Masters of Chaos
The Secret History of the Special Forces
- Paperback
424 pages
- Release Date
7 September 2005
Summary
Special Forces soldiers are daring, seasoned troops from America’s heartland, selected in a tough competition and trained in an extraordinary range of skills. They know foreign languages and cultures and unconventional warfare better than any U.S. fighters, and while they prefer to stay out of the limelight, veteran war correspondent Linda Robinson gained access to their closed world. She travelled with them on the frontlines, interviewed them at length on their home bases, and studied their doctrine, methods and history. In Masters of Chaos she tells their story through a select group of senior sergeants and field-grade officers, a band of unforgettable characters like Rawhide, Killer, Michael T, and Alan - led by the unflappable Lt. Col. Chris Conner and Col. Charlie Cleveland, a brilliant but self-effacing West Pointer who led the largest unconventional war campaign since Vietnam in northern Iraq. Robinson follows the Special Forces from their first post-Vietnam combat in Panama, El Salvador, Desert Storm, Somalia, and the Balkans to their recent trials and triumphs in Afghanistan and Iraq. She witnessed their secret sleuthing and unsung successes in southern Iraq, and recounts here for the first time the dramatic firefights of the western desert. Her blow-by-blow story of the attack on Ansar al-Islam’s international terrorist training camp has never been told before. The most comprehensive account ever of the modern-day Special Forces in action, Masters of Chaos is filled with riveting, intimate detail in the words of a close-knit band of soldiers who have done it all.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781586483524 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1586483528 |
| Author: | Linda Robinson |
| Publisher: | PublicAffairs,U.S. |
| Imprint: | PublicAffairs,U.S. |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 424 |
| Release Date: | 7 September 2005 |
| Weight: | 426g |
| Dimensions: | 29mm x 139mm x 208mm |
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Critics Review
“A detailed, compelling, and sympathetic account of these uncommon soldiers … [Robinson] puts a human face on the nuts and bolts of Special Forces training and real-world missions by weaving her analysis around the experiences of individual soldiers.” –Military.com
“After reading Masters of Chaos, you may never look at the war news the same way again. This is a rare look at missions carried out most often in secret by the amazing men of the Army special forces who go in first, go in hard, and accomplish what few other fighting units ever can.” –Sherry Sontag, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Blind Man’s Bluff
“An exclusive look inside the world of U.S. special forces, [Masters of Chaos] is being cited by Sen. John McCain and the Washington Post’s Book World as a signal contribution to the literature on the American military.” –Brian Duffy, former editor of US News & World Report
“Avoiding the breathless prose too often used to portray those who wear the green beret as Rambo-like super-commandos, [Robinson] depicts her subjects as flesh and blood humans.” –Military Review
A New York Times Bestseller
“An insightful and fascinating account of the training, skill, courage, and sacrifices of the United States Special Forces, and their extraordinary contribution to our defense in Iraq and the War on Terror. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding the stamina and guts it takes to fight bravely and well in the most dangerous situations.” –John McCain
“Masters of Chaos is a truly exceptional depiction of how these amazing warriors operate effectively and calmly in what are quite literally chaotic situations. The title of the book says it all–US special forces are in fact masters of chaos. Linda Robinson’s account is not only accurate, but is also spellbinding. No student of modern warfare should miss this important and timely work.” –Jim Saxton, former congressman
“A well-rounded glimpse into this elite but covert group … A combination of battlefield action and personal insight rarely seen in accounts of America’s elite warriors.” –National Guard
“For Special Forces soldiers, reading Masters of Chaos provides useful lessons learned from Special Forces operations over the last 20 years. For readers not intimately familiar with Special Forces, Masters of Chaos is recommended as a well-researched look into the missions and day-to-day lives of the men of the Army’s Special Forces.” –Special Warfare Magazine
“Impressively readable … the book is a compelling group portrait of some of America’s most dedicated warriors.” –Publishers Weekly
“Linda Robinson has gone beyond the headlines and the hype to bring us into [the Special Forces’] brotherhood.” –James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flyboys
“Robinson’s book gives us an intimate, valuable history of the Special Forces’ last two decades, and follows them through Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom.” –The New York Times
“This fascinating, dramatic account of the Special Forces … shows us the face of war in the 21st century.” –Robert Baer, New York Times bestselling author of See No Evil
“A rare glimpse inside the secretive world of the Green Berets and their recent adventures.” –Washington Monthly
“Riveting.” –US News & World Report
“The current era of terrorism demands precisely what the Green Berets have to offer–smarts, flexibility, and expertise in unconventional warfare–and Robinson’s Masters of Chaos showcases their activity since the attacks of September 11, 2001.” –The Washington Post
“Through her own embed experience, extensive interviews, travel, and excellent eye for detail, author Linda Robinson succeeds in presenting the reader with the ground truth of US Special Forces operations.” –Army Magazine
Linda Robinson
Linda Robinson is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report. She was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2000-2001 and in 1999 she received the Maria Moors Cabot prize form Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has covered numerous wars, guerrilla conflicts and special forces’ operations, and currently lives in Washington, D.C.
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