Surprise, Kill, Vanish
The Definitive History of Secret CIA Assassins, Armies and Operators
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SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO
Surprise your target. Kill your enemy. Vanish without trace.
From the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, when diplomacy fails and overt military action is not feasible, American Presidents have called on the Special Activities Division - a highly-classified branch of the CIA, and the most effective black-operations force in the world.
Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, these paramilitary teams conduct risky and ruthless assignments that are as shocking and controversial as they are morally complex. With unparalleled access to former CIA operators and top members of its Senior Intelligence Service, ambassadors, and even a past director of the Secret Service, bestselling author of Nuclear War Annie Jacobsen reveals a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers, and saboteurs. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength, or a liability? Every operation reported in this book, however unsettling, is legal.
Praise for Annie Jacobsen:
'A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller' Forbes
'Dangerously plausible - and it reads like a thriller' Sunday Times
'These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove' Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Jacobsen (Phenomena) delivers an admiring general history of the Central Intelligence Agency and the special forces units involved in clandestine maneuvers in the past 80 years, while highlighting the careers of individual operatives, particularly Billy Waugh. Waugh, who Jacobsen interviewed at length, is introduced as a 12-year-old Texas kid when the Pearl Harbor attack occurs; he reappears throughout, often gathering intelligence via photography, until his final mission to Libya when he is in his 80s. Some chapters focus on individual operations, as when Waugh's friend and CIA colleague Lew Merletti arranged a training exercise in which Delta Force soldiers parachuted onto the White House lawn, sparking changes in security there; others follow presidents and cabinet members reacting to events, giving orders, and deciding policy for example, the formation of the concept of "preemptive neutralization" of suspected terrorists during Reagan's presidency. Jacobsen frequently refers to such covert action as the "third option" or the "president's hidden hand." The tone is more dramatic storytelling than sober history ("The Taliban government... left behind in its wake one of the most immoral, corrupt, criminal, debauched societies the modern world has ever known"). But, for those seeking an action-packed tour of special ops, this book delivers.
