Customer Reviews

Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles

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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.

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!

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.

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, 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

I found this book interesting reading from start to finish. For someone without any knowledge of Cuba (such as myself), Felix Rodriguez offers a fascinating glimpse at Fidel Castro, the anti-Castro movemement and to what motivated and still motivates much of the opposition to Castro. Rodriguez' assessment of the whole Bay of Pigs fiasco and the CIA's approach to Latin and South America is insightful and worth reading the book for on it's own. His account of the tracking down and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia covers another very interesting couple of chapters. Rodriguez certainly offered Guevara a lot more respect that Guevara ever offered any of his political opponents.

I also found the later chapters on Vietnam and the Contra operations in Nicaragua well-written and interesting as well as all the smaller side-missions, such as time spent in Argentina and arms deliveries to the Maronites in Lebanon. There's also quite a good collection of B&W photos in the book. Rodriguez is fairly critical of the CIA, and makes a couple of comments early in the book on the general insularity of most Americans, with their lack of knowledge / awareness of the world outside of the United States. All fair criticism, and not out of place or context. Rodriguez comes across as an idealist throughout the book, very strongly motivated by his anti-Castro beliefs, which he has always maintained. All in all, a shrewed and honorable man who deserves a lot of respect.

You would think that someone who comes face to face with such an evil enemy would have no mercy with them...But guess what he did. and treated him with respect much than (che the dirtbag) had treated his own prisoners(Political prisoners) of course Every dog has it's day,and when the bolivians got rid of him, the world was better. but this book does not just focus on one scumbag gone from the world, but on Felix overall view and his service to the United States Something I greatly admire and appreciate. Sadly, You won't find many like that, even less among my generation. Forget those Silly novels(some nonfiction included!) that you have read. this guy is a Hero and Freedom Fighter.

Mr. Rodriguez probably saved hundreds of American Soldiers by stopping the communist terrorist in America's back yard. Ignorant celebrities and pop stars have made Ernesto G. t-shirts vogue. If only this generation knew the racist rhetoric Che' wrote about in his diaries perhaps the mainstream media would not idolize Ernesto G. I wish today's kids could read this book and get a glimpse of history from the perspective of someone who lived it instead of a Hollywood director.

This thrilling book is one you will read in several sessions. I grew up during and experienced the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and recall the events as depicted on TV newscasts, radio and newspapers the portrayal of the historic events retold in this book by this courageous Cuban expatriate Felix Rodriguez. Cuban born Felix Rodriguez fled Cuba in 1959 shortly after Fidel Castro took power. Most of his family, including his father and two of his brothers, were either executed or disappeared within the first months of the new dictator's regime. I eagerly picked up the book every evening to see the historical events unfold against my perception of those times. I came to see the medias willingness to be used by political opportunists and ideologues working against the principals and foundations of the Liberty and Democracy that America has always represented in the world.
This book is a fascinating, action packed story of a young boy of 17 who would devote his life to Freeing his beloved Cuba and other countries in their struggle against Communist insurrection. It depicts the insidious paramilitary operations funded by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the KGB and their ability to misrepresent their Marxist totalitarian intentions under the banner of liberation, hope and justice. Once in power this inevitably becomes a Totalitarian state where brutality was inflicted upon any political or social opposition.
Thank you Felix for your service. You weren't always successful but it was never for your lack of courage or effort. Know you made a difference. I recommend this book for anyone who appreciates history told by those who really lived it.
Exposed in this book was the truth behind how John Kerry had used his subcommittee to torpedo President Reagan's anti-communist and anti-Sandinista policies in Latin America for political gain against the interests of US national Security. This is further proof that John Kerry is indeed unfit to command!

Felix Rodriguez (aka Max Gomez) is an assassin and narco-trafficker, and should have been brought to justice, twenty years ago, for his many crimes.

Rodriguez published Shadow Warrior in 1989 to defend himself against allegations he faced as a result of the Iran-Contragate scandal. Americans were rightly outraged by Ronald Reagan's covert policy of trading arms for hostages, something the Gipper swore he would never do. But in reality, Reagan was merely a figurehead. The secret Contra war policy was actually the work of VP George H.W. Bush, CIA director William Casey, Oliver North, Donald Gregg, and several others.

Felix Rodriguez provided the muscle (covertly, of course) to help get the job done.

