The villains of the Ambassador Era can be divided easily into two groups: Ernst Stavro Blofeld and everything else. Even Emilio Largo, the main villain of Thunderball, is simply the number 2 to Blofeld’s number 1; therefore, the analysis of this section will clump all Blofelds, including his associates, into one group and everyone else into another.

The Unease of WW3

Largo’s plan in Thunderball is to hijack two nuclear warheads, changed from a V-Bomber in the novel, and hold the world for ransom.

Blofeld’s plan in You Only Live Twice is to capture space shuttles of both the Soviet and American Governments, thus instigating war between the governments and creating a power vacuum in the process. This is changed drastically from the novel, which is a revenge tale of Bond towards Blofeld.

Blofeld’s plan in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is near identical to the Blofeld of the book. He plans to eliminate all the world’s agriculture and livestock if he is not granted immunity of all past crimes and a title of Count recognized by the world.

Finally, despite not appearing in the novel, Blofeld returns in Diamonds are Forever. In this film, Blofeld is stationed in Vegas where he uses satellites to destroy nuclear facilities held by China, the USSR and the US. He then promises nuclear supremacy to the highest bidder.

Clearly, the cold war had only deepened the fears of the world as nearly every plot has some catastrophic power vacuum resulting from the collision of superpowers. Smaller aspects of the cold war, such as the space race, were adopted by James Bond in You Only Live Twice to create a relevant connection to the story.

The threat of nuclear holocaust was also present in the minds of audience members. Two plots changed from the novels, Thunderball and Diamonds are Forever, both made changes to coincide with growing nuclear tension between the USSR and the US.

China is mentioned once again as another political superpower. After the destruction of the US and Russia in You Only Live Twice, China would remain as the only global superpower ready to spread the communist regime. This falls in line with the growing fear of China as Mao Zedong enacted the Chinese cultural revolution of the 60s (Chapman).

Overall, the lack of disarmament post WW2 and the increase in hostile engagements, such as the Cuban missile crisis, resulted in an era constantly on the threat of disaster.

Fighting the Queer

Outside of the impending nuclear war, this era of James Bond pitted the tuxedoed playboy against another less… conventional enemy, the LGBTQ community.

Let me rephrase, after the sexual revolution of the early sixties, larger subsections of sexuality began to blossom. The LGBTQ, BDSM and other sexual communities bonded together in their shared isolation from the masses.

This growth then came to the forefront of public interest after the stonewall riots of 1969, resulting in a gay rights movement burgeoning from the mistreatment of a minority (History.com staff).

Two years later, Diamonds are Forever is released, containing Blofeld in drag and his henchmen, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd were simply sadomasochistic killers in the original novel; however, the film alters the men into, what is assumed to be, perverse gay lovers.

Wint and Kidd engage in hand-holding, wear perfume, and even remark how a person is attractive, “for a woman.” These two seem to revel in the deaths of their victims as they try to devise a clever death for every person, even photographing a victim after a kill.

The first and only reference to direct homosexuality is demonized. The characters are camp portrayals of the struggling minorities and Bond defeats them in a realignment with current social values.

As much as Bond represented a revolution in the sixties, he has always remained a member of the conservative patriarchal class. The gay revolution was perverse and weird to many households. The lgbtq community embodied the fears held by religious figures and family traditionalists. James Bond simply reflected those fears into the characters he defeated.

The villains, *ahem*, villain of the Ambassador Era is a culmination of the cold war and the sexual revolution. The fears first imagined by Fleming in the early 1950s were being realized with each passing year; however, these fears had grown beyond Fleming’s original intention. A hijacked plane became two hijacked warheads. A small diamond smuggling scheme became the threat of nuclear war.

The conclusion of the sexual revolution of the sixties gave voices to marginalized groups ready to revolt. The LGBTQ community could no longer be ignored in the modern landscape.

James Bond confronts these problems as any patriarchal, white, conservative man would: taking the threat of the cold war deadly seriously and diminishing the larger gay community as comic relief villains.