai warlord. |
| Vo Nguyen Giap | Vietminh, North Vietnamese military commander, 1945–75. |
| George Aurell | Chief of the CIA’s Far East Division and CIA station chief in Manila, 1950s. |
| Charles T. R. “Bo” Bohannan | Intelligence officer who worked for Lansdale in both the Philippines and Vietnam. |
| McGeorge Bundy | National security adviser, 1961–66. |
| Ellsworth Bunker | Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1967–73. |
| Frank Church | Democratic senator from Idaho who chaired hearings on intelligence in 1975. |
| William Colby | CIA chief of station in Saigon, CORDS chief, and CIA director, 1973–76. |
| J. Lawton Collins | Army chief of staff; U.S. ambassador to Saigon, 1954–55. |
| Lucien “Luigi” Conein | CIA officer who worked for Lansdale in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Myron Cowen | Ambassador to the Philippines, 1949–52. |
| Thomas Dooley (“Dr. America”) | Navy doctor who wrote the best seller Deliver Us from Evil, about the 1954–55 exodus of refugees from North Vietnam. |
| Michael J. Deutch | Engineer and economist; member of Lansdale’s Vietnam team in 1965–66. |
| Allen Dulles | CIA director, 1953–61. |
| Elbridge Durbrow | Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1957–61. |
| Daniel Ellsberg | Member of Lansdale’s team in Saigon, 1965–66; Pentagon Papers leaker. |
| Graves Erskine | Marine general; head of Pentagon’s Office of Special Operations, 1953–61. |
| Philip Habib | Chief of the political section, U.S. embassy in Saigon, 1965–66; later under secretary of state. |
| William King Harvey | Head of the CIA’s Task Force W (dealing with Cuba), 1961–62. |
| Donald Heath | Ambassador to Saigon, 1952–55. |
| Richard Helms | CIA officer; CIA director, 1966–73. |
| Gabriel L. Kaplan | CIA operative, member of Lansdale team in the Philippines, 1950s. |
| Sam Karrick | Army officer and Christian Science practitioner who worked for Lansdale in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Helen Lansdale | Lansdale’s first wife. |
| Henry “Harry” Lansdale | Lansdale’s father. |
| Sarah “Sadie” Lansdale | Lansdale’s mother. |
| Edward “Ted” Lansdale | Lansdale’s older son. |
| Peter “Pete” Lansdale | Lansdale’s younger son. |
| William Lederer | Navy captain; coauthor of The Ugly American. |
| Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. | U.S. ambassador to Saigon, 1963–64, 1965–67; also U.S. senator, UN ambassador, and Republican vice presidential nominee. |
| Robert McNamara | Secretary of Defense, 1961–68. |
| Hank Miller | U.S. Information Agency officer who worked for Lansdale in Vietnam in the mid-1960s. |
| John W. “Iron Mike” O’Daniel | Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Saigon, 1954–55. |
| Edward Philips | Lansdale’s grandfather. |
| Rufus “Rufe” Phillips III | CIA and USAID officer, Lansdale team member. |
| L. Fletcher Prouty | Former Lansdale aide at the Pentagon who later accused him of complicity in the JFK assassination. |
| Joseph Redick | CIA linguist who worked for Lansdale in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s. |
| G. Frederick Reinhardt | Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1955–57. |
| Walt Rostow | Senior JFK and LBJ national security official. |
| Robert Shaplen | New Yorker correspondent, Lansdale friend. |
| Howard R. Simpson | U.S. information officer in Saigon in the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Raymond Spruance | Admiral; U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, 1952–55. |
| David T. Sternberg | Disabled CIA officer who worked for Landsale in the Philippines. |
| Maxwell Taylor | Army chief of staff, JFK aide, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and ambassador to South Vietnam, 1964–65. |
| John Paul Vann | U.S. military adviser to the South Vietnamese army. |
| William C. Westmoreland | U.S. military commander in South Vietnam, 1964–68. |
| Samuel T. “Hanging Sam” Williams | Chief of Military Assistance Advisory Group—Vietnam, 1955–60. |
| Samuel V. Wilson | Lansdale aide at Pentagon; Special Forces officer. |
| Frank Wisner | Chief of Office of Policy Coordination, 1948–51; CIA deputy director for operations, 1951–59. |
| Barry Zorthian | Head of Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office in Saigon, 1964–68. |