“A Licenced Troubleshooter” James Bond as Assassin ROGER PAULY If a pollster were to ask the average person on the street “What does James Bond do?” the response would almost certainly be that he is a spy. his is the most ba! sic defnition of the dashing British literary and "lm hero. But is it accurate? #o Bond$s activities represent spying or something else? %ecent studies have borne fruit by looking at the character of Bond outside of the basic parameters of the “spy” persona. &or example, )atharina *agen +,-./0 analysed Bond as a pirate; while #avid 2egram +,-./0 viewed him through the lens of an extreme athlete. 3f particular interest to this essay is Mathew edesco$s observation5 “6t7here$s no getting around it 8 James Bond is an assassin” +,--9( .,-0. edesco does not e'! plore this point in depth however( since his study is primarily devoted to the moral ethics of killing and torture. &urthermore, his characterisation of James Bond as an assassin is a decided anomaly in Bond scholarship and the spy classi! "cation remains predominant. &or example, Liisa &unnell and )laus #odds refer to Bond as a “British super spy” in a recent work +,-.;( ,.<0. his article will de! velop more fully edesco$s brief identi"cation by directly exploring the historical roots of Bond as an assassin. argeting key individuals for murder is an ancient and well-established el! ement of political and military history( and the Second World War was no e'cep! tion. In his capacity as an intelligence ofcer( Ian &leming had knowledge of ?l! Roger Pauly is /n Asso0i/*e Pro1essor o1 2is*or3 /* *he Uni5ersi*3 o1 ,en*r/l Ar6/ns/s% 2e is mos*ly 6nown 1or his 7or6 on *he his*or3 o1 1ire/rms bu* 4/s /lso wri**en on su('ec*s /s di5erse /s 8/r0us G/r5e39 8/u 8/u9 /n+ Mi- ami Vice% Volume 4 · Issue 1 · Spring 2021 ISSN 2514 21!" DOI$ 10%24"!!&'bs%)" Dis*ribu*ed under ,, -Y 4%0 U. lied assassination operations and this experience coloured the creation of his fa! mous literary character. ? hitman-protagonist would have been a difcult sell in the .<@-s, of course, so &leming had to package Bond more discretely. Aonethe! less, Bond$s licence to kill is truly his key feature. o understand Bond and his profession( it is crucial to explore the central role the Second World War played in the life-experience of Ian &leming. Andrew :ycett has demonstrated that &leming may have "rst started doing independent intelligence work in early .<B< while employed as a Cournalist +.<<@( <9!</0. *is activities caught the notice of British ?dmiral John *enry Dodfrey( #irector of Aaval Intelligence, who convinced &leming to Coin his team as a personnel assist! ant and liaison ofcer with other intelligence branches. Incidentally( scholars have solidly identi"ed Dodfrey as the inspiration for E4($ James Bond$s boss +see Macintyre ,-./( 9-!9,0. &leming’s charm meant that he e'celled as a liaison and came to work closely with many key people across the broader Allied intelligence community. hese "gures included =tewart 4enFies, *ead of the British Secret Intelligence Service +MI901 William “Wild Bill” #onovan( *ead of the American 3fce of =trategic Services +3==01 and Golin Dubbins, leader of the British =pe! cial 3perations H'ecutive +=3H0. Beyond his key .<I. memoranda advising #onovan on structuring the 3==( &lemings$ most important work in World War II lay with the creation of B- As! sault Jnit +B-!?J0. his was a special commando force that &leming organised with the speci"c mission of seiFing valuable enemy intelligence assets. &leming’s “%ed Indians,” as they were +ofensively0 nicknamed( were "rst deployed on a small( experimental basis to the disastrous #ieppe %aid in .<I,( but eventually grew into a highly!skilled( B---man commando unit +Macintyre ,-./( B,0. hey were later attached to Deorge S. 2atton$s hird Army during the Aormandy breakout( and by the end of the war members of B-!?J were positioned from )iel to Bavaria seiFing key enemy documents and weapon prototypes. heir greatest +publicly disclosed0 success was the capture of the Derman Aavy$s com! plete archive of secret records since the ./;- Derman Jni"cation +%ankin ,-..