Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era

By Steven Emerson

Book Overview

Reveals: private notebooks of Oliver North; Administration's secret plans to invade Nicaragua; details of the second planned rescue attempt of the Iran hostages and why it happened; story behind the commando raid to free the hostages in Lebanon and why the raid was cancelled; most explosive secret courts-martial in American military history; how Army agents launched a major intelligence operation against Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega; How bureaucratic infighting caused warning of a terrorist attack to be ignored one week before 241 Marines died in a Beirut bomb blast; how the military brought in psychics to help track down kidnapped General James Dozier in Italy; How the Pentagon planned to counterattack in the TWA and Achilles Lauro hijackings; and how a transvestite prostitute and an inebriated counterintelligence man blew some of the government's most highly classified operations on late night in Baltimore.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399133607
• ISBN13: 9780399133602
• Release Date: April 1988
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting read

A facinating book regarding this particular topic. It seems to have been fairly well researched and the writing style was maintained my interest throughout.Ironically, Emerson seems to fall prey to the very flaw he attaches to the subjects of this book; "what happens when some men think they know what's best for the country".Obviously authors like Emerson seem to think THEY know what's best for the country when they reveal leaked classified information in their writing without a regard to the men and women they are unknowingly placing in jeopardy.But thanks to Emerson, at least if these operators are killed in the line of duty, we can rest easy knowing our own curiosity was satiated.

Updated review

Most of the information contained here seems to have been cross checked with multiple sources. Mr. Emerson has produced a fascinating look at the capabilities and foibles of the special and covert operations community during the 80's. Highly recommended for folks wanting to learn more about the "silver age" of US special operations.

Good historical foundation on US Special Ops

After waiting quite some time to get a copy, I found the book to be an interesting insight on the genesis of the US Special Ops community. Today, Emerson has capitalized on this early research and is now in the forefront of documenting terrorism. It would be interesting to see if he is utilizing many of the sources he obtained while writing this book.I thought he had excellent sources, and many of these chapters could have been easily expanded into more in-depth stories. The Iran-Contra mess certainly weighed heavily while writing this book, and unfortunately, Emerson tried to cover the scandal without getting too bogged in that mess...that being said, I don't think he succeeded very well in drawing the ties between IRan-Contra and the organizations he covered so well throughout the book. Nevertheless, a must have for any library on US intelligence operations...a great read!

Goverment Cover Up

Mr. Emerson sheds more light on the amount of cover ups the government has conducted. The book shows how scary our intelligence and covert operations apparatus is. Although most of the operations are hair brained schemes, it shows us how misinformed the public is to the true nature of out government.

An extensively researched work on covert military operations

The reason there are no reviews of this book is that it was purportedly removed from circulation by the government for security concerns. Most of the information contained here will never be available to the public and seems to have been cross checked with multiple sources. Mr. Emerson has produced a fascinating look at the capabilities and foibles of the special and covert operations community during the 80's. Highly recommended for folks wanting to learn more about the "silver age" of US special operations.