The war in Afghanistan has given the public an unprecedented view of America's Special Forces, in situations where traditional arms and movement don't apply. Stiner and Clancy trace the transformation of the Special Forces from the small core of outsiders of the 1950s through the cauldron of Vietnam to the rebirth of the SF in the late 1980s and '90s as the bearer of the largest and most complex set of missions in the US military.

From Vietnam and Laos to Panama and El Salvador to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, these are stories of raids, counterterrorism, hostage rescues, reconnaissance, counterinsurgency and psychological operations - and also of building settlements, teaching civilians, cleaning up water supplies, and saving lives.

'Some action vignettes from [Special Forces] roots in WWII and Vietnam rival Clancy fiction' KIRKUS REVIEWS