El Dorado Canyon: Reagan’s Undeclared War with Qaddafi

Long before the overt war in Afghanistan and the covert war against al-Qaida,U.S. forces struck at one of the world’s hotbeds of terrorism. On 15 April 1986,in the dead of night, American strike aircraft roared into the heart of MuammarQaddafi’s Libya, attacking carefully selected targets and nearly killing the brother leader himself. Codenamed Operation El Dorado Canyon, the raidwas in direct response to Qaddafi’s support of a terrorist act against U.S.service personnel stationed in Europe and was a result of President RonaldReagan’s pledge to respond to terrorism with swift and effective retribution. Stanik, a retired naval officer and Middle East scholar, provides a detailedaccount of the raid as well as an in-depth analysis of its causes and effects.He also describes three other hostile encounters between U.S. and Libyanforces during Reagan’s presidency and details U.S. covert operations. From abombing in West Berlin, to terrorism in the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, andfrom the halls of power in Washington to airbases in England and on the decksof American warships in the Mediterranean, Stanik weaves an internationalthriller that is relevant to current events.