Fighting Dirty: The Inside Story of Covert Operations from Ho Chi Minh to Osama Bin Laden

by Peter Harclerode

Recent events prove that we need to know more about terrorism and the forces designated to fight it. A foremost expert on guerrilla warfare presents, for the first time, a comprehensive investigation of covert military operations from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Among the the CIA handed out shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles "like lollipops" to Osama bin Laden and other mujahadeen leaders. Plus : why the Russians failed in Afghanistan and how "fighting dirty" sometimes meant helping drug dealers to earn their support.

Genres: History, War, Military History

640 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2001

About the author

Peter Harclerode was commissioned into the Irish Guards in 1967, serving in the UK, Middle East and Far East. He has also served in the SAS and the Parachute Regiment.

Reviews

[Don Best · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very rare occasion when I have to admit I gave up on a book. Not necessarily a bad book, just needs to be edited down. A very interesting topic of the history of covert operations during WWII and immediately after and how those military operations morphed into the cold war covert operations during the fight against Communist tug of war for the hearts and minds of nations world wide. An example of what I liked about the book. One of the earlier chapters tells a tragic story of operations in Northern Greece in the 50's against communist partisans and how the US and Britain keep sending small groups of locals who had left to be trained and then reinserted to fight and try to rally the local population against the communists. And how the Soviets had moles reporting the operations from within the top of British and American intelligence. The result was these groups being killed, put in prison or turned so more groups would be formed and launched at sea or parachuted into traps. Time and time again. In hindsight, perfect that it is, how could the intelligence agencies been so blind? Although I understand the mood at the time that communism was a terrifying threat to world order and the American dream and therefore no sacrifice was too small. Sad. And I would have liked to continue but just the overwhelming detail, and I mean detail, on people, operation names, places, etc. that I can see would interest others intrigued by the subject, just not me.

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's slow going so far, and I mostly skipped over the first section because I can't stand the way Mr. Harclerode refers to Ukraine as "the Ukraine". That seems to be a British thing - every British author I've run across adds that unnecessary "the". Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

**update** I give up. I stopped at page 86, skimmed through the rest of the book, and then put it down. I found it to be dry as a bone and writtten in a completely uninteresting way. I'm sure there are lots of fascinating stories to be told, but Mr. Harclerode doesn't know how to tell them. I've since moved on to another more interesting book.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well researched, but written in an "order of battle' style that used to be popular with military history books, but is quite dry by current standards. But if you want to really understand why the democratic west won wars against totalitarianism threats in the past 70 years, and why we lost others, this is the book to read.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A biased account of covert operations, covering the entire history beginning with early British operations all the way to the early stages of Iraq and Afghanistan. Provides an excellent view of the military's justifications for covert warfare.

[Al Lock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although far from complete, this is a nice overview of covert operations over the post-WWII period. Anyone interested in unconventional warfare should read this as a number of the items covered are not part of the usual discussion.

[Takipsilim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read on Special Forces operations from the mid-20th Century to the present.