Perilous Missions is William M. Leary's detailed operational history of the USA's Civil Air Transport (CAT), taking it through its many forms and uses in Asian conflicts.

The history of any movement is always complex. At best its dynamic can be only partially understood. This is true of the Mennonite Brethren living in the Russia of the 1860s and 1870s. Their story can only be understood in the context of the political, social and religious world in which they lived and the circumstances associated with its ongoing transformation. The Mennonite Brethren story is one of becoming and so the laudatory and the contradictory, the good and the bad are generously mixed. The author has tried to tell both sides of the early Brethren story. He has written a narrative history which will contribute much to a better understanding of the dynamics which shaped the early Mennonite Brethren experience in Russia.

HIDE-AND-SEEK The Himalayas become a deadly hunting zone when a nuclear warhead is stolen from a black-market warehouse in Kathmandu. Knowing the incident could start World War III, the President sends Mack Bolan and a CIA operative to retrieve the weapon in the treacherous border region between Tibet and Nepal. But the U.S. isn't the only country in the search. Bolan and his ally are up against cunning Chinese and Russian assassins, and several local warlords are vying for the valuable nuke, as well. These competing parties are determined to reach the weapon first—no matter how many witnesses they eliminate on the way. With few alternatives and the trail of innocent blood growing longer, Bolan accepts the help of an old spy. But can he be trusted? With the harsh mountain terrain working against them, the Executioner will need to rely on his wits to win this race…because coming in second is not an option.

Through an examination of Canadians' complicated roles as agents and objects of globalization, this book shows how Canada's experience of and contribution to globalized governance is characterized by serious imbalances. It explores these imbalances by tracing three interlinked developments: the emergence of a neoconservative supraconstitution, the transformation of the nation-state, and the growth of governance beyond the nation-state. Advocating a revitalized Canadian state as a vehicle for pursuing human security, ecological integrity, and social emancipation, and for creating spaces in which progressive, alternative forms of law and governance can unfold, this book offers a compelling analysis of the challenges that middle powers and their citizens face in a globalizing world.

In this book, the author supplies the first account of the military and security concerns arising out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the recent assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, considering a number of possible futures for the region and their effects on the peace process.

In the past three decades, the United States government has used special operations repeatedly in an effort to achieve key foreign policy objectives, such as in the overthrow of Fidel Castro in Cuba and the rescuing of American hostages in Iran. Many of these secret missions carried out by highly trained commando forces have failed. In Perilous Options, Lucien Vandenbroucke examines the use and misuse of such special operations through an in-depth analysis of four operations--the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Sontay raid to rescue POWs in North Vietnam, the Mayaguez operation, and the Iran hostage rescue mission. Drawing extensively on declassified government documents, interviews with key decision makers and participants in these episodes, and other primary material, Perilous Options identifies recurrent problems in the way the United States government has prepared and executed such operations. These recurrent problems, outlined by key participants in these four special operations, include faulty intelligence, poor interagency and interservice cooperation and coordination, inadequate information and advice provided to decisionmakers, wishful thinking on the part of decisionmakers, and overcontrol of mission execution from outside the theater of operations. Vandenbroucke also explores the extent to which recent efforts to revitalize the U.S. operations capability have addressed these problems, identifying additional changes that can improve the government's ability to plan, evaluate, and execute such operations.

"A well-documented portrait of a brave and controversial airman who commanded a Chinese air force during World War II."--Jacket.

The Flying Tigers and the U.S. Fourteenth will be the subject of a huge upcoming film from IMAX and director John Woo. The film is scheduled to start shooting in spring 2011 with no firm release date stated yet. The role of Chenault in the film is likely to be the role of a lifetime for a huge star. When a sickly, half-deaf, forty-seven-year-old retired U.S. Army Air Corps Captain went to China in 1937 to survey Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Air Force, little did the world know this would be the man to stem the Japanese tide in the Far East. Almost every military expert predicted his handful of pilots of the American Volunteer Group would not last three weeks. Yet in seven months in 1942, the AVG, fighting a rear-guard action over Burma, China, Thailand, and French Indonesia, destroyed a confirmed 199 planes, with another 153 “probables” as well. They did this losing only four pilots and twelve P-40s in air combat and sixty-one on the ground. In this definitive biography of General Claire Chennault, veteran reporter Jack Samson offers a rare and fascinating inside look at this legendary man behind the Flying Tigers. Unlike Eisenhower and MacArthur, Chennault was no saintly military leader. He was a chain-smoking, bourbon-drinking, womanizing man. He was the kind of leader his men knew could and did fly better than they--in any kind of plane. But first and last, he was a fighter--a tough, single-minded warrior who was never confused by who the enemy was in Asia, regardless of what the State Department thought. Following Chennault from this command of the Fourteenth U.S. Army Air Force during World War II to the part of his life that is not well known--the intriguing postwar years in China and Formosa, where his Civilian Air Transport (CAT) became the scourge of the Red Chinese--The Flying Tiger is an extraordinary portrait of one of America’s great military commanders.

The orders to proceed were nothing more than an invitation to die, and usually in unpleasant ways. But the soldiers proceeded nonetheless, because a higher cause was at stake. This stunning collection of stories is a tribute to the courage, steely resolve, and discipline of men who accomplished daunting missions in the face of almost certain death. Nonetheless, they stepped into the breach and performed heroically. That was their duty and they did not question. They had a mission and they accepted. Here are ten powerful stories of American soldiers and sailors that span more than 200 years of action with one common theme, summed up succinctly a participant who took control of Omaha Beach on D-Day, 1944. “We were doing the very thing that we had trained so long to do, and we were fascinated, and eagerly excited about it. We realized that any number of things might happen to us and knew too that some things we’d never dreamed of might very well be waiting for us on the beach.”’ From Marines taking Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi or defending Khe San, Navy pilots taking to the air to defend Pearl Harbor, or an outnumbered American regiment in Korea defeating the Chinese at the Battle of Chipyong-ni, courage was the common watchword, death the common consequence. Such is the lot of soldiers everywhere. Here is a not-so-gentle reminder of the price of freedom--paid by American men for more than 200 years of struggle, from the Revolutionary War, the Spanish-American War, Civil War, World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam.

The selection of Mr. Fleming to prepare this history of Pittsburgh, and the region round about, was most fortunate for the city. He was not only a sturdy grubber after facts but had the ability to dress them up in pleasing style and set them in graceful order. This book is valuable not only as a narrative of historic events, but as a compendium of facts relating to men and matters, events and happenings pertaining to the triumphant growth of Pittsburgh, its institutions, and its fame. It is as encyclopedic as entertaining and facilitates the finding of whatsoever data that may be desired. It will be very hard to find another book on the history of Pittsburgh that is as detailed as Mr. Fleming’s. This is volume one out of two.