Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare was arguably the most famous mercenary of his generation. His death aged 100 last Sunday was notable and carried by major international news outlets. It was also a surprise to some for various reasons. When, for instance, I casually mentioned the news to a friend during a phone call, it took him by more than surprise. He thought “Mad Mike” had long bravely died in one of his escapades. Everybody who listened or read news “knew” the hired soldier in his day. My friend spoke as if he knew the mercenary personally. The last he had heard of him was in 1981 after the dramatically failed coup in the Seychelles to which he proceeded to give a halting blow-by-blow account. It is now he is filling in the blanks of his hero’s life. Those who have read Frederick Forsyth’s novel, Dogs of War, might appreciate my friend’s sense of drama at the mention of the mercenary. The book is about a fictional African country of Zangaro and European mercenary soldiers hired by a British industrialist to depose its government. The Seychelles’ incident would easily have been a tale in that book. To see why, I recount the incident as summarised by the New York Times earlier this week eulogizing the celebrated soldier of fortune. In 1981, when he was 62, Mr Hoare again made headlines, leading a gaggle of over-the-hill mercenaries from South Africa, Zimbabwe and several European nations in a bizarre attempt to overthrow the Socialist government of the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean island republic. Apparently, with Pretoria’s connivance, they flew to the Seychelles posing as rugby players and members of a beer-drinking club, the Ancient Order of Foam Blowers, carrying equipment bags with false bottoms hiding weapons and walkie-talkies. But a customs agent spotted a gun muzzle and a firefight erupted. After hours of combat, 44 mercenaries escaped by hijacking an Air India jet on the tarmac. They flew to South Africa, where most, including Mr Hoare, were tried and convicted of air piracy. Mr Hoare fame began in 1960-61when he commanded a unit of mercenary troops in Katanga province which was seeking to secede from the newly independent Republic of Congo. In 1964-65 in yet another capper in the Congo that involved a communist uprising against the government and at one point in 1965 fought the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara who had joined the fight to foment another revolution. Hoare’s side won the fight. Mr Hoare was given the nickname “Mad Mike” reportedly after East German radio regularly described him as “that mad bloodhound Hoare”. There have been other mercenaries the description famous such as the French mercenary Bob Denard who was involved with Hoare in Katanga. Denard further got involved himself in mercenary efforts in places like Yemen, Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, and even Iran. The two were some the major players plying a craft that was often gung ho, and that has since become dated. It lasted the period spanning the middle to later part of the 20th Century. Soldiering for fortune has since become modern and gone corporate. The term mercenary is now shunned and replaced by the more business-like private military contractors (PMCs). Except, that is, the range of shadowy foreign combatants such as Russian mercenaries, Sudanese militiamen for hire and members of pro-Turkish Syrian units currently in Libya. Nothing unique can be said about them. Among the most notable of the PMCs is Academi, formerly known as Xe Services that was renamed from Blackwater. As an US contractor in 2007, the latter became unviable after suspicious activities that resulted in the deaths of seventeen Iraqi civilians, leading to the change of names. The other notable company is Sandline International whose activities include having worked for the government of Papua New Guinea to suppress a revolt. Simon Mann, its founder, would later serve part of a prison sentence for a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. Among his accomplices in the Wonga coup, as it is also known, was Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Some outfits are large business propositions. The scale of G4S Secure Solutions, for instance, which also recruits and hires former military personnel for private security services, is unimaginably huge. The company employs approximately 625,000 people. Academi has reportedly employed around 20,000 people around the world for various types of “security services”. These companies far outclass the old-timers ala Hoare and his gaggle of mercenaries. Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare was, however, made of different stuff in a different era when individual exploits and leadership made a popular hero. His legend continues in his books as well as in the movie The Wild Geese that he inspired. He was born of Irish parents and died in South Africa where he lived. The views expressed in this article are of the author.
