A Dry Memoir of a Jaw-Dropping Career
4 stars
Michael Vickers has a resume that's tough to believe. From being a commando in the post-Vietnam era, to leading the military aspects of the largest covert action program in US history, to a ring-side seat on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and more, he has had an incredible place on the pointy-end of US history.
The book was written more as a historical text than what I would traditionally call a "memoir": it's more of a recollection of events, sequence, and rationale than Vickers as an individual. While there's some anecdotes thrown in here and there, he has a very straight-laced approach that occasionally borders on tedious. He offers incredible insight into the "what" while offering very little on the "who".
I'm deducting one star just because this really feels like it should have been a series of books, and I'm holding out hope that Vickers will write …
Michael Vickers has a resume that's tough to believe. From being a commando in the post-Vietnam era, to leading the military aspects of the largest covert action program in US history, to a ring-side seat on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and more, he has had an incredible place on the pointy-end of US history.
The book was written more as a historical text than what I would traditionally call a "memoir": it's more of a recollection of events, sequence, and rationale than Vickers as an individual. While there's some anecdotes thrown in here and there, he has a very straight-laced approach that occasionally borders on tedious. He offers incredible insight into the "what" while offering very little on the "who".
I'm deducting one star just because this really feels like it should have been a series of books, and I'm holding out hope that Vickers will write more. He also spends the last few chapters discussing future strategies and wandering into topics that he either abbreviates to the point of being meaningless or that he just doesn't understand very well.
Minor qualms aside: this is a must read for any student of special operations, intelligence, or US military history.