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The Real James Bond
By MHazard
His real name wasn’t James Bond although it was something equally bland. For convenience we will refer to him as "Bond". Fleming first met him during the war when Bond was working for the Special Operations Executive (and did, in fact, kill a Japanese cipher expert and a Norwegian double agent). They became friends in the late 1940's when they found themselves in the same foursomes for bridge and golf.
He did have a scar down his right cheek and a black comma of hair fell over his eye. It’s hard to explain but he resembled Sean Connery, Daniel Craig and even George Lazenby. Bond was nothing like Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan. He looked a great deal like a young Hoagy Carmichael (though few these days really have any idea what the young Hoagy Carmichael looked like).
Bond was too good an agent to share any information about his missions with Ian Fleming. Naturally, his adventures were the subject of gossip in the intelligence community and it was on these second hand, exaggerated, accounts that Fleming based his stories. Nonetheless, four of the first five novels are reasonably accurate. The exception was Moonraker. Although Drax was both a card cheat and a Nazi, he did not have the capability to launch a missile at London.
Fleming understated just how close Bond came to dying from fugu poisoning. Dr. No really did die under a pile of bird droppings. Goldfinger tried to rob a shipment of gold to Fort Knox, not break into Fort Knox He did have a Korean bodyguard named Oddjob who was sucked out the window of an airplane. Oddjob wore a bowler, but it was not lined with steel and he did not throw it like a frisbee. Pussy Galore was a nickname given to her by a girlfriend.
The Official Secrets Act, not loyalty to Ivar Bryce, prevented Fleming from mounting a proper defense to accusations that he stole the idea for Thunderball. Vivienne Michel really did write The Spy Who Loved Me, which explains a great deal. Blofeld escaped to the Swiss Alps after his nuclear blackmail failed but he was just hiding there, not planning biological warfare.
Tracy was murdered on January 1, 1962 and Bond had a nervous breakdown. There is much that remains secret about Bond’s mission to Japan. He may have been sent on a solely diplomatic mission which unexpectedly allowed him to gain revenge for his wife’s murder. It is also possible that a deal was struck between M and Tanaka, who already knew that Shatterhand was Blofeld. The rumors that Bond faked his breakdown to establish his cover are entirely false. He had become a dysfunctional agent and it is a measure of M’s extreme regard for the man that he was given this last chance to redeem himself.
Bond has a son, but not by Kissy Suzuki, who was not pregnant when she helped him book passage to Vladivostok. Remarkably enough, a brainwashed Bond did try to kill M. Sir James Molony lied when he told M that Bond received twenty four electroshock treatments. In fact, that regimen would have turned his brain to mush. Sir James thought M would never trust Bond if he knew that his treatment consisted solely of talk therapy.
Bond killed Scaramanga in Jamaica. Felix Leiter was there, but not by accident. C.I.A. wanted him to monitor his old friend for signs of mental instability. Bond was never offered a knighthood, but Fleming was quite correct that the prospect would have horrified him.
Bond had many assignments after Ian Fleming’s death. None of these were recorded by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson or Sebastian Faulks. The Authorized Biography is a complete work of fiction although John Pearson once had drinks with "Ian’s friend" who he mistakenly thought had a desk job with the Ministry of Defense.
An anonymous government official visited Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli after Thunderball was released. They were warned that their movies were still too realistic (a prior visit had caused them to incorporate Blofeld’s cat, helicopter chases, ejector seats, and jet packs into the films). They promptly canceled plans to film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and commissioned a script from Roald Dahl for You Only Live Twice with volcano lairs, Little Nellie, and a fake burial at sea. When Lazenby replaced Connery, it was thought safe to film Fleming’s book on the basis that no one was likely to attend the movie. Predictably, the return of Connery forced them to add orbiting laser beams, moon buggies, and Jimmy Dean. To avoid any chance of prosecution, Roger Moore was hired as Connery’s replacement.
Bond retired from the Double-O section and the British Secret Service (as he really only liked the dangerous assignments) in 1974. He is still alive. He was recently at the table next to MkB in a café in Paris. Scrambled Eggs walked right by him in Heathrow.
Although he is computer literate, Bond has never visited the CommanderBond.net site. Felix Leiter is a frequent visitor, however, and periodically posts "fan fiction". As his stories also accurately depict Bond’s adventures, his CBn name remains a closely guarded secret.