Renowned for his role in command of the SAS in the Falklands War and earlier for directing the rescue at the Iranian Embassy siege, General Sir Michael Rose tells the inside story of one of the toughest challenges of his career, as Commander of the UN Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994.
General Rose inherited a UN mission that was sliding into chaos. His brief was to sustain the people of Bosnia in the midst of a devastating three-sided civil war, to bring about conditions of peace and to prevent the conflict from escalating in a way that would have had dire repercussions for Europe and the rest of the world.
When General Rose left Bosnia at the end of the year the military conflict had been stabilised, aid convoys were reaching their destinations and civilians were once again able to walk the streets. How this turnaround in Bosnia's fortunes was achieved in such a comparatively short time is the subject of this plain-speaking, controversial account of a complex and bloody war.