Document Created: 26 Apr 2007
Air & S pace Power Journal-Spring 2008

Twilight Warriors: Covert Air Operations against the USSR by Curtis Peebles. Naval Institute Press (http://www.usni.org/press/press.html), 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034, 2005, 352 pages, $29.95 (hardcover).

Despite the subtitle, Twilight Warriors covers more than air operations against the Soviet Union. Spanning the entire Cold War, it is methodically researched and, for the time being, serves as the authoritative text on these activities. Curtis Peebles, author of seminal Cold War and intelligence texts, has assembled much data and background for this quick-flowing study. It opens at the end of World War II in Europe, when Britain and the United States, wishing to obtain intelligence on the Soviet Union, used former German agents in Eastern Europe and resistance groups in the Baltic region (Lithuania and Estonia) as well as the Ukraine to obtain fragments of data. These groups were resupplied and infiltrated by air using refugees and displaced personnel flying C-47s. Through good research, Peebles lays out why the West used the tactic of air infiltration, explaining that other forms of spying had not worked in totalitarian Russia. These insights and additional data allow the reader to understand why either the Air Force or CIA and its predecessor organizations used certain aircraft or groups to run covert air operations around the world.

Peebles quickly moves from crisis to crisis during the Cold War in Albania, Korea, China, Tibet, Guatemala, and Cuba. Aircraft, deniability, and American ingenuity shape each account. Air Force readers will see how changes in Air Staff thinking on special operations formulated the size, scope, and aircraft of each decade as the service struggled to support global covert operations. Strategic Air Command developed and practiced extensive plans to retrieve pilots and aircrews in the event of a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. DC-4s, C-47s, C-46s, and B-17s played a significant role. As the retrieval of covert personnel became a requirement, the CIA developed the gear and mechanisms for in-flight recovery. (Some older Air Rescue Service personnel will remember the Fulton recovery yoke on the front of HC-130 aircraft.) During the 1950s, the CIA and its front companies perfected techniques to retrieve agents from denied areas. The recovery technique was also used to allow naval intelligence teams to exploit Russian polar-research stations on ice floes in the early 1960s.

The postindependence Congo of the 1960s saw numerous operations fronted by Cuban and American airmen. Casualties started to pick up as risks continued to grow. The B-26K, the standard covert air-operations bomber, also saw extensive service in the Congo. Although air operations take the forefront, Peebles includes an explanation of why they were required as well as compromises and losses suffered in the struggle against Communist powers in the Cold War. A description of British traitor Kim Philby sheds new light on his importance to the KGB since his activities compromised CIA and Air Force operations, leading to the deaths of thousands.

The most extensive chapter is devoted to Southeast Asia. After the Bay of Pigs operations, the CIA came to the conclusion that future presidents would not give it any airpower; consequently, the agency set up an airline, Air America, to conduct covert air operations. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Air America supported the struggle against North Vietnam and other Communist groups in the region. The mistakes made by the agency and others that ran agents and set up covert activities resembled those made in the 1947–48 time frame against the Soviet Union. The stories of Lima Site 85 in Laos closely mirror operations in the early 1940s that needlessly cost people their lives. Although threat perceptions and the lack of experienced personnel can excuse early Cold War activities and losses, the same does not hold true for the Vietnam years. Clandestine air services provided critical services throughout the Cold War.

Twilight Warriors offers the right mix of scholarship, archival details, and spy stories to appeal to every reader. The Air Force’s support of covert air operations in 50 years of war is worthy of a separate study at some point in the future.

Capt Gilles Van Nederveen, USAF, Retired
Fairfax, Virginia

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

[ Home Page| Feedback? Contact the Editor ]