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Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother

Lillian McCloy,

Johanna McCloy (Editor)

4.17 · Rating details · 42 ratings · 3 reviews

A charming and unusual portrait of the secret life. – John le Carré

Pico Iyer writes,"Lillian McCloy gives us the story of a life spent around secret intelligence that is funny and charming and in every wonderful sense, deeply spooky.”

Imagine keeping a secret so important that it could threaten your spouse or children’s lives if it were discovered.

- Imagine that secret be ...more

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Kindle Edition

Published July 7th 2016 by Bordertown Publishing

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Aug 31, 2016 Story Circle Book Reviews rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed

Lillian McCloy's debut memoir, Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother, is a fascinating inside look at an undercover life. McCloy is a brilliant story teller, sharing honest emotions without becoming sentimental. Her husband's new assignments required learning to live in new and diverse cultures and often created palpable tension. This is a fascinating reading adventure. Sometimes I had to remind myself this is not a novel, its Lillian's life. Wow!

L Lillian McCloy's debut memoir, Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother, is a fascinating inside look at an undercover life. McCloy is a brilliant story teller, sharing honest emotions without becoming sentimental. Her husband's new assignments required learning to live in new and diverse cultures and often created palpable tension. This is a fascinating reading adventure. Sometimes I had to remind myself this is not a novel, its Lillian's life. Wow!

Lillian McCloy grew up in Canada, worked as a paralegal and sang as a big band jazz singer before marrying Frank McCloy. She purposely excluded details that could jeopardize the safety of any agents serving our country now or then. She changed most of the names of those they interacted with in Frank's various assignments to protect "the innocent and the sly."

McCloy begins her story when she is seven months pregnant with their second child. Her husband was in Washington D.C. applying for a position with the Foreign Service. He called her: "...they want me for the C.I.A. but you can't talk about it." A few hours later, she went into labor. Her neighbors drove her to the hospital and provided child care for toddler John. Whether it was fear for the premature baby or the intense labor pain, McCloy repeatedly babbled to her neighbors, the doctors and nurses, "My husband is in the C.I.A." She blew her husband's cover before he was officially hired. Meanwhile baby Kristin was born, five pounds and perfect. She quickly learned the unbendable code, "No need to know."

Frank McCloy had been an only child, born late in life to over-protective parents. He wasn't allowed to ride a bike until he was twelve. As he grew older, he became a daredevil, always choosing the riskiest sports and life choices. McCloy believes that serving in the C.I.A. was inevitable for her charming adrenalin-junkie husband.

The author's strength is in her vivid recall of the details of her eight years in Spain, two years in India, six years in Japan, and a year in Venezuela. Their third child was born in Spain and Spanish was her first language. All three of their children became proficient in Spanish earlier than in English. She believes in learning a language by immersion, and it worked well for them in Spain. Later they found that Spanish wasn't much help in India or Japan.

Deep cover agents are responsible to the cover company to do the actual job. When McCloy's husband was assigned to a company as vice president of sales, it was his responsibility to quickly learn the job and succeed in that position. Only the company president and Frank's immediate superior were informed of his other, very real job. He had several passports and their lives were often juggling acts. They made friends easily with other 'ex-pats' and tried to keep low profiles while enjoying the local cultures.

Frank McCloy was an undercover case officer. C.I.A. agents are those whom case officers recruit to do the spying for them. When working deep cover in the C.I.A., your name really never appears anywhere, not even in payroll. Deep cover agents have no contact with the U.S. Embassy in foreign countries—unless a message must be conveyed. The word "spy" is never used, except in jest.

Undercover means you are on your own; there is no one there to help you. If you are arrested, you go to jail. Your name appears nowhere and you have become nobody. You are forever out in the cold. It is not a surprise to learn that the C.I.A. is an emotionless and unkind place to work. Consequently, it's no wonder that excessive drinking is often a big part of the cover. Yet I can't help admiring the raw courage of these men and women who choose the C.I.A. life for the good of us all.

Lillian McCloy knows who she is and what she stands for. You will too, after you read this classic memoir.

by Ann McCauley
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women ...more

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Sep 04, 2019 Mal Warwick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

From 1964 to 1982, former Marine fighter pilot Frank McCloy served under deep cover in the CIA in Madrid, Delhi, Tokyo, and Caracas. But he was far from alone. His wife, Lillian, and three young children shared the experience with him of culture shock, life-threatening illness, and danger from lunatic drivers and dismissed servants. And five years after Frank's untimely death in 1986, Lillian McCloy began writing about that experience in a revealing memoir, Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant.

An ...more

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