Blackford Oakes

Blackford "Blackie" or "Black" Oakes is a fictional character, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and the protagonist of a series of novels written by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Early life

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 officer).

At Yale, Blackford is older than most of his classmates due to his maltriculation after military service. He is a member of both the swimming and lacrosse teams there, and is also a member of an unnamed fraternity. During one of his fraternity's parties during his senior year, he meets Sally, his future wife. Their fateful meeting and Blackford's courtship of Sally is detailed in one of the later novels in the series.

Central Intelligence Agency

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 ability to impress his colleagues, superiors (among them John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan), and even his enemies with his easy-going competence and likeability.

Personal life

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 represents.

While always holding Sally close to his heart during these missions, Oakes does not 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 is no surprise he succeeds in both work and play.

Blackford is an avid reader of National Review and frequently offers off-the-cuff commentary on the state of domestic politics and world affairs.

Characteristics

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.

Though Oakes is widely regarded as a gentleman, and at times, a charmer, he also has a rebellious streak in the face of unduly harsh authority. Blackford demonstrates this rebelliousness throughout the series, beginning with an incident with the administration of Greyburn Academy, which Blackford briefly attends as a schoolboy.

In literature