By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War In The Cold War [First Edition] Burrows, William E.

As new condition dark purple boards, black spine, silver front cover lettering, and silver spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; Preliminary Page Quotes, Preface; In Memoriam; Notes; Sources; Acknowledgments; Index and Permissions Acknowledgments. Illustrated with two sections of black-and-white photographic plates and map illustrated front and rear endpapers. "Burrows puts the history of America's secret air war during the Cold War into a clear perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed reading By Any Means Necessary. Well written and informative, the book is a magnificent assessment of Cold War history as seen through the history of aerial reconnaissance." - Francis Gary Powers, Jr., Founder, The Cold War Museum. "I am now convinced that we were lied to by our government as to the final disposition of the other thirteen members of that crew .When I took an oath of office, I made a contract with the United States Government .There are two sides to a contract. My side is that I will obey; I will carry out my orders. The other side of the contract is that we will never walk off and leave people .They have lied to the families. They have lied to the sons and daughters. They have lied to us at the base. It is a breach of contract and it borders on criminal activity." - Lt. Col. James H. Keeffe (Ret.). - from the inner front jacket flap. "During the cold war, a relentless and dangerous battle of wits took place as top secret reconnaissance missions were flown continuously by the United States along the periphery of the Communist bloc, and occasionally deep into enemy territory, to collect information that would be used in the event of all-out nuclear war. Throughout this shadow war, America airmen risked, and sometimes lost, their lives in the search for vital military intelligence. These clandestine missions were cloaked in utmost secrecy, and the only hint of their existence came when a plane was shot down. Hundreds of Air Force and Navy crewmen were killed or wounded on these forays, and more than 130 disappeared altogether when their planes were shot down over or near enemy waters. By Any Means Necessary reveals that many of these airmen were captured by the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans, and either killed outright or imprisoned and tortured. The U.S. government, needing to protect the reconnaissance operations, made no real attempt to recover the prisoners, who were written off as problems without a solution. Families were told their loved ones had died on training missions or because of navigational error. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, government denials continue today as, in an effort to improve relations with Russia, Washington still looks the other way." In By Any Means Necessary, award-winning historian William E. Burrows tells in unprecedented detail the story of the thousands of men who flew these "black" missions, as well as that of the widows and children of those who never returned, who still live with the pain of loss and uncertainty. From the cold war era to the recent U.S.-China standoff about the so-called Navy spy plane, Burrows provides an incisive, comprehensive, and deeply human account of the secret air war in international skies." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps.