Local Author and Former American Spy Publishes New Memoir

Home, Sweet Home! The sentiment was particularly true for any American spy operating abroad, especially if the officer worked in a ‘denied area’ -- meaning a country hostile to the United States. Former CIA officer Barry Broman, who has lived in Kirkland for 40 years, had his first posting for the spy agency in Cambodia in the 1970s, and was in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge were taking over.

Living with the constant threat of being caught and thrown out of the country, or worse, the annual vacation home to Seattle was a welcome relief.

Barry’s first stopover would be in Hawaii, where the family of his wife, BJ, were from. Then on to Puget Sound.

As Barry wrote in his new memoirs of life in the CIA: ‘Often, on the same trip that took us to Hawaii, we would fly on to Seattle, my home town. It was always good to be back in the Pacific Northwest. A frequent stop on summer home leaves was to see our family friends, Dr Harold Pebbles and kin, at their summer home in Puget Sound where we could fish for salmon, dig Manila clams and pick oysters off the beach.'

Barry has just celebrated the release of his memoirs, first at a book signing near SeaTac airport at a Marine Corps reunion, then last month when more than 50 guests turned up for a second event at the popular meeting place for spies, politicians and lobbyists -- the Metropolitan Club in Washington DC.

Among the guests was Armen Agas, Deputy Chairman of SARN, an energy and security firm, who has helped Broman with Soviet history research for his two spy novels and who also sponsored the event. They were joined by Ambassador David Merrill, retired US Army Col. Dennison Lane, Ambassador Wanda Nesbitt, author James Stejskal, retired Marine Col. and author Nicholas Reynolds, retired senior state department officer Matt Daley and retired US Army Colonel Michael Eiland.

Barry said: “It was a fine turnout of cold warriors who served America well in mufti, uniform, and with cloaks and daggers.”

The former University of Washington graduate and Associated Press photographer’s heyday came at the end of the Vietnam War where he had served in the Marine Corps. On his return to the US he was recruited by the CIA and sent back to the Far East, spending his first posting in Cambodia where the conflict was continuing. He was present at the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, escaping just before the Khmer Rouge took power.

As a CIA case officer, Broman was in charge of recruiting spies in the field, including one, ‘Leon,’ who insisted all his assignments had to be ‘life-threatening.' Taking him at his word, Broman set his new charge to work in some of the most dangerous areas such as infiltrating major drug organizations and going behind enemy lines. Every time, just as he was giving up hope of Leon ever turning up alive, the agent would return.

‘To really live, you must nearly die,’ he told his boss.

Broman, now 81, has told his life story in two books, Risk Taker Spy Maker and Indochina Hand, which the author signed copies of at last month's event. 

Along the way he has beaten the spy writer John Le Carre in a darts competition at the Chamber of Commerce of Kampuchea, known locally as the COCK Club, busted narcotics rings and worked with the British intelligence agency, MI6, to ‘turn’ a high-ranking communist over to West.

After 25 years in the intelligence service Broman retired in 1996, since then he has written 15 books and produced nine documentaries, one of which solved the mystery of who killed the Thai silk king in 1967 -- another former US spy, John Thompson.

For more than a decade he has been an accredited photographer covering the infamous Fremont Solstice Parade, when mostly naked, painted bike riders take part in the annual parade in Seattle’s Fremont District.

Now that’s a life well lived.

Barry Broman's first book signing took place at a Marine Corp reunion near SeaTac airport, after which the group visited Seattle's Museum of Flight. The event included a memorial service held in front of a B-52 bomber for the Marines who died in Vietnam.

 

Post Script: The first book signing took place at a Marine Corps reunion held in Seattle near the airport in mid-September 2024. The reunion is an annual event of veterans of H Company, 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment, commonly referred to as H/2/5 (Hotel company two five). The group attending the reunion are members of the highly decorated Marine Corps Company who served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1971. Barry served as an infantry platoon commander and company executive officer (#2 behind company commander) from Feb-Sep 1969 in Quang Nam province, RVN. About fifty Marines and family attended the event which featured a book signing of his latest memoir “Indochina Hand: Tales of a CIA Case Officer” and then the group visited Seattle's Museum of Flight.

Barry Broman in the cockpit of the SR-71 CIA reconnaissance aircraft at Seattle's Museum of Flight. "It is the fastest aircraft ever built, a MACH-3 plane that set the speed record from San Francisco to New York at 1 hour 6 seconds," reports Barry.

 

Barry Broman (center) at the Seattle area book signing that took place at a Marine Corps reunion. He is pictured with Native American Marine veteran Cletus Foote (left), a member of the Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota. Cletus Foote is featured in the book. At right is Anthony "Tony" Marengo, who was the Gunnery Sergeant, "Gunny," of Hotel company in 1969. Tony Marengo is from Brooklyn, NY. He retired from the Marine Corps as a Sergeant Major and joined the Secret Service where he had a very successful second career. He received the Silver Star and Bronze Star medals for valor in Vietnam and three Purple Heart medals for wounds inflicted in action.