Product Description

A journalist with unique access tells the gripping, never-before-told, inside story of America's elite troops in action -- from the nadir of their reputation after Vietnam to their preeminence today on the frontlines against terrorism around the world.

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. 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. AUTHOR BIO: 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92591 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-12
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Amazon.com Review
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have given the U.S. Army's Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, a central role in American military action like never before. Several hundred U.S. Special Forces operators helped a motley band of Afghan rebels orchestrate a stunning rout when they overthrew the Taliban after 9/11. In Iraq, as journalist Linda Robinson explains in Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces, Special Forces units were the main U.S. elements on the ground in the northern and western regions of the country, where they defeated government forces that outnumbered them many times over. Robinson tells the story of the Special Forces through the eyes of a few of its more colorful personalities, men with call signs like Rawhide and Killer. She follows them around the world from Panama and El Salvador to Somalia, Kosovo, and, finally, Afghanistan and Iraq. Surprisingly, however, she devotes only a few pages to the Green Beret-led victory in Afghanistan, even though it was arguably their greatest achievement since they were created after World War II.

Critics and supporters of the recent American interventions alike should find the technical proficiency of the Special Forces interesting and impressive. Each 12-soldier team may marshal more than a century of combined experience in weapons, foreign languages, intelligence, communications, air control, and trauma medicine. For a book about such an action-packed subject, though, Robinson's effort is somewhat dry, and she devotes more time to mundane background biographies than to the dramatic battle scenes in which the Special Forces invariably find themselves. In addition, Robinson's "secret history" is an authorized and sympathetic one, and readers may be left wondering what she may have left out of her accounts in order to maintain her access. --Alex Roslin

From Publishers Weekly
This impressively readable account chronicles the role of the U.S. Army's Special Forces (aka the Green Berets, a label they do not care for) over the past 15 years. Special Forces operations included Somalia, the first Gulf War, the Balkans, Afghanistan and once again the Gulf. The latter two operations are are allotted half the book, with the ongoing presence in Iraq being the forces' largest operation since Vietnam. Based on interviews with 30-odd operators, the book is a compelling group portrait of some of America's most dedicated warriors. A journalist specializing in national security subjects, particularly unconventional warfare, Robinson mostly shows the men performing their original role: organizing and training local friendlies to liberate their countries or at least achieve American goals. Recent achievements along those lines include organizing Shiite militias in Iraq and leading Kurdish forces to tie down Saddam's army in the north. Robinson also presents in some detail the new role of the Special Forces, one of major strategic significance: calling in aerial fire support on enemy targets in support of either U.S. or indigenous forces in distant lands. Still mostly secret, she finds even after careful investigation, is their work with the FBI after 9/11.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Fewer than 10,000 strong, the Army Special Forces -- the Green Berets -- make up for their scarcity by subjecting their recruits to rigorous training, both physical and intellectual. (For one thing, they are expected to learn foreign languages.) The Special Forces were founded in 1952, U.S. News & World Report writer Linda Robinson explains, as successors to the paramilitary units of the Office of Strategic Services, whose mission had been to parachute behind enemy lines and fight alongside resistance groups in World War II. 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: The Secret History of the Special Forces (PublicAffairs, $26.95) showcases their activities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Fresh from contributing to the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Special Forces were asked to take leading roles in assaults on Iraq in the spring of 2003. Forces operating in central Iraq, Robinson reports, "developed a method to deal with Iraq's ubiquitous walled compounds. They crouched on the roofs of their Humvees and, when they reached their destinations, they simply jumped off over the wall and into the compound. It saved them the time and trouble of breaking down the door."

A matter as simple as grooming can assume strategic weight. Immersed in Kurdish Iraq, one Special Forces group "adopted the native dress of the shamag scarves and the ballooning brown pants that were the uniform of the Kurdish pesh merga fighters. The soldiers grew mustaches. . . ; the pesh merga . . . are less inclined to respect the advice or follow the orders of clean-shaven men." Another commander, in a different sector, took a different tack: "He kept [his men] in army uniforms and regulation hair cuts. He . . . wanted to make them seem as big, American, and intimidating as possible to the Iraqi divisions."

Those Gutsy Green Berets
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

solid military journalism
Linda Robinson has penned an impressive and highly readable work of military journalism. "Masters of Chaos" chronicles various operations the U.S. Army's Special Forces over the past 15 years through the eyes of the Special Forces operators. Those operations include El Salvador, Panama, counter-drug operations, both Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Somalia. Still mostly secret, even after the author's investigation, is their work with the FBI after September 11th.

