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Retired US State Department Supervisory Special Agent Robert David Booth, right, stands beside convicted American spy Kendall Myers in 2009. Myers, a former State Department officer, was sentenced to life in prison for giving highly sensitive US diplomatic secrets to Cuba. Courtesy Robert David Booth
Booth began his counterintelligence career in 1976 as a regional security officer with the US State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Stationed at the US Liaison Office in Beijing, China, Booth's overall role was protecting US diplomats and the Liaison building from hostile intelligence activities orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. Courtesy Robert David Booth
President Gerald Ford, right, visited the US Beijing Liaison Office in 1976. Booth, seen here holding a camera, was responsible for assisting the Secret Service with Ford's security on the ground. "My role was guaranteeing that no one came into his immediate area uninvited," Booth remarked. Booth's lapel pin acted as a secret signal to his fellow Secret Service special agents and White House staff that he was armed. "I probably have my Smith and Wesson Model 19 .357 magnum attached to my belt," he explained. Courtesy Robert David Booth
Booth stands between two Chinese soldiers of the People's Liberation Army outside Beijing's Great Hall of the People in 1981. Courtesy Robert David Booth
On the right, wearing a suit and tie, Booth helps escort US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, in the foreground on the left, to a waiting security motorcade positioned at the bottom of the staircase at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Courtesy Robert David Booth
In the late 1990s, Booth, third from the right, was assigned to protect Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, shown here shortly before his departure outside Washington, D.C. at what was then Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Courtesy Robert David Booth
Booth was assigned to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1977 as a US State Department security officer at the SALT nuclear weapons arms reduction negotiations with the Soviet Union. Shown here in a tongue-in-cheek photo, Booth posed next to a high-security file cabinet containing top secret code word information about US nuclear weapons capabilities. Courtesy Robert David Booth
In the late 1990s, Booth, second from right, was the agent-in-charge of a protective security detail for French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, second from the left, during his annual September visit to the United Nations General Assembly headquarters in New York City. Courtesy Robert David Booth
Booth poses behind the wheel of a Chinese diplomatic car in Beijing in 1981. Courtesy Robert David Booth
