To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, from Achilles to Al Qaeda

by Derek Leebaert

Book Overview

In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Leebaert tells the stories of small forces that have triumphed over vastly larger ones and changed the course of history -- from the Trojan Horse to Al Qaeda. Maps and charts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0046LUHMK
• ISBN13: 9780316014236
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Dare to Conquer

Leebaert has produced a complete study of what we now call "special operations." His work is supported with exhaustive references. As such it stands as "the bible" on the subject and will be used as a textbook at the War College, Annapolis, Westpoint, and elsewhere when consideration needs to be given to special operations. The thesis of the book as I understand it is this: A few highly trained soldiers with a creative plan of attack, can accomplish nearly anything. Furthermore, we live in times when, in the absence of all-out conventional war, sneak attacks will become the norm by each side in any controversy. Historically we in the US are familiar with such tactics. Consider Washington's crossing of the Delaware to effectuate a very successful surprise attack on German mercenaries. The "Minute Men" (farmers actually) from behind trees picked off the English soldiers marching in formation. Not all such plans prevail, e.g. "The Bay of Pigs." Have we lost sight of what works in our rush to do old fashioned battle in Viet Nam, Korea, and Iraq? How can the US change its tactics to meet the realities of a sea change in doing warfare? Unfortunately, at present, as the author points out, each branch of the service including the intelligence branches has special ops forces, but they don't share; don't talk to each other; don't coordinate. How prepared are we under the circumstances? Perhaps Derek LeeBaert's extraordinary and well written book will be a wake up call. Let us hope so. George Thornally, Author "AOL by GEORGE! The Inside Story of America Online" And, soon to be published: "VIRGIN: The Mystery of Amos Virgin"

To Dare & To Conquer

Derek Leebaert has written a wonderful compendium of the achievement of special forces throughout the ages, starting from the times of Homer to the present day. Staggeringly researched and elegantly told, these efforts have changed the course of history through the conquistadors' and commandos' incisive thrusts in ways often thought impossible. But Professor Leebart is not content merely to relate these stories of remarkable heroism (and often unbelievable recklessness); he gleans the consistent patterns of what can create success and what forebodes disaster. Perhaps most interesting to the reader are the often wayward attributes of the most successful proponents of special forces. What then are the lessons for today? Must a nation that prides itself on its openness and democratic way of life become more security conscious and constrictive in the traditional liberties afforded its citizens? Can America rely on its intelligence apparatus to perform the duties that the 21st century requires? Will the religious (or national) zeal for self-immolation of others, where fingerprintless midnight raids are replaced by more visible suicide bombers, ultimately be extraordinarily difficult to defeat? These are among the natural topics that Professor Leebaert starts to address in his last chapters; perhaps a follow-on book would allow him the scope to pull all the relevant strands together.

Great Overview of the Special Operator in History

Derek Leebaert has provided a timely and well researched overview of how the special operator has been utilized and leveraged throughout history. Leebaert begins in ancient times, including citing the biblical story of Gideon, through the near future to depict how exactly special forces have fit into national policy making Leebaert has provided many great examples of SF teams achieving the nearly impossible. The lists include Alexander and hi men, Benedict Arnold's unit outside Montreal, the attacks on the South American Empires on the mid 15th and 16th centuries, on through to more modern wars in Europe in 1915 and all over the world 20 Years later. Along the way he provides biographical sketches of some forgotten men in history who have done the particularly incredible. I highly recommend this book as a place to start to understand the uses and capabilities of special operators; especially as US foreign policy now highlights the utility of Special Forces in the global war on terrorism.

A Bit Over-dramatic but Still Quite Good

Derek Leebaert has given us a very well-written history of Special Operations and their impact on the culture in which they form. It is a chicken-or-egg debate perhaps whether such military units affect their culture or if the culture shapes the kind of special operations that develop within it. I tend to agree with the latter view more but Mr. Leebaert makes his point well that special operations have changed the way a people views the outside world. Mr. Leebaert organizes his work into four sections or parts: Part I covers ancient history from the Trojan war to the fall of the western Roman empire. It is my favorite part of the book but does seem to overlook a great deal of Byzantine history giving it a bit of that western-bias in my view - but western bias that overlooks Byzantine history is not new. Part II covers the period of the 14th-late 18th centuries in a broad look at special operations around the globe at the time. A very well-done portion filling in a lot of gaps for this period. Part II begins with the American revolution through the first world war; it is rather American-centric though it does touch a bit on the French revolution. Part IV attemps to cover the post-first world war period to the present/future. In it Mr. Leebaert attempts to gleen lessons learned in the cold war. One reviewer thought the author focused too much on the failures while I would say he spent too little time on them. In the conclusions Mr. Leebaert seems overly sensitive to making recommendations and chooses instead to identify the problems of who will select, train, and manager special operations forces. Special operations are not easily boxed into a particular category and are intended to be mavericks of sorts who think outside the box while beauracracies tend to favor keeping their charges inside boxes. It makes for difficult planning and control when the people one hopes to control tend to be the kind of people who chafe at micromanagement so prevalent in the American military leadership (military and civilian alike). Overall, the conclusions, or rather problems identified, are a sound assessment. For a good introduction to a history of special operations/unconventional warfare, this is a solid start. I especially liked the ancient history portions that fill a void too long ignored. Very highly recommended.

Excellent history for the most part, but with glaring flaws

All academic writers should hope for the skills of Derek Leebaert, who takes what could be a dry subject in the hands of the lesser-skilled and turns it into a page-turner of the first rank. Despite its multiple flaws, "To Dare & To Conquer" is an absorbing history of what the author classifies as the "colossal impact that the commando has had at key junctures of history." Billed as a "groundbreaking exploration of war, politics, and power," Leebaert unfortunately applies the beliefs of 21st politically correct academia to his subject with less than salutory effect. In 16 of the 19 chapters, Leebaert provides an overview of how small groups of determined men have acheived considerable military victories, the few prevailing over the many. Leebaert's scholarship is impressive: notes and bibliography consume 49 pages. The primary theme is that small groups, whether called commandos, special operators or whatever, can have a disproportionate impact. He cites examples beginning with the siege of Troy, Alexander's conquests, the bloody triumph of Cortes, Mosby's raiders through modern times. Leebaert does wonderfully well at describing brave, often aberrant, men who apparently unconcerned with the risk to their own lives challenged opposing forces many times their number. He is at his best in this history. Leebaert shows how these small groups, often openly composed of brigands and sociopaths, have always been marginalized or abandoned by their leadership, such groups falling out of fashion after the immediate emergency has passed. This is not news. Most nations abandon their military in every aspect after whatever conflict is at hand is brought to an end. It is in the last three chapters that Leebaert seems to lose his way. One of Leebaert's targets is the CIA: he lambasts them as an ineffective organization, which any careful student of history and the news already knows. Those lacking such knowledge may be unpleasantly surprised by the CIA's record of failed, truly stupid, adventures. Unfortunately, in detailing this history, Leebaert drifts from the objective to the subjective, allowing his own political biases to creep in. This is unsurprising, considering that Leebaert is described as "a professor at Georgetown University." (This may be a bit of hyperbole in that he is described as an adjunct Professor as recently as January, 2006.) Leebaert, when describing contemporary efforts to combat the Soviet Union, its allies and the current crop of terrorists, becomes predictably shrill about the United States and its various "failures," as if the United States was wrong to even make the effort. He appears undecided, if not actively opposed, to United States policies in every aspect. Straying from his focus on "special operators" in the military, he criticizes political leadership as well. This would be acceptable if the criticisms weren't so one-sided, the side one hears all too often from the Marxist recidivists so common on college campu