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

British journalist and BBC personality Sweet (The West End Front) details the strange and chaotic story of the “thousand-strong community of deserters and draft resisters” who went into exile in neutral Sweden during the Vietnam War, along with Operation Chaos, the CIA operation set up to spy on them. Sweet evocatively sketches his quest to uncover these resisters’ lives. Some of the exiles seemed to be upright and idealistic, some were criminals, others were prone to bizarre and outlandish conspiracy theories, and more than a few lived life through “a psychedelic filter.” Sweet tries to unravel their stories, but admits that of the dozens of former exiles he interviewed, only some “are telling the truth.” He injects himself into the narrative from the beginning, diligently recording how he tracked down and interviewed many of his subjects. In the book’s second half, Sweet turns his attentions to the “apocalyptic” cult joined by several of the deserters. It was (and continues to be) led by the conspiracist Lyndon LaRouche, whom Sweet calls “the longest-running gag in U.S. fringe politics.” Though rather fascinating, the highly detailed LaRouche narrative may exhaust some readers. Still, Sweet uncloaks a relatively little-known aspect of the Vietnam War–era counterculture. (Feb.)