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Many of you would have learned that John le Carré, the former British intelligence officer and author, passed from pneumonia at the age of 89. He was famous for his spy novels that grew out of his 16 years in Her Majesty's Service. A few of us have spent much of our lives in foreign settings laced with international espionage intrigue and some have had even deeper encounters. Therefore, we have had a small window into the framework that shaped much of the world of Mr. le Carré to underwrite the clarity with which he saw through that murky setting. Accordingly, the allure and intrigue of espionage are not uncommon. What I did not appreciate until recently, was his very straight forward position on the folly of Brexit and nationalism movements that have had a grasp on many countries including the United States.
Mr. le Carré stayed with my friend, Fred Kroll, in his villa in Phnom Penh as the Vietnam war was wrapping up in 1975 where he wrote front line accounts that found their way into the Honorable School Boy. In fact, throughout the war days in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, Fred's residence in each country was ground zero for a good time. Fred, in the white T-shirt, is having a party toward the end of the U.S. days in Phnom Penh to "theoretically" remove the armor plating from a departing CIA officer's Ford Pinto. Those spooks, they travel first class.
It was about this period of time that Mr. le Carré stayed with Fred so you can imagine the nature of the parties. Clearly, the end was in sight as the Khmer Rouge continued to lob rockets into Phnom Penh. Mr. le Carré would have been about age 44 at that time and one would have imagined he fit right in with the crowd below.
Rather than take any more space in an account of the life of Mr. le Carré, it is best spoken by him in a recent interview that can be accessed below. He was truly a great man.
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