5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review
By John051 on August 4, 2015

This is an interesting book about how a few good men can make a difference. Not a lot of information about this time frame.

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By Tim on May 30, 2015

Great book some amazing history.

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Great Read
By Customer on April 22, 2014

Great bit of history that a younger generation may not know. The courage and valor that is shown by this group of men is amazing.

5.0 out of 5 stars
The Future through the Past
By Customer on December 28, 2014

Slaver’s Wheel by Jack Lawson and COL (R) Sully de Fontaine
COL (R) Sully de Fontaine is one of the legendary characters of the US Army Special Forces, he started as a member of the British Special Operations Executive jumping into Occupied France at seventeen, working with the French Underground ex-filtrating Allied Airmen back to England. After WWII he joined Special Forces and in 1960 led a small team into the Congo to rescue Americans and Europeans from the marauding tribesmen led by Patrice Lumumba, though they worked with the US Ambassador, there were not ID cards or dog tags, a covert mission conducted in an area that made our Wild West look like a Sunday School Picnic.

Slaver’s Wheel shows the problems caused by Soviet aggression, Lumumba being a devout communist, in nations emerging from centuries of colonialism. It also illustrates the ineffectiveness of the United Nations, and the problems caused by the liberals permeating the US State Department.

Slaver’s Wheel is not casual reading, once one becomes involved in the events, it reads like great historical fiction, but then one realizes that this is history, being told by the man who was there, who saw the events unfiltered by time and another’s interpretation.

If you change the names from African to Arab, you will see the problems of the Congo are much the same as Afghanistan, Crimea and Iraq. Any soldier or scholar who has served or studied world events since 9/11 will see that the world hasn’t changed only the names and locations.

One of the best books on covert operations in the early days of Special Forces. I give it five stars.
Jack Tobin COL (R) SF.

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Engrossing
By Mark Clay Grove on October 25, 2014

I loved it. Exciting and interesting. Two trigger fingers up.

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Utterly amazing
By Customer on July 9, 2014

An amazing read. That Special Forces Lieutenant De Fontaine survived this experience is remarkable in itself. That he saved hundreds of lives and cheated death at every turn is a testament to his will.

Where do people like this come from anymore? Do we still have them or has the current American education system ensured there will be no more? This man had titanium balls and never hesitated to put himself into danger where every turn could result in a bullet to the back of the head. Yet he survived it all.

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Wow!
By Brad on March 20, 2013

This is an incredible read. A fascinating historical account by a very knowledgeable writer. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in African History.

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much more engaging than fiction
By John C. Maldaner III on April 24, 2014

The story takes a little while to unravel as a very detailed background of the main character is presented. Once the action starts, it is furious. This is a story that needed to be told. God bless these warriors.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing (but unknown) history of a Special Forces legend
By Matthew Bracken on March 13, 2014

When I think about the history of the Special Forces, I tend to begin with JFK and the Vietnam War. This outstanding book greatly expanded my awareness about just how special some of the original Green Berets really were. By any measure, Sully DeFontaine was one of the standouts among a group with extremely high standards.

Sully's specops story begins at the age of 16 in 1943, when he escaped from France to Spain and then to England. There, he was picked up by the British SOE, trained as a commando, and parachuted back into Nazi-occupied France, where he led groups of downed Allied air crews to Spain and freedom. He had more adventures and near escapes as a teenager than most special operators have in a lifetime! Eventually he wound up in the U.S. Army Special Forces.

In July of 1960 he was stationed in Germany with the 10th SFG just when the Congo was exploding in violence. The Belgians had been forced out by UN mandates and national fatigue, leaving the giant mineral-rich country ripe for the communists to control and plunder. At the same time, hundreds of European missionaries, medical workers, and engineers were stranded with no way to escape. Congolese mobs had been inflamed with anti-Western and anti-white propaganda, as part of the communist plan to create conditions of total chaos, out of which their pre-selected leader Patrice Lumumba would emerge to become the Fidel Castro of Africa.

Enter Sully DeFontaine, sent under cover to the Congo with just a couple of hand-picked French-speaking Green Berets. They went under false names and in civilian clothes to organize the rescue of the stranded Europeans. The rest of the book, while completely true, reads like a Clancy, Ludlum or Fleming thriller. Sully's immediate mission, leading the rescue operations involving clandestine CIA and USAF bush planes and helicopters, was an incredible success story in itself.

But Sully far exceeded his original mandate, using his language and personal skills to slide between several false identities. In short order he actually become a confidant of Patrice Lumumba while pretending to be a Belgian communist! In this role he became the single key source of intelligence to the U.S. State Dept. and the CIA, eventually convincing them of Lumumba's fervent communist loyalties. This information helped to prevent the Congo, and likely the rest of central Africa, from going communist.

(As usual, the U.S. State Dept. believed Lumumba's overt pretense that he was simply a "progressive," but not a communist. Sully's information forced them to accept the truth.)

Slaver's Wheel also provides deep (and often politically incorrect in today's terms) insights into tradition African tribal thinking. This begins with the historical reference to the actual "slaver's wheel," which was taken from a Portuguese wagon after a slaving expedition was turned back and defeated centuries ago. The village that was the site of the slaver's wheel was the location of one of the countless examples of tribal massacres that accompanied the chaos of 1960.

If you are a fan of special operations histories, get this book. Sully DeFontaine's true-life adventures would put the fictional James Bond to shame. I'm grateful to Jack Lawson for finally getting Sully to sit down and recount the amazing history of his secret mission to the Congo in 1960.

5.0 out of 5 stars
By MARK BAYUK on January 17, 2014

I must start by saying I personally know and greatly admire Sully De Fontaine.

I first met Sully in 2004 while I was assigned to the U.S Consulate General in Hong Kong and at that time Sully was working in Macao. I quickly recognized Sully is a remarkable man and I sought out his friendship.

I knew of Sully's military service in Viet Nam, and as I had served there too in a minor role with the Marines, Viet Nam was a common topic of discussion for us.

And then Sully published The Slaver's Wheel. After reading this book, and then rereading certain passages of Slaver's Wheel, I now know more of only a part of the story of Sully's extraordinary military exploits. But I do know more of his intervention action saving the lives of 100's of civilians of all nations. These are actions he initiated (many times on the spur of the moment!) in the failed state of The Belgian Congo in the early 1960's.
This story is related just the way I could envision Sully relating it to me in person. It calmly narrates extraordinary incidents fraught with danger in a understated manner.

In person Sully speaks quietly without embellishment. He shows great courtesy and respect to whomever he is speaking with.
I think these natural gifts of quiet self confidence and courtesy to others (coupled with his tremendous courage!) enabled Sully to perform so remarkably with so many unstable and unpredictable leaders and rebels in the caldron of chaos and conflict that was The Belgian Congo in 1960.

For me one of the most poignant events in the narrative is an incident Sully relates that happened on July 17, 1960 outside of a remote Belgian Congo village called Gombe Matadi, deep in rebel territory.

Even I today, 54 years after the event, can remotely feel the frustration that Sully felt when he had to honor the free will decision of the Catholic nuns to stay behind with their parishioners in the face of the imminent rebel advance.

In summation, this is a story of a remarkably brave and valorous warrior who yet has a great deal of care and consideration for others.

This a tremendous story of a quietly brave man with great interpersonal skills of diplomacy and courtesy. It is remarkable to read how he repeatedly uses these skills with great success in many extremely dangerous situations. I hope you too read Sully's story.