Shadow Warriors

Shadow Warriors is a history of America's Special Forces, told by the people who served in them and led them. It is part of Tom Clancy's Commanders series, written here with General Carl Stiner, who was the second commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The book follows these units from their beginnings as a small band of outsiders in the 1950s to their place today as the force handed the broadest and most varied set of missions in the American military.

The story moves through the hard years of Vietnam, then the revival of the Special Forces in the late 1980s and 1990s, and on into the new century. Along the way it covers the many kinds of units grouped under the Special Forces umbrella, among them the Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Rangers, Air Force Special Operations, psychological operations and civil affairs teams, and other special-mission units.

Much of the material comes from first-hand accounts of soldiers working beyond the front lines. They describe counterterrorism, raids, hostage rescues, reconnaissance, counterinsurgency and psychological warfare in places ranging from Vietnam and Laos to Lebanon, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, and on to the more recent wars.

Like the earlier Commanders books, Every Man a Tiger and Into the Storm, it mixes military history, biography and close narrative with a look at how leadership works in practice. Readers who want to understand why unconventional wars call for unconventional soldiers will find a detailed and personal account here.