Soldier Of Fortune Magazine
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''Soldier of Fortune'' (''SOF''), subtitled ''The Journal of Professional Adventurers'', is a daily American web magazine founded in 1975 by Robert K. Brown. It began as a monthly U.S.
periodical Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...
published from 1975 to 2016 as a magazine devoted to worldwide reporting of wars, including
conventional warfare Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted by using conventional weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more sovereign state, states in open confrontation. The forces on each side are well-defined and fight by using weapons that ...
, low-intensity warfare,
counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...
, and
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...
. It was published by Omega Group Ltd., based in
Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...
. In May 2022, author, editor, and security journalist Susan Katz Keating bought the publication from Brown.


History

''Soldier of Fortune'' magazine was founded in 1975, by Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, (Ret.) Robert K. Brown, who served with Special Forces in
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
. After retiring from active duty, Brown began publishing a “circular”, magazine-type publication with few pages which contained information on
mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...
employment in
Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...
, which had recently undergone a coup and was battling a communist insurgency. Brown's small circular soon evolved into a glossy, large-format, full-color magazine. Significant to the early development of ''SOF'' was its role in the recruitment of foreign nationals to serve in the
Rhodesian Security Forces The Rhodesian Security Forces were the military forces of the Rhodesian government. The Rhodesian Security Forces consisted of a ground force (the Rhodesian Army), the Rhodesian Air Force, the British South Africa Police, and various personnel ...
, during the
Rhodesian Bush War The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War, Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country U.D.I. ...
(1964–79). By 1976, ''Soldier of Fortune'' was selling 120,000 copies per month, making it into one of the most popular American magazines of the 1970s. ''Soldier of Fortune'' was ostensibly intended for mercenaries and "professional adventurers", but Brown admitted that the majority of the readers of ''Soldier of Fortune'' were the "
Walter Mitty Walter Jackson Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story " The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in ''The New Yorker'' on March 18, 1939, and in book form in '' My World—and Welcome to It'' in 1942. Thurber loo ...
market", referring to men who merely fantasized about being mercenaries. In 2018, Socialist historian Kyle Burke wrote that the popularity of ''Soldier of Fortune'' was due to a white male backlash against the rise of feminism and the rise of the civil rights movement, and he wrote that the majority of the readers of ''Soldier of Fortune'' were white men who resented feminists and "uppity" non-white people, especially African Americans. According to Burke, the stories in ''Soldier of Fortune'' describing with great relish how a mere handful of white mercenaries could almost effortlessly defeat hordes of black guerrillas were thinly veiled racist fantasies that were meant to establish the superiority of white men over black men. Likewise, the stories in ''Soldier of Fortune'' celebrated the machismo and womanizing of the mercenary sub-culture as the male ideal. Burke described Brown as a "passionate supporter" of the government of Rhodesia, and ''Soldier of Fortune'' glorified Rhodesia as a place where it was still possible to "Be a Man Among Men". From 1972 onward, the government of Rhodesia was engaged in a war against the black guerrillas of the Soviet-backed
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), a Marxist–Leninist political party in Rhodesia. It participated in the Rhodesian Bush War against white minority rule of Rhode ...
(ZIPRA) and the Chinese-backed
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), a militant African nationalist organisation that participated in the Rhodesian Bush War against white minority rule of Rhod ...
(ZANLA). A major problem for Rhodesia was the black population vastly outnumbered the white population. Most of the white population of Rhodesia had only arrived in the years 1955–1960, meaning their roots in Rhodesia were not that deep. During the Bush War, about 13,395 whites left Rhodesia annually, which were losses that Rhodesia could ill afford, given the small number of whites compared to blacks. The white flight caused by the Bush War led to the Rhodesian Army having significant problems in maintaining enough white soldiers to continue the war. The Rhodesian military had much difficulty in replacing men killed or wounded in the war, and by 1977 the Rhodesian security forces had been pushed to their breaking point by manpower shortages. By 1977, the Rhodesian security forces were on the defensive and had been forced to cede control of vast areas of rural Rhodesia to the ZIPRA and ZANLA guerrillas, owing to manpower shortages. Rhodesia was trapped in a vicious circle, as the Rhodesian forces lost of control more of the countryside, and more whites chose to leave. As the "white flight" continued, the more the Rhodesians continued to lose. Unlike South Africa whose white population was both larger and longer established, Rhodesia was highly dependent upon recruiting white men from aboard to replace its losses in the war. Brown was inspired to found ''Soldier of Fortune'' in 1975 after a visit to Rhodesia, where an American friend, a veteran of the Vietnam war who was now serving the para-military
British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Southern Rhodesia and Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' Britis ...
