Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 151
BOOK REVIEWS
United States. Later, Frankum argues, ambassadors and
President Kennedy himself inherited a relationship and
evolving crisis that was likely beyond repair by 1961.
This central argument is convincingly described and
clearly supported through meticulous research.
Another positive feature of Frankum’s work is his
writing; he explains complex series of events in a narrative fashion that is both interesting and informative.
There are several books on this murky but important
set of years. Notable titles include Robert Scigliano’s
South Vietnam: Nation Under Stress and Denis Warner’s
The Last Confucian. Frankum’s effort is a positive
addition to scholarship on this topic, and it positively
benefits research on MAAG and the U.S. involvement
in Vietnam prior to 1965.
Capt. Nathaniel L. Moir, U.S. Army Reserve,
Albany, N.Y.
THE INVISIBLE SOLDIERS: How America
Outsourced Our Security
Ann Hagedorn, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2014,
320 pages
A
nn Hagedorn’s The Invisible Soldiers is a
remarkable investigation into the ascent
of private military security companies
(PMSCs). She contends that global conflicts have
given rise to corporate warriors operating in the
shadows without public scrutiny, and PMSCs are
taking over U.S. security responsibilities. Her argument is presented with passion and thoroughness.
Hagedorn, an author and staff reporter for The
Wall Street Journal, begins in London’s ultra-secretive Special Forces Club. We’re introduced to industry pioneers who have shaped global PMSCs—who
developed the model for private security—and who
held the interest of the United States.
In the book, the advent of the U.S. Army’s
Logistics Augmentation Program (LOGPAC)
during the Reagan administration pushed the
United States into the private security realm;
LOGPAC was developed to bypass the Abrams
Doctrine, which was conceived to prevent such a
disconnect between the public and the military.
Its inception opened the doors for corporations to
MILITARY REVIEW March-April 2015
receive government contracts, effectively ushering in
the PMSC era.
Th