AUTHOR

Odell Bennett Lee

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A COMPELLING TRUE STORY OF SELF DEFINITION AND CHANGE This story traces the childhood experiences of an African-American C.I.A. officer. Poverty and racism were lesser evils than the Cinderella-like experiences in his dysfunctional family. He endured the volatility of a no-nonsense mother who used the rod at his slightest infraction, and the loathing of two stepfathers that sought to isolate him from the family.Through adversity and chance, at an early age he learned to decouple his self-image from his turbulent childhood experiences. More importantly, he learned to keep a cool head in the face of antagonistic and ambiguous situations, and refused to let others define his personal worth. At sixteen, his home situation became so intense that he dropped out of high school and join the U.S. Navy. Although he faced a new world, he felt safe for the first time in his life. The twists and turns of growing up in a dysfunctional family forced an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual renaissance in his life that proved important to his success as a CIA officer. After leaving the Navy, he worked at several dead-end jobs. Friends and colleagues convinced him to complete his education. Discerning good advice when offered, he went to night school and received his high school diploma at age twenty-three, He did not stop there, he attended undergraduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.), and graduate school at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (S.A.I.S.). Mr. Lee taught school for one year and worked for several international businesses before coming to the attention of the C.I.A. The Agency offered him a unique opportunity to serve his country that he could not refuse. He was one of the first African-Americans inducted into the elite C.I.A. covert services. Unlike most spy story books, this one is deeply personal and allows us to look over the shoulder and glean how he survived the negative childhood experiences that proved essential to his success in the covert services of the CIA and helped him formulate a workable philosophy of life. Mr. Lee’s memoir is available in paperback, on kindle, and in audio on Audible.
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