By Any Means Necessary: America's Heroes Flying Secret Missions in a Hostile World (Paperback)

In a determined effort to collect intelligence and find targets for nuclear war, the United States flew continuous missions against the Communist bloc during the Cold War. Cloaked in the utmost secrecy, the only hint of these operations came when an aircraft was shot down. For the first time, award-winning historian William E. Burrows reveals that the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans captured, tortured, imprisoned, and killed many of the airmen flying these clandestine missions, while the crews' loved ones grieved and the government looked away.

Using presidential archives and other government records, in addition to interviews with the men who flew these "black missions" and the widows and children of those who never returned, Burrows tells the full story. From the Cold War era to the recent Sino-U.S. standoff, Burrows provides an incisive, comprehensive, and deeply human account of this secret air war over international skies.