, which despite its name was the police force of Rhodesia, who told him that Rhodesia was losing the war because of a shortage of white manpower. Brown was well aware that Rhodesia was losing the Bush War and used ''Soldier of Fortune'' as a forum to recruit soldiers for Rhodesia. Brown worked closely with the chief recruiting officer of the Rhodesian Army, Major Nick Lamprecht, on using ''Soldier of Fortune'' to recruit white American men for the Rhodesian Army. Lamprecht wrote in an article in ''Soldier of Fortune'' urging white American men to come to fight for Rhodesia, writing that: "Rhodesia has many things to offer. Good Rhodesian beer, a friendly populace, and what I would describe as a free and easy, unhurried way of life, lots of wide open spaces". As a further inducement, Lamprecht promised that it would be easy for single white men to find a suitable wife in Rhodesia. The stories about Rhodesia in ''Soldier of Fortune'' depicted Rhodesia as a paradise where women and black people still knew their place, as the articles urged their readers to enlist in the Rhodesian Army in order to defend Rhodesia against the black guerrillas. One story about Rhodesia stated: "What we have here is an ideal core of white people who are able to raise the standards of living among the Africans. Without us, conditions will decline rapidly". The quality of recruits that came to Rhodesia varied widely. Some such as L.H. "Mike" Williams and Michael Pierce, both veterans of the U.S. Army who had fought in Vietnam, had successful careers in the Rhodesian Army. One of the first Americans to go to Rhodesia was John Alan Corey, a veteran of the Vietnam war who joined the Rhodesian Light Infantry Regiment and who was killed in action in July 1975. Corey was celebrated as a martyr for freedom in an article in ''Soldier of Fortune'', which approvingly published an excerpt from a letter written by Corey shortly before his death, where he declared: "Since coming to Rhodesia, I have often heard people remark that it's "inevitable" for this country and all of southern Africa to follow the 'winds of change' and go the same way as the other former colonies to the north. This is rubbish and only indicates a lack of fighting spirit, guts and the will to rule a civilization built by better men". The reference to the "winds of change" in Corey's letter was to a 1960 speech given by the British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
in South Africa, where he stated that a "wind of change" was sweeping across Africa and that the ''apartheid'' system was doomed. The majority of the Americans who went to Rhodesia were not veterans of the Vietnam war nor had they served in the U.S. military. The majority of men who had never seen war before flinched in the face of its horrors and chose to desert. One article in ''Soldier of Fortune'' in 1979 complained: "The majority found the routine too rough to last more than a few months. The desertion rate among the American citizens who have joined the Rhodesian Army over the last two years is estimated to run at about 80 percent". In the late 1970s and the 1980s, the success and popularity of a military magazine such as ''SOF'' led to the proliferation of like magazines such as ''Survive'', ''Gung Ho!'', ''New Breed'', ''Eagle'', ''Combat Illustrated'', ''Special Weapons and Tactics'', and ''Combat Ready''. ''SOF'' was published by the Omega Group Ltd., in Boulder, Colorado. At the height of its circulation in the early 1980s the magazine had 190,000 subscribers. In the 1980s, ''Soldier of Fortune'' ran ads promising to take Americans to fight in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, but few relatively actually went. The city of
Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...
on the
Khyber Pass The Khyber Pass (Urdu: درۂ خیبر; ) is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, on the border with the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. It connects the town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by tr ...
that forms one of the main routes into Afghanistan along the Afghan-Pakistani border was described being full of Americans who were "Walter Mitty types" who talked loudly of coming into Afghanistan. All of the available evidence suggests that only a small number of the American volunteers actually crossed the border, and of those who crossed the frontier, an even a smaller number survived Afghanistan and returned. More successful for ''Soldier of Fortune'' was its efforts to promote Americans to assist the Contra rebels against the
Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
regime in
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
, in part due to geographical proximity, and because the Central Intelligence Agency was more encouraging of American volunteers for the Contras. At a time when the
Boland Amendment The Boland Amendment is a term describing a series of U.S. legislative amendments passed between 1982 and 1986, aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. The Reagan Administration supplied funding and military tra ...
was in effect, which banned American assistance to the Contras, in May 1985 General John K. Singlaub recruited Brown to use ''Soldier of Fortune'' to recruit Americans who as private citizens would train and arm the Contras. The assignment was meant to provide the Reagan administration with the necessary "plausible deniability" that it was not attempting to circumvent Congress, which had banned assistance to the Contras. Singlaub retired from the U.S. Army in 1979, but he was working unofficially for the National Security Council in the 1980s, which he bombarded with various plans to overthrow the Sandinistas. Brown accepted the assignment and recruited several of the mercenaries he recruited to fight for Rhodesia in the 1970s to go with him to Honduras to train the Contras. Brown and his assorted mercenaries went to Camp Las Vegas on the Nicaraguan-Honduran border, along with a consignment of arms from the United States. Brown said of the Contras "these people had no military training at all" and stated his mission "could hardly be called a resounding success" as all of the Contras he had trained as spies were captured by the Sandinistas and executed. The Contra war in Nicaragua was covered extensively in ''Soldier of Fortune'' in the 1980s, but Brown did not mention that he had been hired to train the Contras and instead presented himself and the other mercenaries as journalists covering the war.


