In August 1964, thousands of Simba rebels attacked and captured the city of Stanleyville in the newly independent Republic of the Congo and took more than 1,600 European and American residents as hostages, threatening to kill them if any attempt was made to recapture the city. In November of that year, after months of increasingly tense and complex discussions among the governments whose nationals were being held, an airborne assault by Belgian paracommandos dropped by American Air Force planes, combined with a CIA-piloted air strike against the Stanleyville airport, liberated most of the hostages, but only after a Simba-initiated massacre. "Dragon Operations: Hostage Rescues in the Congo, 1964-1965" provides both the political background to these events and a detailed account of the actual operations: Dragon Rouge, the operations in Stanleyville, and Dragon Noir, focused on the city of Paulis, several hundred miles away. The book highlights the difficulties in organizing an international rescue effort with insufficient joint planning and inadequate command and control among the Belgian and American forces, as well as their differing political ideas and goals. The ad hoc nature of the planning was exemplified by an initial American Special Forces plan to air drop its forces east of Stanleyville and float down the river to Stanleyville. This plan was aborted when it was pointed out that the existence of Stanley Falls between the drop zone and the city was an insuperable obstacle. The operation also suffered from the Belgian commander's colonial-era contempt for the numerical strength of the Simbas and American fears of what was in reality a non-existent Communist element in the rebel movement. "Dragon Operations" demonstrates that, despite the slapdash nature of their planning and communications aspects, as well as the distance involved, the austere support, the large number of hostages, and a lack of intelligence data, they were remarkably successful in rescuing most of the hostages. Although less than ideal, the operations worked better than expected, given the conditions under which they were conducted. This important study of an almost forgotten episode of the Cold War has much to offer to military strategists and tacticians, political scientists and students of contemporary history alike. Orginally published in 1988: 236 p. maps. ill.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
I retired from active service with the US Army in 1996 with my final 30 months as the US Defense Attache in Zaire 1993-1994 and Rwanda 1994-1996. I was point man for the US effort in the Goma refugee crisis in 1994 then after 40 days transferred to Rwanda on what was to be a 90 day temporary assignment. Eighteen months later I reached tracer burn out and retired.
My other overseas tours were: Turkey as an intelligence detachment commander 1982-1983; Khartoum, Sudan as a foreign area officer (regional specialist) trainee, 1984, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt as a UN Military Observer, 1987-1988.
I was the Army Staff current intelligence officer on the Middle East from May 1990 until April 1993, covering Desert Shield and Storm, the aftermath of Provide Comfort, and backstopping the entry into Somalia.
I are an Aggie, Class of 1976. I graduated from the Naval Postgraduate school and the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in 1982 with a Masters in Middle East Area Studies. I taught Middle East military history at the US Army Command and General Staff College and wrote 2 books on the Congo (Leavenworth Paper #14 and the Shaba II Study). I also earned a 2nd Masters there. In 1992, I helped Major General (retired) Bobby Scales reseach and then write the Army's history on the 1st Gulf War, Certain Victory. In 2005 TAMU Press released my memoirs, Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda, with a foreward by retired Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Dennis Reimer.
I have been a civilian military analyst with the Army since August 2000, with one deployment to Iraq as the Politcal Advisor to the Commanding General of Multi-National Division -Baghdad/1st Cavalry Division in 2009.
I am a lifetime member of the United States Parachute Association, the National Rifle Association, and the Military Officers Association. Hunting and shooting sports are my passion.
