"Twilight Warriors" is an excellent overview history of air-supported special operations against the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, North Vietnam and other hostile locations during the Cold War up through the early 1970s. The author shows how the operations were conceived, how they worked (or didn't, in too many cases) and what the results were. He provides a good discussion of Air America and the use of non-US nationals in these operations such as Nationalist Chinese, Tibetans and Cubans. He also mentions why certain aircraft were chosen for certain missions. Peebles compares the success of the Special Operations Executive and the OSS in World War Two with the failures during the Cold War, and his summary of the meager results of these later covert operations is straight-forward and honest: while the operations might have had some greater degree of success, the very nature of the totalitarian states they were aimed at presented a huge obstacle in infiltrating outsiders who could effectively create and sustain a resistance movement. For readers who want to know more about a particular operation, the bibliography is a great starting place. My chief reservations about this title are (1) a lack of maps (not the author's fault!) and (2) no discussion of whether there any new air-supported covert ops after the fall of South Vietnam--did they stop completely, or is sufficient information lacking to say anything about them? Despite those (minor) criticisms, this book is highly recommended, especially for libraries who may not have much else on Cold War covert operations.

"Twilight Warriors" is an excellent overview history of air-supported special operations against the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, North Vietnam and other hostile locations during the Cold War up through the early 1970s. The author shows how the operations were conceived, how they worked (or didn't, in too many cases) and what the results were. He provides a good discussion of Air America and the use of non-US nationals in these operations such as Nationalist Chinese, Tibetans and Cubans. He also mentions why certain aircraft were chosen for certain missions. Peebles compares the success of the Special Operations Executive and the OSS in World War Two with the failures during the Cold War, and his summary of the meager results of these later covert operations is straight-forward and honest: while the operations might have had some greater degree of success, the very nature of the totalitarian states they were aimed at presented a huge obstacle in infiltrating outsiders who could effectively create and sustain a resistance movement. For readers who want to know more about a particular operation, the bibliography is a great starting place. My chief reservations about this title are (1) a lack of maps (not the author's fault!) and (2) no discussion of whether there any new air-supported covert ops after the fall of South Vietnam--did they stop completely, or is sufficient information lacking to say anything about them? Despite those (minor) criticisms, this book is highly recommended, especially for libraries who may not have much else on Cold War covert operations.