{"title":"Stephen Rookes","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the gripping worlds crafted by Stephen Rookes. From thrilling mysteries to captivating dramas, his novels offer compelling characters and suspenseful plots. Start your next reading adventure here!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ripe-for-rebellion-book-stephen-rookes-9781913336233","title":"Ripe For Rebellion","description":"After many years of political struggle, the Belgian Congo was finally granted its independence in June 1960.Becoming the Republic of the Congo and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo, what was supposed to be a momentous occasion in the country's history was rapidly transformed into a bitter internecine political battle which would tear the Congo apart. Within weeks, two Congolese provinces had declared their own independence putting the Congo's economic future in jeopardy.Recruiting hundreds of white mercenaries to sustain its secession, mineral-rich Katanga then attempted to fight off all attempts to bring it back into the fold. By early 1963 the mercenaries had been forced to leave by the UN, but other major outbreaks of armed protest against the Congolese government were taking place. The most significant of these were the Stanleyville, Kindu and Kivu Rebellions led by supporters of Patrice Lumumba, the former Prime Minister assassinated in January 1961.With the Soviet Union, the Republic of China and radical African governments all aiding rebel movements, what was a series of localized conflicts became a proxy war between the East and the West. Not wishing to see the Congo fall under what it perceived as 'communist domination', the United States then began to provide its own form of military assistance to government forces.\u003ci\u003eRipe for Rebellion\u003c\/i\u003e is the first of two volumes examining the so-called 'Congo Crisis'. Based on extensive research in multiple official archives, it throws entirely new light upon developments in a country which many US citizens of the time believed would become the next major battlefield. Richly illustrated, it provides a detailed account of the global political dynamics which led to civil war and encouraged so many to take up arms, and an intricate reconstruction of the military role played by the United States from 1964. The story told in \u003ci\u003eRipe for Rebellion\u003c\/i\u003e will be continued in For God and the CIA, though each volume stands alone.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49739670126865,"sku":"NGR9781913336233","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52160424116497,"sku":"GOR014498344","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1913336239.jpg?v=1751632318"},{"product_id":"for-god-and-the-cia-book-stephen-rookes-9781913336240","title":"For God and the CIA","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740728795409,"sku":"NGR9781913336240","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53589760311569,"sku":"GOR011792024","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1913336247.jpg?v=1751632555"},{"product_id":"cia-and-british-mercenaries-in-angola-1975-1976-book-stephen-rookes-9781914059063","title":"CIA and British Mercenaries in Angola, 1975-1976","description":"The 1974 Carnation Revolution came as a blessing for independence movements in Portugal's African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. As had been the case in a number of sub-Saharan countries suddenly finding themselves free of the colonial yoke, the political vacuum left behind by a previously omnipresent power gave different factions the opportunity to impose their own form of rule. Angola was no different: civil war broke out in 1975 and was to last until 2002.In some ways the Angolan civil war bore similarities to the one which had taken place in neighboring DRC. Too much was at stake for the West not to intervene in some shape or form and in July 1975 President Ford authorized the CIA to provide covert assistance to the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). With South Africa providing military support against a Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), another southwestern African nation became the battleground for a war of ideologies. In 1975-1976, no fewer than nine different armed forces were involved in the fighting. In addition, a large group of British mercenaries were recruited to train FNLA soldiers. The role of these soldiers of fortune would end in ignominy, death and legislative changes intended to rid mercenaries from conflict forever.\u003ci\u003eFrom Operation IA\/FEATURE to Massacre at Maquela\u003c\/i\u003e examines the dynamics of the Angolan civil war and takes the reader into the inner workings of geopolitical interests, of CIA covert operations and mercenary recruitment. It examines clandestine arms and money laundering networks; takes us from the heart of the Vietnam War to Australian banks, and takes us into dealings between the US and British governments in operations far removed from, but connected to, the Angolan Civil War.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740923011345,"sku":"NGR9781914059063","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50469339463953,"sku":"GOR011813569","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1914059069.jpg?v=1751632516"},{"product_id":"frances-war-in-indochina-volume-1-book-stephen-rookes-9781804510148","title":"Frances War in Indochina Volume 1","description":"\"...a very interesting book with insights into how French forces dealt with Viet Minh tactics and strategies, anticipating almost the same problems faced by American forces in Vietnam nearly twenty years later.\" - The VVA Veteran Undoubtedly, America's attempt to push back communism in Vietnam is the most well-known war fought in Asia since 1945. However, it was preceded by a conflict between French and Vietnamese forces that resulted in the deaths of over 75,000 members of France's armed forces from December 1946 to July 1954. The First Indochina War was a particularly brutal conflict fought by the French for similar reasons as the United States in later years. Led by Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese forces sought to impose communist doctrines in Vietnam, a move that France deemed unacceptable and warranted a large-scale military engagement. Vietnam was considered an integral part of Indochina and France itself, and the spread of communism in the region was not to be permitted, nor were Ho Chi Minh's attempts to gain independence for Vietnam through these means. This volume, the first in a three-part series, examines the first phase of the First Indochina War, which lasted from 1946 to 1949. Drawing on a variety of historical documents, this book provides readers with a comprehensive historical perspective on the French presence in Vietnam, the United States' support for France, the ideology and tactics of the insurgents in Vietnam, as well as a detailed account of the battles, strategies, machinery, and personnel employed by both sides to achieve their objectives during the conflict.