Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles [Hardcover]

Felix I. Rodriguez (Author), John Weisman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1989

This is the story of Felix Rodriguez, one of the CIA's most extraordinary agents. A member of the anti-Castro movement from the age of 17, Cuban Felix Rodriguez was infiltrated into Cuba six weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and was one of only 15 of the original group of 35 infiltrators who escaped after the invasion failed. In 1967, as CIA advisor to the Bolivian Army, he helped to capture Che Guevara and was the last person to interrogate him. In Vietnam Rodriguez led and advised an elite anti-guerilla force until injuries caused his premature retirement. He was also a major figure in the American support of the Nicaraguan Contras and his claims that they were being poorly equipped, claims which Oliver North failed to heed, were ultimately proved correct during the Congressional Iran/Contra hearings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A CIA undercover agent in Cuba before the Bay of Pigs debacle, Cuban-born Rodriguez also ran a communications network in Nicaragua, took part in the capture of Che Guevara in Bolivia, led a strike force during the Vietnam war and, more recently, served as Oliver North's liaison to the Salvadorian government. He was roughly handled by a Senate subcommittee investigating ties between the contras and drug smuggling in Central America--its chairman, Senator John Kerry, later apologized to him publicly. Rodriguez's personal adventures, written with freelancer Weisman, make for exciting reading, but of broader historical interest are his comments on Che Guevara's final hours, the dissension within Miami's Cuban community and its various anti-Castro movements and his informed indictment of U.S. operational blunders in Central America. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Cuban emigre Rodriguez was a participant in many of the key political events of the past three decades, ranging from the Bay of Pigs invasion to the Iran-Contra affair. His autobiography effectively captures the idealism and anti-Communist fervor of the early 1960s, and is marked by an obsession with Fidel Castro ("I considered myself at war with Fidel."). Much of this book is a series of descriptions of Rodriguez's intelligence operations in Latin America and Vietnam. He devotes two chapters to his search for Che Guevara in Bolivia, and he provides an unexpectedly moving account of Che's death. Students of American foreign policy will find many scintillating insights on these pages, and the book has an easy narrative flow which will appeal to general readers. Rodriguez's frequent superpatriotic flourishes may bother some readers, but this account is a useful addition to the literature of the Cold War.
- Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671667211
• ISBN-13: 978-0671667214
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He REALLY hated Castro, June 9, 2004

By 

Michael Z. Williamson (Greenwood, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles (Hardcover)

Rodriguez reminds us that being anti-Castro does not make him pro-Batista. He's pro-Cuba.

The son of a well-to-do doctor who escaped to Miami, Felix has spent his entire life fighting against Castro and his communists. One of the last men to see Che Guevara alive, he said he greatly regretted the man's execution and protested against it. He even relays the ironic anecdote of how a physician (Che) wound up as economics minister for Castro, and their brief but informative discussion on why the Communist rebellions in Africa failed.

He also has no love for the CIA, detailing the number of times in the Americas and South East Asia that the Agency screwed up his missions from bureaucracy or sheer stupidity, and the pathetic budget they were allowed to use. He considered them to be useful idiots in his own crusade.

Idealistic to a fault (Several faults) and yet quite shrewd, it was Rodriguez who warned LTC Oliver North that the arms coming in were being grossly overcharged for and that someone was pocketing the money. That he was ignored by North and others shows again the frustrating universe he had to operate in. And yet he persisted.

The writing drags a little here and there--this was one of Weisman's first projects, I believe. But it's not bad overall and there's plenty of content. A great counterview to the numerous bios of Che and others, and a rare examination of the very underplayed US response. The CIA didn't smash the Communist Revolution. The Revolution failed due to it's own (greater) incompetence and dishonesty. A comparison of the players on each side makes that obvious, and Felix was one of those players.

A fine addition to my library.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book of a true hero, July 25, 2003

By 

Francisco R. Fonseca (Olympia, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book first of all. It tells the story of Felix Rodriguez who despite being Cuban born fought for this country's ideals and in fact became an American citizen. I won't go into the whole book, I'll leave that to anyone who reads it, although it is a great book, and you will see that Rodriguez does not deserve the things that he has been unjustly accredited with. A must read for those interested in CIA or Special Ops hiistory!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definition of a freedom fighter, October 22, 2006

By 

QBA (Toronto, On, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles (Hardcover)

Maybe it's because I'm close to the subject but I enjoyed every single line writing in this book. This book tells the story of a person that had an early understanding of the damage that communist governments could inflict on the freedoms and human rights of individuals.

Felix's fight against communism went from being inserted inside Cuba helping to support and created armed resistance, to training and advising locals in Latin America to fight Castro communist trained and sponsored guerrillas that have brought so much pain and death into Latin America. He also fought in the jungles of Vietnam and had an essential role in the tracking down and capturing Ernesto Guevara in the Bolivian jungles.

Che seems to be a hero by many that have been only touched by Fidel's Castro propaganda machine, but for people like me that were born and lived under Castro regime, we have a first hand knowledge of how Che agreed and supported the repressive steps taking by Castro against the Cuban people to increase his grip on power.

Felix Rodriguez fit, in my opinion, to the definition of a hero. This is a book that anyone interested in cover operations should read, but particularly Cubans that have lived under Castro regime and want to know the side of their history that is impossible to find under the Castro's regime's Cuba's history books.