softback

This unique history of Air America reads like an adventure story but still contains a thorough historical record. Based upon interviews with the principals involved, this is the book's strength and its weakness. Many of the undisclosed sources, I am told by now retired Air America supervisors and employees in the know, revolve around early reports the author received from ex-employees who were ready to talk. Some may have been disgruntled and others were lower ranking individuals who were not in a position to understand the grand strategy of Air America. Nonetheless, the individual stories are almost all riveting, stretching from the postwar era in Asia to the fall of Saigon, Cambodia, and Laos. It would have been interesting to hear more about Thailand during this period, too, from some of the central characters, especially as that is where many of them are living today. ( )