MacCloskey, Monro. Alert the Fifth Force: Counterinsurgency, Unconventional Warfare, and Psychological Operations of the United States Air Force in Special Air Warfare.
New York: R. Rosen, 1969.
Petersen: "Cold War focus. Covers mainly non-USAF activities. Not well regarded by some experts."
Marchinko. Richard.
Rogue Warrior. New York: Pocket Books, 1992.
Training and exploits of U.S. Navy SEALS.
Marquis,
Susan L. Unconventional Warfare: Rebuilding U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1997.
According to National Journal, 19 Aug. 1997, "U.S. Special Operations Forces have gone from being a poorly funded and staffed organization to an elite military unit.... Marquis follows the political battle that brought back the forces after they were almost eliminated following the Vietnam war."
Crerar, AIJ 17.3/4, provides a nicely done overview of the problems that U.S. unconventional forces faced by the late 1970s, and notes that Marquis tells the story of the effort to rejuvenate those forces in the early 1980s "exceptionally well." The author appears to have had "exceptional entree to the [special operations] community's members" who "were generous with their views." The book is not without minor flaws (especially in detailing the recent history of the special operations forces), but the overall result is "well worth reading."
For Cohen, FA 77.2, the author of this "workmanlike volume ... displays a fine awareness of the peculiar culture of the special operations community." Since calls for the use of these forces are likely in the future, this book has "particular significance."
Bode, History 26.2, sees the book as "a competently assembled partial history of the rebuilding of important military capabilities shed during America's revulsion against 'the Vietnam experience.'" However, there are "gaps that mar her account." Although the mistakes and omissions "are not trivial deficiencies in an authoritative history,... neither should they prevent anyone from reading this book."
McClintock, Michael.
Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counter-terrorism, 1940-1990. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.
Choice, Jul./Aug. 1992, identifies the author as a "human rights monitor" who "contends that the US has waged 'dirty war'... around the world since the end of WW II."
A Namebase reviewer comments that "McClintock's numerous quotes from military manuals and experts begin to drag after a few hundred pages, but his material on Edward Lansdale, and on President Kennedy's love affair with Special Forces, are almost worth the effort it takes to wade through them."
McGehee, from <cloaks-and-daggers@sjuvm.stjohns.edu>, 21 Jun. 1996, calls this an "overlooked book" that "is a finely researched examination of the use of the covert arms of the U.S. Government in subverting or sustaining foreign governments."
McCuen, John J. The Art of Counter-Revolutionary War: The Strategy of Counterinsurgency. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1966.
McRaven,
William H. Special Operations -- Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1995.
Renken, MI 23.2, says that this is "an excellent book for special operators and the intelligence personnel who support them." McRaven, a former Navy Seal commander, "examines eight classic special operations in fascinating detail": the rescue of Mussolini (1943); the prisoner of war rescue at Cabanatuan (1945); Son Tay (1970); the Israeli rescue at Entebbe (1976); and raids on Fort Eban Emael (1940), Alexandria (1941), Saint Nazaire (1942), and the Tirpitz (1943). This is "good history, plus an analytical approach worth thinking about."
For Johnson, Parameters, Autumn 1997, the author's application of his framework for analysis makes Special Operations "a breath of fresh air and a genuine joy to read and study.... McRaven's theory of special operations states, 'special operations forces are able to achieve relative superiority over the enemy if they prepare a simple plan, which is carefully concealed, repeatedly and realistically rehearsed, and executed with surprise, speed, and purpose'.... Practitioners and students of special operations would do well to examine the utility of the author's analytical device as a possible planning tool. It appears to be more than adequate."
Morgan, Paul F. [COL/USA (Ret.)] "Special Operations Intelligence Systems and Technologies." American Intelligence Journal 15, no. 2 (Autumn/Winter 1994): 25-29.
The author addresses several SOF intelligence systems, including information management, communications, and tactical collection systems. "Special Operations missions are intelligence driven and intelligence dependent.... SOF intelligence developments will be light-weight and micro sized. Enhanced power supplies will be needed, equipment will be modular..., systems will be ... common to every theater of operations, all will have reduced signatures, and will be easily transportable, and all efforts will be taken to insure interoperability on the battlefields of the future."
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