Dr NO based on a real person?
brintman
Posts: 19MI6 Agent
Greetings,
My first post on this site,which I believe will incite comments.
I believe Dr No to be based on a real person,Alexander Bustamante,first president
of an independent Jamaica.In saying this,and posters might consider my claim
as quite ambitious,I would like to think that I am the only person with information
pertinent to the period 1948/49 which I believe revolves around the central character.
To begin with,I will divulge a little known decision,which was to give independence to Jamaica
as early as 1949,which coincided with the Jamaican Election of that year.
Two sets of individuals were alarmed by this.The Americans,and the Last Colonials,as
the white occupiers of Jamaica came to be called.Fleming considered himself as one
of the latter.You surely all know of his fondness for Jamaica.
Alarmed about what?
That Bustamante,a considered communist,would turn to the Russians for help in
forming a communist state.
That is all I care to say in this post,but I will give explanations for Fleming's ,The three
blind mice(who were they),and the guano deposits.Maybe some of you have already
worked it out.
My first post on this site,which I believe will incite comments.
I believe Dr No to be based on a real person,Alexander Bustamante,first president
of an independent Jamaica.In saying this,and posters might consider my claim
as quite ambitious,I would like to think that I am the only person with information
pertinent to the period 1948/49 which I believe revolves around the central character.
To begin with,I will divulge a little known decision,which was to give independence to Jamaica
as early as 1949,which coincided with the Jamaican Election of that year.
Two sets of individuals were alarmed by this.The Americans,and the Last Colonials,as
the white occupiers of Jamaica came to be called.Fleming considered himself as one
of the latter.You surely all know of his fondness for Jamaica.
Alarmed about what?
That Bustamante,a considered communist,would turn to the Russians for help in
forming a communist state.
That is all I care to say in this post,but I will give explanations for Fleming's ,The three
blind mice(who were they),and the guano deposits.Maybe some of you have already
worked it out.
Comments
This certainly sounds intriguing. I know that Sir Alexander Bustamante was also later the first Prime Minister of Jamaica and that he gets a few mentions in Fleming's last Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun (1965).
Can you please provide us with more detail of your findings? As I say, I'm intrigued!
To understand the Dr No story as I do,requires an understanding of history at that time.The cold war had begun in 1947.Britain was practically bankrupt.India had been granted independence.There were the troubles in Egypt and Palestine,an insurgency in Malaya.An army to keep on the continent of Europe and in other dependences.All this with a depleted armed force.So Jamaica was dispenseable.It provided little in the way of income,in fact to keep the garrison and naval establishment active, took resources the British Government couldn't logically afford.
The Americans. Well if one reads up on the 1924 naval talks between Britain and America,,they(America) had for a long time been jealous and concerned at the British Naval presence in the Carribean,and this was centred in Jamaica.Jamaica has one of the finest natural harbours in the world.It was that,and that alone,that made the Island so desireable.Who owned Jamaica,had commanded the Carribean,and this fact was not lost on the Russians.To expand Communism,they needed the facilities Jamaica afforded
It may not be remembered by many,but America,through the lease lend agreements of the second world war,had been granted a base in Jamaica,which in the period I refer to, was staffed by American military forces ,and no doubt,inteligence agents.
Guanno.Substitute that word with Bauxite,and another Dr NO reference is explained.Jamaica,at that time 1948/49,had the largest known deposits, with production well advanced.Mainly American interests.
The three blind mice.In Jamaican folk lore,The armed forces,The police force,The establishment.In the old days blind to the injustices
against slaves,in 1948/49 blind to the ambitions of Bustamante.In essence,Bustamante's(Dr no)greatest help.Of course nothing would stop Bond(Fleming).
What would resolve the fact and the fiction?One thing,the death of DR No,and the death of Bustamante,and the planned death of Bustamante would be far easier to achieve.It needed little planning.It was scheduled for November 1948,at Montego Bay,Jamaica.
How does Bustamante link with Dr. No as a Jamaican set villain as opposed to say Mr Big, von Hammerstein or Francisco Scaramanga?
Do you have any sources we could look at that support your theories?
How to link Bustamante with Dr,No? Good Question?
First off both were of mixed blood.Bustamante's mother was a black Jamaica/African.His father white Irish.
Their physical descriptions match,except that Bustamante had normal hands.
The time frame matches.late 1940's early 1950's.
The Island of Jamaica is central to the activities of both.
Dr No was depicted as anti American.Bustamante was definitely considered so.
Both were leaders of factions and considered dangerous to western security.
Dr No had a file on his activites.Bustamante had a file on his activities
Dr No's activities prior to his arrival in Jamaica are relatively unknown.
