Blackford Oakes Totally Explained

Everything about Blackford Oakes totally explained

Blackford "Blackie" or "Black" Oakes is a fictional character, a CIA agent and the protagonist of a series of novels written by William F. Buckley, Jr. Oakes was born in 1925. He served in World War II as a pilot and graduated from Yale University. While Oakes is an engineer by training (at one point hired by an architectural firm in the series) he joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 after being recruited during his senior year at Yale by his closest boyhood friend, Anthony Trust (also a young CIA agent). Blackford's missions with the CIA involve various top-secret Cold War enterprises arranged by the Agency's highest ranking individuals and American presidents alike. Oakes possesses an amazing penchant for impressing his colleagues, superiors (among them JFK and Reagan), and even his enemies with his easy-going competence and likeability.
   Oakes' personal life is somewhat hectic because of his constant globetrotting for the Agency, as he can never seem to find ample time to settle down with his college sweetheart, Sally, who yearns for the day when Blackford will retire from the CIA. Their respective worldviews are quite dissimilar, Oakes being a conservative Republican, and Sally, presumably, a liberal Democrat. While not only disliking Blackford's chosen profession because of how it so often spoils their future plans together, Sally also disapproves of many of the ideals she believes the Agency stands for.
   While always holding Sally close to his heart during these missions, Oakes doesn't hesitate to find time to successfully pursue romantic conquests elsewhere across the globe, often mixing work with pleasure. He is a suave, intelligent, and confident gentleman who is, in Buckley's own words, distinctly American, and it's no surprise he succeeds in both work and play.
   Throughout the series, Blackford proves himself to be the ultimate cold warrior, and risks his life for the country he loves countless times, while looking smooth doing it.

Bibliography

Saving the Queen (1976) – Set in 1952. Oakes' first mission. He goes to England looking for a British double agent.
Stained Glass (1979) – Oakes is sent to keep tabs on a German politician who is trying to unify East and West Berlin against the wishes of both American and Soviet intelligence agencies.
Who's on First (1980) – Set in 1956 during the space race and uprising in Hungary.
Marco Polo, if You Can (1982) – Set in 1958. Oakes is captured while flying a U2 aircraft over Soviet airspace.
The Story of Henri Tod (1984) – Set in 1961. Oakes is in Germany during the Berlin Wall crisis.
See You Later, Alligator (1985) – Set in Cuba in the early 1960s, Oakes meets Che Guevara and tries to ease tensions between Cuba and America after the Bay of Pigs incident.
High Jinx (1986) – Set in 1954. Oakes works behind the scenes to avoid an internal Soviet power struggle that could lead to a Stalin protege gaining in power in Moscow.
Mongoose R.I.P. (1987) – Set in 1963. Oakes is in Cuba working to overthrow Castro after the Cuban missile crisis.
Tucker's Last Stand (1990) – Set in 1964. Oakes is in Vietnam to cut off Viet Cong supply lines.
A Very Private Plot (1994) – Oakes in 1995 is called to testify about operations he conducted in the 1980s, especially one in particular involving a domestic Soviet plot to assassinate Mikhail Gorbachev.
Last Call for Blackford Oakes (2005) – Set in 1987, Oakes confronts the infamous Soviet defector, Kim Philby.

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