The Green Ribbon Books

Bloodsong: An Account of Executive Outcomes in Angola

Jim Hooper
HarperCollins
2002

Executive Outcomes' intervention in Angola was a decisive moment in the emergence of the modern 'private military company'. Hooper's account is very much the official version, consisting primarily of the reminiscences of EO officers.

The opening sections feature anecdotes from South Africa's border wars, which are portrayed as a heroic struggle against communism.

The end of the Cold War paved the way EO's personnel to turn on their former UNITA allies by signing up to fight for the Angolan Government, an about-turn which, according to Hooper, caused more tensions with old SADF colleagues than with the new ANC Government.

An initial operation to seize the Soyo oil refinery in 1993, was followed a year later by EO's participation in a decisive campaign to oust UNITA from Angola's main diamond fields.

Hooper's account will prove satisfying to military buffs, but has little to say about the wider issues raised by EO's intervention. There's seems little doubt that the company was an effective force in Angola and Sierra Leone, (which is covered in an appendix), but Hooper glosses over the quid pro quo exacted by the company's backers in the oil and mining industry, an issue covered more fully by Margaret Drohan's Making a Killing.

Bloodsong is an important source for the events it covers, but one which should be approached with caution.

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In the Public Interest: A devastating account of the Thatcher Government's involvement in the covert arms trade

Gerald James
Little, Brown and Company
1995

I briefly met Gerald James once at a meeting of MOJO, the group organised by former Birmingham Six member Paddy Hill. It was an incongruous setting in which to come across a former paratrooper and successful city accountant, but James had a fascinating tale to tell, the bones of the story which is told more fully in this book.

As a former member of the Monday Club, and friend of MI6's George Kennedy Young, James was by his own admission part of the Tory clique that brought Thatcher to power, the very group that would bring down his company ten years later. "On the face of it," he writes, "this is the great irony of my story."

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry

Peter W. Singer
Cornell University Press
2003

A prescient study of the privatisation of warfare, that predates the Iraq War but explores one of the key trends that has shaped that conflict.

Singer uses a number of case studies to highlight the growing range of military services being provided by private companies.

A chapter on South Africa's Executive Outcomes (EO) and its various affiliates illustrates the role of the 'Military Provider Firm', which engages in frontline combat. An intriguing appendix includes a copy of the agreement between EO offshoot Sandline and the government of Papua New Guinea, and a list of the huge array of military equipment involved in the company's abortive plan to suppress the rebellion in Bougainville.

The role of the 'Military Consulting Firm' is illustrated by US company MPRI, which advised the Croatian Army in the run-up to the 1995 'Operation Storm' offensive against the Krajina Serbs.  Another US company, Brown and Roots Services, exemplifies the logistical role played by the 'Military Support Firm.'

As well as providing a comprehensive survey of the privatised military industry, Singer shows that the phenomenon represents a fundamental challenge to established assumptions in a huge range of fields.

This book should be the first port of call for anyone looking for a serious theoretical study of the subject. A ground-breaking piece of scholarship.

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