( ,/<!,<.0. It is no surprise that World War II profoundly afected Ian &leming as an author, and many elements of Gommander &leming’s activities bled over into his post!war spy stories. &leming’s various biographers have thoroughly demon! strated a number of these connections, but one particularly fascinating example that serves as an e'cellent illustration involves a half-derelict Italian civilian ship Olterra( that was supposedly undergoing repairs by a civilian team in Algeciras harbour. In fact( secret Italian operatives Luietly transformed the rusting hulk 2 In*ern/*ion/l :ourn/l o1 :/mes -on+ Studies · Volume 4 · Issue 1 · Spring 2021 into a base of sabotage operations. hey cut a hole in her hull allowing divers and mini-submarines +yes, mini-submarines!) to enter and exit while fully sub! mersed in order to plant explosives on a number of allied vessels in the adCoining Bay of Dibraltar. he Olterra was literally turned into a secret underwater lair. 3ver the course of seven months the team sank or efectually destroyed si' ?l! lied ships +%ankin ,-.., .9B!.9@0. &leming later re-used the idea of an underwater hull entrance, placing it aboard Hmilio Liargo$s yacht in Thunderball +.<9.0. he submersed entrance allowed Liargo$s =2HG %H operatives to move captured atomic bombs on and of the Disco Volante without attracting attention. Many fans tend to think of --; as a wealthy( Hnglish( secret spy. *owever( he lives only slightly above his means, is of Scottish and =wiss ethnicity +&leming ,-,.k( 9/0( and is not particularly “secret” by any stretch of the imagination. here is a hint of Bond$s growing renown in the novel Dr. No +.<@/0( when he is spotted and photographed by a paparazFa from the Daily Gleaner in the )ingston( Jamaica airport. Bond is shown to be puFFled by this as he thought he had kept a low profle on the island +&leming ,-.,f( ,.0. In Goldfnger +.<@<0( Bond is at Miami airport on his way home from a mission and in transit at Miami air! port when Junius #u 2ont identi"es him by simply looking at a plane$s passenger list +&leming ,-.,g, ..0. Hven on duty( Bond does not bother using an alias. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service +.<9B0( a 2arisian hotel manager identi"ed only as “4onsieur Maurice” recognises and greets Bond while making a mental note to alert the local he! de "olice of the British operative$s presence. he hotelier does this to “earn a good mark”( knowing the report will work its way up the &rench national security services$ ladder. +&leming ,-.,k( .<0. ?t the end of #ou Only $ive T%ice +.<9I0( the British Secret =ervice mistakenly believes Bond has died in ac! tion( with 4 penning an obituary for him in The Times. 4 notes that Bond$s death has already been commented upon in earlier issues, and while reluctant to discuss the speci"cs of his subordinate$s activities, he does mention their renown5 6t7he inevitable publicity, particularly in the foreign 2ress, accorded some of these adventures, made him, much against his will( something of a public "gure, with the inevitable result that a series of popular books came to be written by a personal friend and former colleague of James Bond. +&leming ,-.,l, .9-0 3bviously( some of this is tongue-in-cheek fun by &leming, but one still gets the sense that Bond is a celebrity. he same obituary mentions that the earlier death R. P/ul3 · ;A Li0en0e+ <rou(leshoo*er=: :/mes -on+ /s Assassin > of Bond$s wife has also been reported by the press. In &leming’s "nal novel( The Man 'ith the Golden Gun +.<9@0( the secret service switchboard has been hit with “Luite a few calls” from people claiming to be the famous and presumed-dead James Bond +&leming ,-.,m, .!,0. &or the record( real spies try to stay secret1 they are not celebrities. Secrecy is arguably the key characteristic of a spy. &or! mer ?ssistant #irector for MI@( 2eter Wright( famously noted that the ..th com! mandment of his organisation$s work was “don$t get caught” +Wright .</;( B.0. It is hard not to get caught working from the front pages. Bond badly fails this se! crecy test, and this brings his credentials as a spy into serious doubt. Guriously( Bond is usually called a “spy” only by his enemies. In (ro& )us* sia 'ith $ove +.<@;0( Bond is a target of =4H%=*( the Soviet Jnion$s notorious organisation whose name comes from “Smert =hpionam”( or “#eath to =pies”. *owever( the confused Soviets of &leming’s book typically identify him as an “English spy” yet Bond was no more Hnglish than was, say( Sean Gonnery. he title The Spy Who $oved Me +.<9,0 admittedly refers to Bond as a spy( too. *ow! ever( the protagonist( Nivienne 4ichel( speci"cally puts this as “some kind of a spy” +&leming ,-.,C( .<-0( suggesting a Luali"cation of sorts, as though “spy” does not Luite match Bond$s Cob description. It is odd that James Bond only refers to himself as a “spy” in two of the fourteen &leming books, and even then never aloud. Bond thinks of himself as a spy once in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service +&leming ,-.,k( ,0 and once in The Man 'ith the Golden Gun +&leming ,-.,m, .,@0.