Simpson, Charles M. III. Inside the Green Berets: The First Thirty Years --
A History of the U.S. Army Special Forces. Foreword by Lt.Gen. William P.
Yarborough. Novato CA: Presidio Press, 1983. 231 pages.
From the dust jacket: "Guerrilla warfare, insurgency, counterinsurgency,
all come within the circle of their operations. President Kennedy gave a
powerful impetus to the growth of Special Forces, but they really came into
prominence during the Vietnam War. Their Civic Action programs and "Psy Ops"
became well known. Among the less publicized missions of SF have been: an
airborne demonstration in Saudi Arabia; a rescue operation of a party of
refugees in the Congo during the Leopoldville disturbances in 1960; a basic
training program for Ethiopian recruits in 1965; training and assistance
missions in nineteen Latin American countries from 1963 to 1970. Colonel
Simpson knows the Army. Of his 30 years of service he spent nine with SF."
To the extent that CIA and Special Forces operations in southeast Asia
can be considered separately, Simpson sides with the military and is gently
critical of the CIA. For outsiders the distinction is less meaningful -- the
CIA frequently used Special Forces to solve their manpower shortages, and
the lines of command between the CIA, the U.S. ambassador, and the Pentagon
are at best confusing. A certain amount of scapegoating was probably well-
received in this gung-ho, insider account of the Green Berets, half of which
deals with the Vietnam experience.
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