Floyd L. Paseman, 64; Retired CIA Official Wrote ‘A Spy’s Journey’

Floyd L. Paseman, 64, a retired senior CIA official who chronicled his long career in the clandestine service in a memoir, “A Spy’s Journey,” died of prostate cancer May 7 at a hospice in Williamsburg, Va.

In his memoir, published in December, he traced his overseas tours in Asia and Europe from the 1960s to the 1980s, when he recruited foreign operatives to spy for the United States.

A native of Eugene, Ore., Paseman graduated from the University of Oregon and, through the ROTC program, received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army.

He began his career with the CIA in 1967, working as a Chinese linguist and case officer. After a series of promotions, he eventually rose to station chief in Germany and chief of the East Asian division at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Va.

Paseman eventually entered a program that placed agents with universities. He taught history at Marquette University and Cardinal Stritch University, both in Milwaukee. He retired in 2001 after 35 years in the CIA.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Paseman wrote that the agency suffered from poor information-collection capability because of the purge of more than 800 caseworkers in the late 1970s. “This came back to haunt us terribly in September 2001,” he wrote.