Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism [Hardcover]

David C. Martin (Author), John Walcott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1988

In this startling expose, journalists David C. Martin and John Walcott pry up the layers of misinformation and intrigue surrounding some of the decades biggest battles in the war against terrorism.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is at once a survey of terrorist incidents involving U.S. citizens and a review of the Reagan administration's attempts to formulate a coherent and effective counterterrorist policy. The authors show "the American Gulliver being run ragged by Lilliputian terrorists" and charge the president with confusing the war against terrorism with the war against Communism, as well as confusing the emotionalism of the phenomenon with its true significance. They contend that the damage caused by terrorist activity, aside from the suffering of its victims and families, has been slight, and that its power lies "almost exclusively in the fear it creates." Martin and Walcott express skepticism that the Pentagon can devise an effective military counter to terrorism and suggest that terrorism does not threaten our national security although it does menace international law and order. "Diplomacy and law enforcement," they argue, "must be the cornerstones of any successful attempt to contain international terrorism." Martin (Wilderness of Mirrors) is CBS Pentagon correspondent, Walcott national security correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is exciting, informative, and disturbing required reading. Martin and Walcott lack the strongly articulated perspective (a.k.a., ideology) of some other recent valuable works, e.g., Leslie Cockburn's Out of Control ( LJ 2/1/88) and therefore do not push analytically beneath the surface. Still, they provide the sad but necessary story of the war against terrorism from President Carter (the hostage rescue disaster) to President Reagan (the Iranian arms sale fiasco, the impotent response to the skyjacking of TWA 847, the tragic imcompetence in Beirut). A necessary corrective to more academic works (e.g., Neil C. Livingston and Terrell E. Arnold's Beyond the Iran-Contra Crisis , Lexington:Heath, 1988), and instructive in light of the upcoming election.Henry Steck, SUNY Coll. at Cortland
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books; 1st edition (June 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060158778
• ISBN-13: 978-0060158774
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,891,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful for history, poli sci and national security students. Deserves a new edition, October 3, 2009

By 

John Allnutt "J. Allnutt" (Kensington Md) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

Best Laid Plans is a journalistic analysis of US government efforts against terrorism from 1979 - 1988. The arc of the narrative is from the US hostage crisis in Tehran during the Carter Administration to the Iran-Contra controversy during the last years of the Reagan Administration. The bulk of the text covers multiple terrorist attacks against US interests between those dates: the 1983 and 1984 bombings of the Marine Barracks and US Embassy in Beirut; the June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847; the October 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro; the April 1986 bombing of LaBelle Disco (and Reagan's retaliatory strike against Libya ten days later); the numerous Americans kidnaped in Beirut in the mid-1980s and the US government's military, diplomatic and law enforcement responses to all these incidents. The authors are critical of both administrations but the time span emphasizes Reagan's two-term presidency. The authors note that Reagan attempted to use a military build-up to inhibit terrorist activity in the same way he believed it would inhibit international communist troublemaking.

The authors' conclusion is that terrorism is a threat to law and order not national security. As justification, they site the successful September 1987 rendition of Fawaz Younis; and 60 European arrests (during the 1980s) of terrorist suspects including one of the TWA 847 hijackers, Mohamed Ali Hamadi.

I wondered if the authors believed that for Israel, terrorism is a national security issue. I wondered if the authors still considered terrorism a law and order issue for the U.S. after the September 11 attacks; if not, had they reverted to the law and order issue perception after opposition to the Iraq War grew in 2005-2007. Does the August 2009 "compassionate release" of the one person convicted of bombing Pan Am 103, make the authors more supportive of treating terrorism as a national security issue rather than a law enforcement issue?

On the whole, this book is objective and covers a period of global terrorism forgotten by many who lived through it and unknown by others too young. It is objective enough to have received endorsements from both Henry Kissinger and Dan Rather.

Though currently out of print, I asked Simon and Schuster/Touchstone if they were considering a new edition of Best Laid Plans and was advised they were not. David Martin is still a national security correspondent for CBS News and John Walcott is Washington Bureau Chief for McClatchy newspapers. You'd think US government's efforts in dealing with terrorism since September 11 would justify a new edition with an updated afterward. In the 20 year period since its original publication, so much has changed, and yet so much has stayed the same. Perhaps the publisher could edit the subtitle: Best Laid Plans: US Government Battles Terrorism 1979-1988. Such a volume that would serve students of history and national security studies very well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a deeper look at terrorism, September 7, 2006

By 

Mr. Larry L. Stage - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

This book, BEST LAID PLANS, is an excellent view of terrorism

of the early 1990s' , that is still very much relevant today.

David martin did a masterful job

I knew of two people who were aboard TWA Flight 847, on June

14th, 1985. When this Flight was hi-jacked on June 14th, 1985,

I realized that this was and is, the Real Beginning of the

War On Terror--16 years or so, before '9-11' of 2001.

Martin's book deserves an A-plus.

It still IS a WARNING for the early 21st Century, via the

War on Terror.

BUY IT!!

Thank You!!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fighting Islamic Terrorism: First Days, May 10, 2008

By 

laz_254 "laz_254" (miami, fl United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

The first shots in the War on Terror were heard in the 80's. This book tells how the American juggernaut found itself unable to keep up and flexibly respond to hijackings of American planes and middle east terrorism. Still, the story is told well considering it is a dry subject with a lot of detail. I came away very disappointed and frustrated with the lack of results and accomplishments. Well written and sobering.