90 Minutes at Entebbe

New York: Bantam Books, 1976. Mass market paperback. Fair. vii, [1], 216 pages. Mass market paperback. Illustrations. Slightly cocked. Some page browning. Covers has some wear and soiling. Ink writing on first page. William Henry Stevenson (1 June 1924 - 26 November 2013) was a British-born Canadian author and journalist. His 1976 book A Man Called Intrepid was about William Stephenson (no relation) and was a best-seller. It was made into a 1979 mini-series starring David Niven. Stevenson followed it in 1983 with another book, Intrepid's Last Case. He published his autobiography in 2012. In 1976 Stevenson released the book, 90 Minutes at Entebbe. It was about Operation Entebbe, an operation where Israeli commandos landed at night at Entebbe Airport in Uganda and succeeded in rescuing the passengers of an airliner hi-jacked by Palestinian militants, while incurring very few casualties. Stevenson's "instant book" was written, edited, printed and available for sale within weeks of the event it described. The first full inside story of Operation Thunderbolt, the spectacular Israeli strike against terrorism that rescued 103 hostages from a hijacked jetliner. On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked by terrorists and flown to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In the following agonizing days, Israeli passengers were singled out and held hostage. A week later on July 4, one hundred Israeli commandos raced 2,500 miles from Israel to Entebbe, landed in the middle of the night, and in a heart-stopping mission that lasted ninety minutes, killed all guerillas and freed 103 hostages. Stevenson provides a fast-paced hour-by-hour narration from the hijacking to the final ninety-minute mission. In addition to discussing the incredible rescue itself, Stevenson also covers the political backdrop behind the hijacking, especially Ugandan President Idi Amin s support for the hijackers, which marked one of the first times a leader of a nation had backed terrorist activities.