Bloodsong!: An Account of Executive Outcomes in Angola

by Jim Hooper

Executive Outcomes was the title of the most successful private army of modern times. In Angola, Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea, it stepped in while the UN revealed itself as little more than a debating society. But the motives of this mercenary army are open to was it more interested in protecting Sierra Leone's diamond mines than the people caught up in a savage guerrilla war? Journalist Jim Hooper followed Executive Outcomes on operations all over Africa. Here he reveals the story of a mercenary army in action.

Genres: Africa, History, Angola, Military Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book written about a highly sensationalized subject. Political ideology so often blinkers people's thinking that they would rather see the most vulnerable people die so that they can claim the moral high ground.

[Nadir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the most compelling books about modern mercenaries (Private Military Contractors). Exceptional for its coverage of a very little known unit (except among its clients, members, and opponents). Highest recommendation for those interested in the modern conflicts of Africa.

[FellowBibliophile KvK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb account of a small company of professional soldiers who smashed UNITA in Angola and the RUF in Sierra Leone, only to have the Clintons and the UN stick their snouts in and FUBAR the situation after the hard work was done.

An honest account that admits that, in the early days in Angola, there were, in EO, plenty of Dominic Albanese/Nathan Phillips/Ward Churchill loudmouth Stolen Valour REMFs who were booted as soon as they started whinging. Likewise, admits that, even in Sierra Leone, there was a loudmouth REMF who insisted on going on a chopper ride, only to end up needing to be extracted when he soiled himself in the bush.

Executive Outcomes was, and is, most likely the best military of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Never more than a hundred or so men and riding vulnerable BMPs instead of mine-proof Casspirs, they were in Angola at the same time that the loudmouth REMF media whore Romeo Dallaire was playing general in Rwanda, albeit with an order or magnitude more troops at his disposal. That EO succeeded in Angola where the UN FUBARed Rwanda is entirely due to the massive difference between the warfighter Colonel Hennie Blaauw and the REMF Romeo Dallaire.

Likewise, EO decimated UNITA and RUF (who only resurged after EO was forced to leave by the Clintons and the UN because the FAA and the RSLMF were zeroes along the lines of Marvin the ARVN and the Afghan National Army), whereas Erik Prince's Blackwater completely failed to decimate the terrs in Iraq.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detailed account of Executive Outcomes operations in Africa. In general I enjoy books on mercenaries and this one did not disappoint.