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742971470097,"sku":"NGR9781804510148","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51053163774225,"sku":"NIN9781804510148","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51915544363281,"sku":"CIN1804510149VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1804510149.jpg?v=1751630225"},{"product_id":"belgian-military-forces-in-the-congo-book-stephen-rookes-9781804510124","title":"Belgian Military Forces in the Congo","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis volume contains previously unpublished accounts of the operations of the FATAC provided by the veterans of the unit.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Although Belgium officially withdrew its military forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in July 1960, unofficially the former colonial ruler of this central African country maintained a political, economic, and military presence throughout the period known as the Congo Crisis, 1960-1967. Belgium's military presence is seen mainly through its relations with the secessionist state of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and through what was termed \"technical assistance\".By April 1964, the DRC was, once again, threatened by internal conflict that threatened its national integrity. The Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) being ill-equipped to deal with two separate rebellions that broke out in the Kwilu and Kivu provinces that year, had, nonetheless, the support of a CIA-sponsored air force composed principally of anti-Castro Cuban exiles. This air force receiving reinforcements in the shape of Harvard T-28s at the beginning of 1964, with other aircraft delivered by the CIA including Douglas C-47s, and Vertol-Piasecki H21s, the US government sought reassurances that these aircraft would be correctly maintained. After discussions were held between the US and Belgium, it was agreed that Belgium would provide further technical assistance in the DRC.Set up at the end of May 1964, the Force Aérienne Tactique Congolaise (FATAC), or the Belgian Tactical Air Force, would remain in the Congo until 1967 where its role was to assist the different armed forces of the DRC to put down the so-called 'Simba Rebellion'. These forces, including the aforementioned CIA air force, also included a mercenary army employed to re-establish order to the Congo.In this second volume dealing with Belgian military forces in the Congo, the history of the FATAC is told using eyewitness accounts from veterans of the unit plus an array of documents relating to the period in question. This volume is a valuable addition to anyone wishing to supplement their knowledge of the Congo Crisis.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742980677905,"sku":"NGR9781804510124","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1804510122.jpg?v=1751630932"},{"product_id":"belgian-military-forces-in-the-congo-book-stephen-rookes-9781915070548","title":"Belgian Military Forces in the Congo","description":"Though the dynamics of the Congo Crisis have received, and continue to receive, a good deal of literary and scholarly attention, missing from the canon of work on military forces in the Congo is a study of the Force Publique, a paramilitary police force established by King Léopold II to secure the Congo Free State and to protect a vast geographical swath of Central Africa that had become his own personal possession following the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. In many ways, the absence of any study on the origins of the Force Publique to its dissolution in 1960 means that our knowledge surrounding the history of the Belgian Congo and the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo is incomplete. Indeed, it is possible to trace the origins of rebellion in the Congo Crisis (1960-1967) back to the Batetela Rebellions that took place in the Congo Free State in the 1890s and early 1900s, and to link them with a succession of anti-Belgian popular uprisings that took place in the Congo up to the time of the Congo's independence. Moreover, a revolt by NCOs of the Force Publique was one of the sparks that plunged the Congo into crisis in early July 1960. It would be wrong to say, nonetheless, that the geographical extent of this volume - the first of two on Belgian military forces in the Congo - is limited within the boundaries of the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo: through descriptions of military encounters in Africa in the late 1890s and First and Second World Wars, the history of the Force Publique is extended into a study of war in the Sudan, East Africa, and in Ethiopia. For aviation enthusiasts, this volume is significant in that its objective is to provide a history of the development of air travel to and from the Belgian Congo in addition to examining the evolution of military air forces in the colony. Again, we can link the Force Publique's air branch to the Congo Crisis as a number of its pilots and aircraft served to form the basis of the Katangan Air Force and the Congolese Air Force; two forces that were highly influential in deciding the future of the Congo after its independence. The first volume of Belgian Military Forces in the Congo is illustrated throughout with photographs and includes specially commissioned color artworks of the weapons, soldiers and aircraft of the Force Publique.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49907124764945,"sku":"NGR9781915070548","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51495132135697,"sku":"GOR012398365","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1915070546.jpg?v=1751631809"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-stephen-rookes.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}