The theme of the book is the sheer skill and maturity of the men who make up the Green Berets. Unlike other special operators (such as Marine Force Recon, SEALs, or the Rangers), the Green Berets are more than just commandos. Robinson shows them engaging in raids, functioning as crack light infantry, and most important, performing their primary role: organizing and training local friendlies into viable military forces. The author clearly has deep admiration for the Special Forces, and drives home the vast pool of experience and skill embodied in even a single A-Team. Robinson's writing is crisp, and she brings out the drama of the many Special Forces operations in pleasing style.

My only complaint with the book is a relatively small one, and is directed at whoever makes marketing decisions at Public Affairs: what is with the title of your book? "Masters of Chaos?" I know it is a quote drawn from the text, but combined with the two bearded-and-ballcapped operators on the cover, I could not help but make an instant association with heavy metal. Beavis and Butthead were literally chortling in my head. Furthermore, since the main theme of the book is the judgement, poise, maturity and professionalism of America's corps of unconventional warriors, "chaos" has very little to do with it. Adaptability and self-control are the two over-riding personal themes of the text.

Anyway, that is a very small gripe, but I hope someone from Public Affairs reads it. Get yourself a copy of this enjoyable book.

A good book, the unfortunate title notwithstanding.
After reading a number of rush to print books on the Iraqi War, mostly written by embedded reporters, I have been waiting for this book. None of the earlier works included the war we knew was going on in the west, north and northeast while our conventional forces drove north to Baghdad. Indeed, during the buildup and the first few months after the invasion started, I only came across one or two news accounts that even mentioned SOFs being in the area. Having read Robin Moore's, "The Hunt for Bin Laden", I knew that SOFs had to be active behind the lines in those areas.

The author, Linda Robinson, having covered numerous guerrilla conflicts and Special Forces operations before, was one of the few journalists allowed to cover the Special Forces as an embedded reporter during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She accompanied the SFs from Umm Qasr to Basra, from Nassiriya to Kut and on to the Iranian border. This fact is revealed only in the introduction as she wisely and selflessly avoids the first person in the telling of the soldiers' unique story.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the book begins with a brief but informative history of Special Forces including their formation, their training, Nam, the Balkans and ends with Afghanistan and Iraq. The larger portion of the book deals with Afghanistan and Iraq. As for the Afghanistan War, a truly remarkable story, greater depth is required and this reviewer recommends the Robin Moore book above.

Before the official Iraq invasion date, 1st Battalion of 5th Group launched the first operations of Iraqi Freedom. They were in country the day before the early "decapitation strike" of March 20th. It was their job to search an area the size of New Jersey and locate potential Scud missile sites that could reach Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In so doing, they engaged in the war's first big fight: the taking of the airfield designated H3 and the nearby city of Ar Rutba. Unlike SOFs elsewhere in Iraq, these teams did not have limited air support.

In the south other members of 5th Group moved north on Pave Low helicopters and MC-130s Combat Talon planes to conduct reconnaissance on the vital Karbala Gap. This dangerous mission, hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, was briefed on CNN two hours before it began by a retired U. S. general. Iraqi TV, apparently picking up the CNN story, broadcast the possibility of their presence to our enemy. Well done gentlemen.

In the north 10th group, with 50 teams and limited air and a force of lightly armed Kurdish militias, performed the impossible. Under Lt. Col. Waltemeyer they took on Ansar al-Islam of Zarqawi fame and racked up unprecedented victories. A Special Forces Battalion along with 26,00 pesh merga captured Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, defeated six enemy divisions, captured 600 and killed 859 enemy soldiers and seized 6,000 square kilometer's of territory. Two hundred Kurds died and only four of Waltemeyer's men were wounded.

The SOF teams performed outstanding accomplishments and deserve an entire book detailing their efforts. But this fine book will more than do until that other book comes along.

A surprisingly good read
This is a book that anyone with an interest in Special Forces can read. Easy to follow and understand ( not too technical) I am very pleased with her accounts and discriptions of her "cast of charactures". Having been embedded with some of these men and her interviews with them, you can tell she got to know the men, not just as soliders, but as people. And she did them justice. Most people have the impression of "green berets" as a Rambo type He-man, but not only did the book portray what highly skilled soldiers these men are, but gave them depth and you got to see other sides that the media often fails to show. It is incredible what a 12 man ODA can do, and never take credit for their accomplishments. This is why they are called "The quiet Profesionals", but I have to thank Linda Robinson for giving them a voice. This isn't your typical "war" book, but it offers great insite that both men and woman can appreciate. Would be a nice gift in your husband's stocking for Christmas.