Paseman, Floyd. "The Great Grafton Library War." Intelligencer 11, no.
2 (Wintor 2000): 51-55.
Paseman, Floyd. "The Great Grafton Library War." Intelligencer 11, no.
2 (Wintor 2000): 51-55.
The author reviews the uproar in Grafton, Wisconsin, in 1987-1989 over the naming of "The USS Liberty Memorial Public Library."
[GenPostwar/60s/Liberty][c]
Paseman, Floyd L. "Private Military Companies: Mercenaries By Any Name." Intelligencer 15, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2006-2007): 23-27.
The title of this article points to the author's main theme: "My contention is that not only should th[e] temptation to use 'private military companies' (PMCs) to 'outsource war' be resisted, but also that the facade" of PMCs "needs to be exposed for what they really are -- mercenaries by any name."
[GenPostCW/00s/Gen]
Paseman, Floyd L. A Spy's Journey: A CIA Memoir. St. Paul, MN: Zenith, 2005.
Floyd L. Paseman, 64, died 7 May 2005. Louie Estrada, "Former CIA Senior Official Floyd Paseman Dies," Washington Post, 21 May 2005, B6. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Clark comment: The author's anecdotes go down smoothly, even though there is a repetitious feel at times. The stories would have been even better if Paseman had been able to identify the places of his assignments in something other than the vaguest of terms. Nevertheless, anyone who has served overseas with the CIA will find situations (funny and otherwise) with which they can identify. For someone seemingly as out-spoken as Paseman, it is a minor miracle that he made it all the way to division chief; but, then, he had and maintained a reputation as a straight shooter.
Goedeken, Library Journal, Jan. 2005, calls this "[o]ne of the best CIA memoirs published in a long while." This work is an "excellent introduction to the world of espionage [and] is recommended for all collections."
For DKR, AFIO WIN 17-05 (25 Apr. 2005), the author "delivers a firsthand account" of the CIA's development since the early 1960s. "For outsiders, Paseman has written an excellent introduction to the world of intelligence."
Hedley, Studies 49.3 (2005), calls this "a personal retrospective by a consummate nice guy, a straight arrow who recounts a life that offers helpful introductory reading for someone considering a career in the operations directorate. It contains precious little that is prescriptive, devoting only six pages out of nearly 300 to 'what’s wrong and what’s right with the CIA.' The shortcomings he cites are neither original nor surprising."
[CIA/Memoirs]
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