I was intrigued by Rodriguez's account. But if he wrote the book to clear his name, Rodriguez underestimated the power of the unspoken truth to whisper between the lines. Rodriguez prevaricates in his book, and ultimately damns himself. He describes how upset his wife Rosa was over the many press reports in 1987 about his alleged drug smuggling. One can imagine how emotionally distraught Rosa must have been, assuming she had no knowledge of her husband's covert life as Max Gomez. But if Rodriguez was truly an innocent victim of a media feeding frenzy, as he claims, surely he would have denied any involvement to his beloved wife. But he does not. One will search his memoir in vain for any explicit denial by Rodriguez of involvement in the drug trade. Instead, he tells Rosa: "This story is nothing."

Yeah, right. Total BS.

It is noteworthy that Rodriguez dedicates his book to Donald Gregg, Vice President Bush's national security adviser. Rodriguez was already well acquainted with Gregg from his days in Saigon (1970-72), where he served under him in the CIA's Phoenix Program. Today, we know that the program involved compiling lists of Vietnamese suspected of sympathizing with the communists. The CIA would send out teams to arrest or liquidate everyone on the list. On occasion, captives were interrogated aboard helicopters in mid-flight, then thrown to their deaths. The Phoenix Program executed somewhere between 20,000-40,000 Vietnamese during the war. The CIA has acknowledged the lower number. The Vietnamese government insists the higher figure is correct. Of course, no one really knows. Rodriguez makes no mention of the Phoenix Program in his memoir. He tells us that he served on a "Provincial Reconnaissance Unit (PRU)," which he describes as a "small highly mobile strike force that relied on top-quality intelligence," and which "had the ability to deploy rapidly to target and destroy the enemy." But according to Neil Sheehan's Pulitzer-winning book about the Viet Nam War, A Bright Shining Light, PRUs were simply another name for the CIA assassination squads run by the Phoenix Program. In other words, Rodriguez was an assassin, a thug. Perhaps this explains why he writes in his memoir: "I was not, and I am not, ashamed of anything I've ever done, either as a CIA agent or in my private life." These are the words of a man who feels the burden of his crimes, and must continually remind himself that the end justifies the means. The "top-quality intelligence" of which he writes is probably a reference to the list of names and addresses of individuals marked for termination. "Good intel," indeed.

Rodriguez had reason to honor Gregg. It was Gregg who championed his proposal to resurrect the Phoenix Program in El Salvador in the mid-1980s, using US-supplied helicopters and a rapid deployment force. Then VP Bush also supported the proposal, and agreed to send Rodriguez as a "private citizen." Rodriguez downplays the Contra resupply effort in his book, stressing that his main work was in Salvador. He brags that he flew more than 100 missions out of Ilopango Airbase. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of Mena, Arkansas and the subsequent covert operation in Michoacan, and nothing about Terry Reed (for the rest of the story see Reed's 1995 book Compromised).

Rodriguez's mission to Salvador was the ideal cover for his role in the CIA's covert support for the Contras. Later, after the CIA plane went down in Nicaragua and the sole survivor Eugene Hasenfus explained to the press that he worked for Max Gomez [Felix Rodriguez], VP Bush denied everything. Bush told the New York Times: "this man Rodriguez is not working for the US government..." Bush lied.

We know that even Oliver North complained about Rodriguez whom he viewed as a loose cannon. But North was no less compromised himself. Entries in his diary indicate the marine was fully aware that profiteers [ i.e., Rodriguez] were using the CIA's covert operations as cover for drug smuggling. In July 1987, when North testified before Congress, he revealed many of the details about the secret Contra war, which he described as "an off-the-shelf, self-sustaining, stand-alone entity." But during the six days of grueling cross-examination the issue of of CIA complicity in the international drug trade never once arose; and I know because I reviewed the entire 600-page transcript. (see the 1987 book, Taking the Stand).

At one point, the hearing was disrupted by peace activists in the audience, who cried out: "What about the cocaine dealing?" The activists also raised a banner which read: "ASK ABOUT THE COCAINE, ASK ABOUT THE KILLING OF NON-COMBATANTS." Remarkably, the outburst is part of the transcript. Whoever was doing the transcribing included the out-of-order incident in the record. But the activists' point was lost on Chairman Inouye and the other members of the committee who evidently were not interested in opening that especially odious can of worms. Gary Webb (author of Dark Alliance) is quite correct that in the 1980s the issue of the CIA's complicity/involvement in drug trafficking was simply taboo.

The bottom line: Felix Rodriguez was being shielded from above. Donald Gregg and George H.W. Bush probably found the man useful. After all, Rodriguez had an unusual skill set. You never know when you might need a hit-man.

The fact that Rodriguez has never been brought to justice tells you everything you need to know about the current state of the nation. A poet friend said it best when he referred to America as "the graveyard of rainbows."