The Washington Times published
my review of Cold War Navy SEAL.
The Cold War, that period
following World War II in 1947 until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, saw
the attempted expansion of communism by the Soviet Union and other communist
countries, and the attempted containment of communism by the U.S. and other
Western democracies.
As both the U.S. and the
Soviet Union had nuclear weapons, all-out war was mostly out of the question,
so proxy wars were fought with surrogates backed by the superpowers.
Today, when one thinks of the
Cold War, perhaps one thinks of the hot spots of the era, such as Berlin, Korea
and Vietnam, but the Cold War was waged nearly all over the world, including
Africa.
As former Navy SEAL and CIA
operator James M. Hawes notes in his book, “Cold War Navy SEAL: My Story of Che
Guevara, War in the Congo, and the Communist Threat in Africa,” Africa was
clearly on the Soviet Union and Communist China’s radar in 1965, and the Soviet
Union’s client state, Communist Cuba, sent troops and renowned revolutionary
Ernesto “Che” Guevara to the Congo to arm and train the Simba Rebels.
The CIA sent a 26-year-old
Navy SEAL.
“This is a first-hand, ‘names
and places’ account of what really happened inside a Cold War CIA program
that’s been kept out of the history books. It’s the story of an American Navy
SEAL who fought to aid a fledgling democracy in the Congo and stem the tide of
communism in Africa,” writes “Cold War Navy SEAL” co-author Mary Ann Koenig in
her introduction to the book.
“James M. Hawes built and
commanded the Force Navale Congolaise, a clandestine mercenary navy at the very
tip of the spear, and was point man for a successful little-known paramilitary
operation.”
You can read the rest of the
review via the below link:
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