Online magazine

The April 2016 issue of ''Soldier of Fortune'' was the final print edition. Further editions have been published online. The magazine is published by Soldier of Fortune LLC, owned by Susan Katz Keating. In the online magazine, publisher Keating revived original reporting, and sent correspondents into the field in Ukraine, Serbia, Israel, and along the southern U.S. border with Mexico. She introduced a new section entitled The Fire Pit, where readers submit personal stories of war and adventure. Among those whose stories appear in the section are Gen.(Ret) Scott Miller, formerly the four-star general in charge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Memorial Wall, along with numerous warfighters and veterans. The magazine gained publicity in July 2023 when Keating published her investigative series on the cocaine packet that was discovered inside the Biden White House. The articles were picked up by
Radar Online Radar Online is an American entertainment and gossip website that was first published as a print and online publication in September 2003 before becoming exclusively online. As of 2008, the magazine has been owned by the publisher American Medi ...
, the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'', and other outlets. Keating was featured in a profile in The New Yorker Magazine, in an article that appeared online on September 2, 2024, and in print in the issue dated September 12, 2024.


"Gun for Hire" lawsuits

During the late 1980s, ''Soldier of Fortune'' under Robert K. Brown was sued in civil court several times for having published classified advertisements by private "guns for hire." In 1987, Norman Norwood of Arkansas sued ''SOF'' magazine because of injuries he suffered during a
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
attempt by two men hired via a "Gun for Hire" advertisement in the magazine. The magazine settled the lawsuit out of court. On February 20, 1985, John Wayne Hearn shot and killed Sandra Black for a $10,000 payment from her husband, Robert Vannoy Black Jr. Black connected with Hearn through a classified advertisement published in ''Soldier of Fortune'', wherein Hearn solicited "high-risk assignments. U.S. or overseas." In 1989, Sandra Black's son Gary and her mother Marjorie Eimann filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against ''SOF'' magazine and its parent publishing company Omega Group Ltd., seeking $21 million in redress of their grievance. The jury found the defendants grossly negligent in publishing Hearn's ad for implicit illegal activity (murder) and awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 million in damages. In 1990, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...
reversed the verdict, saying that the standard of conduct imposed upon the magazine was too high because the advertisement was ambiguously worded. In 1989, four men were convicted of conspiracy to murder in the 1985 contract killing of Richard Braun of Atlanta, Georgia. The killers were hired through a classified services advertisement published in ''SOF'' magazine that read: "GUN FOR HIRE." Braun's sons filed a civil lawsuit against the magazine, and a jury found in their favor, awarding them $12.37 million in damages, which the judge later reduced to $4.37 million. In 1992, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal appellate court over the following U.S. district courts: * Middle District of Alabama * Northern District of Alabama * Southern District ...
upheld the judgment of the jury, saying "the publisher could recognize the offer of criminal activity as readily as its readers did."Smothers, Ronald
''Soldier of Fortune Magazine Held Liable for Killer's Ad''
New York Times, August 19, 1992
In 1993, the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
allowed the judgment to stand when it refused to hear the case. The magazine subsequently suspended publication of classified advertisements. In 2022, publisher Keating affirmed that under her watch, the magazine would not publish such advertisements.


Editors

* Jim Graves, former managing editor and columnist.Clausing, Jeri (March 2, 1988)
"Jurors trying to decide whether Soldier of Fortune should..."
''
UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
''.
* Susan Katz Keating, editor and publisher, as of March 30, 2022.


Notable contributors

* Cpl.
Jan Scruggs Jan Craig Scruggs (born March 11, 1950) is a United States Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, and later founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Scrug ...
, founder of the Vietnam Memorial Wall * Col. David "Hack" Hackworth, US Army (ret./deceased) * Maj. Robert C. MacKenzie, US Army (ret./deceased) * Lt. Col.
Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Sec ...
, US Marine Corps (ret.) * Capt.
Dale Dye Dale Adam Dye Jr. (born October 8, 1944) is an American actor, technical advisor, radio personality and writer. A decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, Dye is the founder and head of Warriors, Inc., a technical advisory company specializi ...
, US Marine Corps (ret.) * Acting Leading Seaman
Al J Venter Al J. Venter (born Albertus Johannes Venter, 25 November 1938) is a South African war journalist, documentary filmmaker, and author of more than forty books who also served as an Africa and Middle East correspondent for ''Jane's International D ...
* Maj.
John Plaster John L. Plaster (born 1949) is a former United States Army Special Forces officer regarded as one of the leading sniper experts in the world. A decorated Vietnam War veteran who served in the covert Studies and Observations Group (SOG), Plaster ...
, US Army (ret.)


References


Further reading

* * * * Lamy, Philip
"Millennialism in the Mass Media: The Case of 'Soldier of Fortune' Magazine."
''
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion The ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'' (''JSSR'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell in the United States under the auspices of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, dedicated to ...
'', Vol. 31, No. 4, December 1992, pp. 408–424. . .


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soldier of Fortune (Magazine) 1975 establishments in Colorado Online magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1975 Magazines published in Colorado Mercenaries Military magazines published in the United States Online magazines with defunct print editions Mass media in Boulder, Colorado