The White Tribe (Hardcover)

by Robin Moore (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
It's 1976 and the Crippled Eagles, former Green Berets, are fighting as mercenaries in the Rhodesian army. The enemy is the Patriotic Front led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. Roger Masefield, an American author, goes to Rhodesia to tell the story of these Americans and the Rhodesian war, but instead is used as a cover for agents working to overthrow Ian Smith's government. Their goal is to put the Patriotic Front in power. Moore, author of The Green Berets (Ballantine, 1985. pap.), has written a fast-moving story of guerrilla warfare, deceit, and the betrayal of the Rhodesian government by its supposed friends. The parallels to South Africa today are frightening. Recommended.
- Karen Stewart, Colorado Leg islative Council Lib., Denver
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 522 pages
• Publisher: Affiliated Writers of America/Publishers (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879915030
• ISBN-13: 978-1879915039
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,118,891 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book, June 9, 2002

By A Customer

I enjoyed "The White Tribe" greatly. It is very well-written and the history that it is based on is extremely interesting (it's a fictionalized account of the author's experiences in the Rhodesian war). It's a pity that it's out of print. However, I do have one problem with it. The author portrays Rev. Andrew Young as a homicidal race-baiting nut case who calls the Republicans in the USA, the Rhodesian whites, and everyone else he disagrees with "Fascists" and "racists" and rails about how all American whites secretly support white rule in Africa. Although Rev. Young supported some causes that were not worthy of the support of a man of his moral standing (Robert Mugabe and Communist-directed army, basically), he is not the lunatic portrayed in the book. I recommend "The White Tribe" to any interested in a good war story and/or history.

2.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting topic, but not well executed, June 6, 2006

By	James H. Boschma III (Alaska) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I should note that I like Moore's Green Berets and The Hunt for Bin Laden, and so was intrigued by this book. The civil war in Rhodesia in the 1970s is an interesting case study in counter-insurgency on a shoe string budget and I assumed that if Moore brought the same flair to the subject matter as he did to the Special Forces during the Vietnam War it would be a winner.

Sadly, I don't feel he delivered that level of quality. Perhaps it is a topic he feels too strongly about, perhaps (as the book suggests) he feels personally betrayed by individuals he dealt with in Rhodesia during the war and could not bring a healthy level of objectivity to the book.

I don't know exactly what went wrong, but the end result is simply not the best. His characters tend to be exceedingly one dimensional, and he puts some very stilted conversations in the mouths of various real or loosely fictionalized characters in the book. Strangest of all is a sort of projected hero worship of his fictionalized alter-ego, "Masefield" who is frequently referred to by villains within the book as being the potential one-man salvation of Rhodesia who must, consequently, be stopped at all costs. It all just comes off as a bit paranoid, really, and detracts from the story of the men and women facing an ugly civil war while under international sanctions, etc.

Personally, I'd recommend a non-fiction account like Chris Cocks' Fire Force over this particular work.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "You say you want the truth, you can't handle the truth!", June 5, 2004

By	C.R. (CLEBURNE, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This is not the REwritten pc story of a frontier but the history of those stubborn Afrikaners that turned wilderness into S. Africa.The era paralleled the settling of our own American West with the exception that geography and diseased "fly-belts" had prevented any serious populatng of the area (unlike our native peopled tribal lands).If you like the history channel; then open your media spun preconceived mind and enjoy learning who the displaced people really are in this great continent.