Secret armies
"Some of the most spectacular military successes in recent times have been won by... special forces. The raising of the Iranian Embassy siege in London and the rescue of hostages at Entebbe and Mogadishu demonstrated some of their capabilities. But there have been equally spectacular failures, such as the abortive US rescue mission to Iran... Who trains these special forces? Who controls them -- and how effective are they? The work and training of these forces for both peace and war are kept hidden from public scrutiny. Drawing on previously unpublished material, [the author] reveals the triumphs and disasters of these secret armies including a mission by Britain's SAS to put down a coup in the Gambia in 1981 and the debacle of the US invasion of Grenada in 1982"--Jacket.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2013–2020years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you want to go back to the beginning of where we are today, you probably want to read something like Secret Armies by John Adams. Special forces were spawned to wage low-intensity conflict/warfare and attack or respond to unconventional threats.
The terrorology field has blossomed post-2001 and there are more definitions, but everything still files nicely: state/non-state and religious, political, cultural. If you ask me, they're all the same.
Regardless of what the lawyers--politicians--add to the body of definitions, definitions of terrorism are very gray unlike conventional war.
Low-intensity conflict is how wars are waged today and the definitions aren't as black and white as conventional war.
- A similar book is Philip Agee's book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" (1975), just not about Vietnam, but about Latin America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee#Leaving_the_CIA
He also wrote books about the CIA in Europe (similar to Ganser's classic Gladio book "Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe") and Africa.
