Time after time during the Vietnam War, the United States sent Vietnamese spies and commandos behind enemy lines only to have them killed, captured or compromised into reporting back false information. This is a sobering account of the disastrous secret programme, run first by the CIA and then by the Department of Defense. It aims to reveal a previously hidden side to a frustrating war and reclaims the lost lives of those who were sacrificed for so little gain.
"A marvelous and convincing book brimming with evidence that a strategy of dealing with foreign dictators by plotting their removal is no strategy at all."--
Wall Street Journal"A pathbreaking book that's also a good read."--Washington Times
"Conboy and Andradé have constructed a readable, almost mission-by-mission account of the SOG operations, from the policy decisions of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the experiences of the agents themselves. The book's most riveting sections are the many suspenseful accounts of cross-border missions--complete with names, dates, places, acronyms, code names, and a detailed cataloguing of weapons and espionage equipment used by the spies and commandos."--Publishers Weekly
"Out of the troubled history of the Vietnam War comes this well-researched and detailed study of the doomed, covert U.S. war against North Vietnam. . . . A compelling story of good intentions defeated by naiveté and a vigilant enemy. Most revealing is the involvement of the Taiwanese in this secret program. Recommended for all public libraries."--Library Journal
"Valuable, well researched, and well written, Spies and Commandos does an excellent job of dispelling the mists of classification and time that have long hidden the Studies and Observations Group (SOG)."--Special Warfare
"Poor planning, lack of imagination, too little knowledge of a far-off country and its people--all were partly responsible for the program's failure. What was most astonishing was that both the CIA and the Pentagon took so long to realize that their efforts had been compromised. What was most reprehensible, say the authors, was that the United States turned its back on the few commandos who survived."--Proceedings of the Naval Institute
"An important study of United States-sponsored intelligence operations and guerrilla and psychological warfare."--Journal of Military History
"A superb work that chronicles the unsuccessful attempts by the United States to undermine North Vietnam from within. Recommended for all libraries."--Choice
"A major work that goes beyond what is in any of the other books that touch on these aspects of the Vietnam war--including Sedgwick Tourison's Secret Army, Secret War."--John Prados, author of The Hidden History of the Vietnam War
"Spies and Commandos is full of enlightening and fascinating details. Conboy and Andradé deserve praise for their diligent research, cogent analysis, and significant contribution to understanding America's secret war in Vietnam."--H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty
"The story Conboy and Andradé tell is fascinating, their research very impressive, and their prose style engaging."--Marilyn Young, author of The Vietnam War, 1945-1990