The period after which Bustamante left Jamaica and until his return
are relatively unknown.
Both were considered too dangerous to live.
In the fiction of Fleming death was acheieved.
In real life the planned death of Bustamante was aborted,but the objectives of
the planners were achieved.
I cannot answer your other two Questions.Fleming's obvious obsession with Jamaica,is to me,
A possible reason why he would,through fiction,attempt to leave a story that bears elements of truth.
Do the files on Bustamante still exist.Do other files on Jamaica that might help Exist.
I do not know.My recollections are from that time in Jamaica.From people I met there.Of things they told me
,of things I observed,and incidents I was involved in.
What did Fleming do in Jamaica beside write books?Articles about him speak of adventures there,but supply no detail
A secret? trip there in September 1948 gives no information of his activities during that trip.All very mysterious.
He would have lived though all these events you are describing, and I'm sure would have had worries about his property values, not to mention professional curiosity after his own time in Military Intelligence, so yes I too would guess this to be a popular topic of dinner party conversation amongst his circle of friends.
He was also a journalist all this time ... did he ever write articles on this Bustamante? he did write some non-fiction pieces about Jamaica.
There was a book of Fleming's letters published recently - did he write anything about Bustamante in any of the published correspondence?
Sillhouette Man raises a good point - there are several other villains in the Bond books that are just as much a match.
I think there are a few missing steps in your logic, its not enough to say this real life politician was kinda sorta like a Bond villain ... Fleming wrote enough in his lifetime, and liked to talk to so many prominent people who themselves wrote about him, you should be able to find his actual thoughts about this politician.
The other approach is what do we know about Fleming's inspirations for the Dr No novel?
Pearson says his first ideas came from visiting a bird sanctuary, the rest of the plot spun out of that.
I've also seen the Dr No character compared to Fu Manchu and we know Fleming liked those old pulp thrillers (theres a whole paragraph in Wikipedia on this inspiration, with three different citations).
Also the original plot was first conceived as the pilot for a possible tv show called Commander Jamaica.
I'm sure there's lots of other material on the origins of the novel, that would all be worth reading through, in search of supporting data.
The other thing is he did write passing comment on the Cuban revolution in several of his later novels ... he didn't couch that in fictionalised metaphor, he expressed his opinion through Bond's voice. But it is possible he had to live in Jamaica, not Cuba, so would be a little more cryptic in his commentary ... still, with all he wrote you should be able to find something more concrete to prove the connection.
You are correct,there are holes in my logic,although I would prefer the word theory.I am trying to fill those holes.
In all the literature I have accessed,and there is much,I find little of Fleming's thoughts on the political situation in
Jamaica,or the political figures of the Island,and that to me is strange.There was so much going on.I make this suggestion,that Jamaica was one of the first skirmishes in the so called cold war,that the incidents of 1948,decided the outcome in the Carribean,untill of course the Cuban crisis.
Dr No,in my opinion,should have been the first in the series of Bond stories.I have not attempted to place,in chronological order,Bonds
adventures,but I believe in a time frame,Dr No would have been first,and perhaps that was part of the reason it was the first film.
Was it pure imagination,not influenced by any personnel experience of people or events,that decided the names,places,and incidents that were used in the Bond novels and films?Not according to some sources,and I would accept that,but which ones?Could Dr No have been Bustamante? I think so.Could Fleming have chosen any other island in the Carribean and written the same tale.Cuba,Haiti,Bermuda,Trinidad for instance?
I assume you have read Matthew Parker's book Goldeneye. If you haven't there are several references to Bustamante. I'm not saying the answers lie in there somewhere and I'll have to read it again to pick up on any clues if there are any. Regardless, it's well worth a read anyway.
I havebn't read the whole book,only extracts from it,but I did send an email to Matthew Parker some time ago.
The index shows at least 18 references to Bustamante throughout the book, but not one in the 19 page chapter devoted entirely to Doctor No, subtitled "Jamaica Under Threat". Have not read any of it yet, just found the book yesterday.
It's an excellent book and belongs on every Fleming fan's shelf. I think you'll enjoy it. Parker interviewed the surviving folks who knew Fleming (including the late Blanche Blackwell) and consulted the transcripts of the many interviews Pearson conducted for his Fleming biography (now at the University of Indiana in Bloomington).
Fascinating thread this.
I have just come across a discussion relevant to it:
https://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=457177
Here is the first post from it:
“In 1948, Ian Fleming was involved in a plot to assassinate a leading Jamaican politition. The object was to prevent a communist takeover after the 1949 elections in Jamaica, after which the British would declare independence for that colony.
Any views or knowledge of Fleming's involvement with the island at that time?”
I’ve not read Parker’s book, but it looks like it is well worth reading.