Masters of Chaos The Secret History of the Special Forces

by Robinson, Linda

• ISBN13: 9781586483524
• ISBN10: 1586483528
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-07
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

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 traveled with them on the frontlines, interviewed them at length on their home bases, and studied their doctrine, methods and history. InMasters of Chaosshe 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 Chaosis filled with riveting, intimate detail in the words of a close-knit band of soldiers who have done it all.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters	vi
Preface	vii
Introduction	xi
Leaving Home	1	(13)
Earning the Green Beret	14	(23)
Just Cause	37	(20)
Desert Storm	57	(30)
Somalia	87	(23)
Conus	110	(26)
The Balkans	136	(17)
Afghanistan	153	(38)
Western Iraq: The Battle of the War Pigs	191	(33)
Southern Iraq: Sneak and Peek	224	(21)
Central Iraq: Masters of Chaos	245	(29)
Nasiriya: Warriors, Spies, and Diplomats	274	(22)
Viking Hammer (and the Ugly Baby)	296	(28)
The Green Line	324	(18)
Coming Home	342	(13)
The Future of the Special Forces	355	(14)
Acknowledgments	369	(4)
Index	373