Sublime

What helped tamp down this risk—that of insubordination and continued whisper guidance informed by the unit-level narrative—was the fact that McChrystal himself would become personally responsible for approving and considering new nominations for liaison roles. This was not only helpful in ensuring that the individuals selected held the right perso

Thomas Ahern’s CIA and Rural Pacification in South Vietnam and James Stejskal’s Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite, 1956–1990 (Ahern 2001; Stejskal, 2017).

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Schutztruppe

into a remote area to attack an enemy compound, or silent warriors moving room to room with night-vision goggles as they clear a building in order to capture or kill an enemy commander. It’s certainly the stuff favored by the media in their coverage of war. If the Army Special Forces mission to mobilize the northern Afghan tribes that swept the Tal

Jerry Boykin’s memoir, Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom, is notable because he rose higher in the Pentagon’s policy apparatus than most SOF officers and thus offers insights on the political aspects of managing SOF from Washington, DC (Boykin 2008).

Ronald Fry’s Hammerhead Six: How Green

REFERENCE SOURCES ON U.S. SOF

is Stanley McChrystal’s My Share of the Task (McChrystal 2013).