Customer Reviews

Covert Warrior: Fighting the CIA's Secret War in Southeast Asia and China, 1965-1967

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am no military expert nor a buff by any means I am totally new to most true life military books having just become interested in these type of books, but even I could tell this was totally bogus. First of all he was the only survivor of this elite team? My how conveinent no one to back up his story. Second it just does not ring true he come off like a guy who watched to many Vietnam movies about tortured vets who went through hell and back. It is just is to cheesy to be real.

Do not waste your money buying this book. From the beginning, there are aspects of the book which do not pass the "smell test". I stopped reading the book less than half through it. I had purchased it from the Military History Book Club and I called them and demanded my money back on the basis of being defrauded by the author. Being a Vietnam vet myself, it was not difficult to quickly ascertain that Smith had never been there, or if he had, it certainly was not in the role which he claims in this book. Do not buy this book, and just as important, tell others not to buy it.

Shame on you Pocket Books and Presidio Press for not checking on the facts, and defrauding the public.

I bought the book, read it, smelled the BS.

Found out in Soldier of Fortune June 1997 and FAKE SEALS website that this book is a fake.

Shame on You

This alleged memoir has been repeatedly exposed as a fabrication by genuine Special Ops veterans' groups and the U.S. Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS. Mr.Smith was apparently a real Naval officer during the Vietnam War, but his Southeast Asian service was limited to the Philippines. During the period of the novel, he was actually serving as Treasurer of the Officers' Club at Sangley Point Naval Air Station, PI. However, I am sure people who wish to believe these things will find his account insightful, along with other such "true" war stories like "The Dirty Dozen" and "La Femme Nikita".

I enjoyed the scene development. I enjoyed the fantasy. The mistake of identifying the Birddog aircraft (Liaison) as a fabric aircraft was jarring! It is a metal airplane! The kid in me wanted to believe, but I had to declare it a fake. Too bad!

Having served in the CIA as well as the military I can't believe anyone would take this book serously. Smith never offers any real proof that his story is truth rather than fiction. He can't even prove that he was ever in the Navy. Save your money, this guy is a phoney!!

In a nutshell, don't waste your time. Having been too young toserve in Vietnam, I am unable to critique this from the perspective ofan expert, but I was suspicious from the start. My gut feeling was that this book was largely, if not entirely, contrived. I found it too detailed in ways that simply added verbage to the text; yet scant in necessary detail, elsewhere. File under fiction.

Having spent 492 days in S.E. Asia including 13 reconnaissance missions into Laos and Cambodia out of N.K.P. in Thailand, I was very intrested in this book, but found it very hard to take seriously. Our hero single handedly survives these missions without anyone left to confirm his story. The United States Never successfully rescued ANY Americans from POW camps in S.E. Asia. There were some South Vietnamese soldiers rescued but not any Americans. Not cause we didn't try, but we never got there before they were moved to new camps. Don't get me wrong we did do black ops. reconnaissance missions into enemy territory, I just find it too difficult to believe that Warner Smith was there except in his very good imagination. He tells a good story but should call it what it is FICTION. :(

This is the fourth time I have written a review; let's see if it gets included this time. In short: Don't waste your time reading this book. If the author was in Vietnam, it was either in a unit other than the one of which he claimed to be a member; or it was all in his imagination. He describes in finite detail unimportant items, while being general and vague in areas of importance. As other reviewers have written, the author makes well nighe impossible to verify the details. Well-fabricated, but probably a product of an over-active imagination, rather than real experience.

Very well written on CIA deep ops during the Vietnam War, the only thing you know is he wrote the book so I know he got out the sticky situatioin as you go through the chapters