WASHINGTON—Tom Wardell Braden, a former CIA agent who helped launch CNN’s political debate show “Crossfire,” has died at his home in Denver, his family said. He was 92. Braden also was known for writing “Eight is Enough,” a 1975 book about his eight children that inspired a TV show.
Braden died Friday from natural causes, according to his daughter, Susan Braden of Takoma Park, Md.
Braden was born in Greene, Iowa and graduated from Dartmouth College. After serving with the British and U.S. armies during World War II, he joined the CIA.
He returned to Washington and helped start a radio and TV show called, “Confrontation.” Then in 1982, he took the same idea of partisan sparring and created “Crossfire” with Pat Buchanan. He left the show in 1991.
