It is with deep sadness that we inform you of author Floyd Paseman's death during the weekend of May 7, 2005. As you'll read below, Floyd's life included more drama and service than most of us could ever dream about. He will be missed by us all.  --MBI Publishing Company.

A Spy's Journey is a pleasure to read, the most personable memoir by a senior spy since David Atlee Phillips's 1977 classic, ‘The Night Watch.' If you wonder what it's like to breakfast on moose lips and vodka in Mongolia, this is your book. Paseman had fun -- until suddenly, in 2001, he decided it wasn't fun anymore." - New York Times Book Review

For thirty-five years, Floyd Paseman served in the Operations Directorate of the Central Intelligence Agency. From spy in the field to the top ranks of the Companys career agents, he experienced it all as well as seven different presidential administrations. While Pasemans account of his long service has enough real-life derring-do to keep the reader engaged, of even greater interest, however, are Pasemans observation on politics and the CIA, especially how change of presidential administrations could bring sweeping, and often negative changes to the agency.

- Johnson - declined to run for a second full term, broken by Vietnam

- Nixon - resigned in disgrace after ending Vietnam and opening relations with China

- Ford - never elected caretaker

- Carter - hoist on the petard of fundamentalist Islam in Iran

- Reagan - first full, two-term president since Eisenhower and declared war on the evil empire and brought the USSR to its knees with the threat of a still fanciful Star Wars

- Bush the father - "won" the Cold War as the Soviet Union collapsed and "coalitioned" Saddam out of Iraq

- Clinton - leader of the new world order, peace in our time, and dead Rangers in the streets of Mogadishu

- Bush the son - 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq

In March 1967 author Paseman joined the CIA following successful service as an army armor officer in Germany. Highly trained in the Chinese language, most of his service was in the far east. Paseman served as chief of the East Asia division at Langley and was also station chief Germany, considered the agencys toughest Cold War field posting.

About the Author

Floyd L. Paseman retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in January 2001 after a thirty-five year career in operations. He recently lived in southern Virginia outside Williamsburg where he works as an international security consultant.

"Floyd L. Paseman was the chief of the East Asia covert operations division from 1992 to 1994, after 25 years spent mostly in Asia. It was a post Shackley [the author of one of the other books reviewed] had held two decades before. Shackley was all about statistics. Paseman was all about people, which is why he was able to recruit a Chinese spy, an exceedingly rare find in the 1970's. He believes covert action -- trying to change the course of history, as opposed to stealing secrets through espionage -- should always be the last choice for the C.I.A. That was a hard-won lesson. - New York Times Book Review

"During his 35 years at the CIA, Paseman moved up through a dozen promotions, serving as station chief in Germany at the height of the Cold War and chief of the East Asia division at Langley headquarters. His firsthand experience informs his evaluation of the agency's operations and its evolution since the early 1960s. Paseman makes a persuasive case that the United States needs more effective agents on the ground. For example, the United States did not have a single agent in Iraq before the war. He states flatly that the 9/11 attack was a failure of U.S. intelligence and argueISBN-13: 9780760320662
ISBN: 0760320667
Catalog ID: 138687AP

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