Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Operation Thunderbolt:
Idi Amin was a real whackjob.
Quick synopsis:
The story of Operation Thunderbolt, an Israeli action to save hostages on a hijacked plane.
Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:
The flight crew was given the option to be released with non-Jewish passengers but refused.
Fun Fact for History Nerds:
The entire raid to save the hostages took 53 minutes from beginning to end.
My Take on Operation Thunderbolt:
Hostage situations are games of inches. I mean that quite literally for this story.
In 1976, an Air France flight was hijacked in the air and flown to Uganda. Why on earth would they fly to Uganda? Idi Amin was the dictator there and had decided to use this as a public relations coup. I didn’t know much about Idi Amin before this, but I am now fully convinced he was a psychopath of the highest order. Also, an absolutely terrible actor.
Saul David is very detailed oriented as a writer and that is on display here. He tells you about everyone involved from the terrorists to the Israeli government. If you know anything about Israel, you will recognize a lot of names that are still huge in politics. He also explains just how incredibly risky this mission was. The margin for error was zero for a multitude of reasons and the possible fallout was huge.
David knows how to tell a story and the details do not bog down the narrative. He ratchets up the pressure before finally getting to the actual operation which does not go off without some major hiccups.
Verdict:
A great book which dives into the details of every aspect of the raid. Buy it here!
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