Operation Chaos, Matthew Sweet
Operation Chaos, Matthew Sweet
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Operation Chaos
The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers, and Themselves

Author: Matthew Sweet

Narrator: Steve West

Unabridged: 13 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/13/2018


Synopsis

Operation Chaos is an untold Cold War story: how the CIA tried to infiltrate a radical group of U.S. military deserters, an audiobook that leads from a bizarre political cult to the heart of the Washington establishment

Stockholm, 1968. A thousand American deserters and draft-resisters are arriving to escape the war in Vietnam. They’re young, they’re radical, and they want to start a revolution. Some of them even want to take the fight to America. The Swedes treat them like pop stars—but the CIA is determined to stop all that.

It’s a job for the deep-cover men of Operation Chaos and their allies—agents who know how to infiltrate organizations and destroy them from inside. Within months, the GIs have turned their fire on one another. Then the interrogations begin—to discover who among them has been brainwashed, Manchurian Candidate-style, to assassinate their leaders.

When Matthew Sweet began investigating this story, he thought the madness was over. He was wrong. Instead, he became the confidant of an eccentric and traumatized group of survivors—each with his own theory about the traitors in their midst.

All Sweet has to do is find out the truth. And stay sane. Which may be difficult when one of his interviewees accuses him of being a CIA agent and another suspects that he’s part of a secret plot by the British royal family to start World War III. By that time, he’s deep in the labyrinth of truths and half-truths, wondering where reality ends and delusion begins.

About Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet is the author of Inventing the Victorians, Shepperton Babylon, and The West End Front. He is a columnist for Art Quarterly and a contributing editor for Newsweek International, and he presents the BBC radio programs Free Thinking, Sound of Cinema, and The Philosopher’s Arms. He was series consultant on the Showtime drama Penny Dreadful and played a moth from the planet Vortis in the BBC2 drama An Adventure in Space and Time. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by James

In 1969 and 1970, I worked in the Central News Department of Sweden's public broadcasting network. A journalist there kept asking references to my working for the CIA. At first these comments seemed relatively serious, but they gradually developed into good-natured ribbing. What I suspect he knew, b......more

Goodreads review by Tony

I'm a big fan of Matthew Sweet's work prior to this book so I my expectations were high. Plus prior to publication, the subject matter seemed so interesting that I was pretty sure I was going to like this book. And I was right. It's bloody marvellous. It's sub-title - 'The Vietnam Deserters Who Went......more

Goodreads review by Mark

I’ve read some pretty bizarre books, but this one has to be pretty close to the top. At its root it’s a story of paranoia fueled by world events and cultish group think. We all know that the late 60s and early 70s were turbulent times, but this strange story about strange people with strange ideas e......more

Goodreads review by Stephen

I was looking forward to reading this because the Vietnam War was so much a part of my youth and I had several American friends trying to avoid being drafted. And it’s an interesting and little known story. Unfortunately, Matthew Sweet’s research and range of interviews are too extensive and the boo......more

Goodreads review by Steven

I'm probably going to have to read it again just to absorb half of what I read. This story is absolutely batty, and I love it.......more