Barry Michael Broman, Risk Taker Spy Maker (Casemate, 2020)
When we think of the CIA, we tend to envision men in grey suits walking through a foggy Berlin night or some other European city. Those familiar with the Vietnam war know about the CIA’s nefarious activities, or at least think they do. But in this memoir of his storied career, Barry Broman reveals a much broader range of CIA activities in southeast Asia, particularly in Burma and Cambodia. It is often an eye-opening read.
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Broman spent his childhood in post-war England. He then developed a passion for photography back in the US and began his career as a wire service photographer based in southeast Asia. He visited Vietnam and Thailand, where he mixed with royalty and Hollywood film-makers. Broman returned to the US to attend university and then joined the Marine Corps in 1967. He saw action in Vietnam but is careful to point out that the war was ‘not all blood, guts, and incoming rockets.’ Broman believed in the mission, and he argues in his memoir that Vietnam was a ‘just war but poorly fought. That experience perhaps primed him for joining the CIA, which he did in 1971.
Most of Broman’s CIA career was spent in southeast Asia. He served in Phnom Penh, which was surrounded by the Khmer Rouge, and got out just in time before the city fell. He started again in Thailand before stints at Langley and in France recruiting Cambodian dissidents. Rising through the ranks, Broman became Deputy Chief of Station for Southeast Asia then Chief of the Thai-Burma branch of the East Asia Division. In the latter stages of his career, Broman served under President Clinton, who he singles out as no friend of the CIA. Broman retired in 1996. As a retiree, he published photography books, made a documentary film, and began a serious art collection.
This is an entertaining memoir full of stories and characters. Alongside his regular work, and sometimes part of it, Broman trekked through Nepal, participated in a rat hunt, made a clandestine documentary with Henry Rollins – it did not go well – played darts with John Le Carre, met Aung San Suu Kyi, and had many other encounters with all kinds of strange and interesting people. However, such a breadth of experience sometimes takes away from the depth in that we don’t know that much more about CIA operations other than the surface information Broman provides. Nevertheless, Broman’s memoir adds to our understanding of CIA operations in southeast Asia where they were obviously busy. Broman is also an engaging writer, and this book skips along nicely.
