Publisher's Synopsis
In Book III, "Thin Line of Defense" the author introduced you to three U.S. Presidents, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. The saga of the Cellophane Men during a period that spanned twelve years. In their first foray into international politics, the Cellophane Men are sent to Iraq to try and prevent a coup. An attempt is made on the Cellophane Men's lives and Hussein comes to their rescue. In the second exploit of the book the Cellophane Men are called upon by Nixon to rescue a United States Senator on vacation in Trinidad-Tobago. The Senator, a senior member of the Senate's Intelligence Committee and is privy to most of the U.S.'s defense secrets, is kidnapped by thugs and held for ransom along with his wife and two friends. Billy Holbrook is sent to coordinate the rescue attempt and get the Senator and his party back and "remove" the thugs at the same time. This was accomplished with the help of the FBI and local policing officials. In their third foray abroad, the Cellophane Men are sent by Nixon to Chile to assassinate the leftist leaning Salvatore Allende, the President of Chile. However, after they arrive there, a coup takes place and the Cellophane Men are sent to ensure that Allende doesn't survive the coup. After arriving in the Presidential Palace, they find that the coup has already killed Allende and they just had to document his death and escape from Chile before the coup finds out they are in Chile. In their fourth sortie of the book, the Cellophane Men are sent to Cambodia by Gerald Ford to rescue the crew of the SS Mayaguez, which had been captured by the new government of Cambodia. They fly to Thailand, take a boat from Thailand to Cambodia and recover the ship and rescue the hostages. In their fifth adventure, the new President, Jimmy Carter, who has an adversarial relationship with the Cellophane Men because he doesn't believe in "outside Intelligence agencies", but he depended on the normal Intelligence services to provide him with intelligence. But that soon changes when John Van Sanderson provides him with information about the invasion of the Republic of the Congo by communist-led rebels. Van Sanderson negotiates a deal to allow the French and Belgian Army troops to be airlifted from Europe to Africa to combat the rebels. Carter is saved an embarrassing situation by Van Sanderson's information, because of an intelligence failure by his own Intel people. The Van Sanderson is now more welcome guest at the White House. The sixth international adventure, Carter sends the Cellophane Men to Iran to rescue six diplomats from Teheran. These men had escaped the American embassy during the Iranian student's takeover and hostage taking. Two Cellophane Men, one French operative, and several Israeli operatives work in conjunction to rescue the six diplomats. They are successful and then must escape from Teheran themselves. This was accomplished and the Cellophane Men and French agent slip out of Iran unnoticed by the Khomeini government. In the last of the Cellophane Men's foray of the book, Carter is trying to rescue the remainder of the hostages from Iran and requests Van Sanderson to come up with a plan to do so. However, Carter rejects the plan and Delta Force is given the mission. It was one disaster after another, with a firefight between a gasoline black marketer and U.S. troops. The black marketer's truck is set on fire giving away their position in the desert outside of Teheran, and collision between a C-130 aircraft and helicopter, killing eight American servicemen. Carter calls off the mission and the rescue team is forced to leave Iran empty handed.
