Major Edgar “Paddy” O'Ballance (17 July 1918,
Dublin, Ireland – 8 July 2009,
Wakebridge
Wakebridge is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England. It is located 1 mile north-west of Crich
Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fr ...
,
Derbyshire, England) was an Irish-born British military journalist, researcher, defence commentator and academic lecturer specialising in international relations and defence problems.
He was emergency commissioned a Second Lieutenant from Sergeant in the
Sherwood Foresters on 19 January 1941.
As a temporary Major he was mentioned in dispatches for service in Palestine between 27 March and 30 June 1948.
He served in the British army until 1948.
In April 1953 he was commissioned into the Territorial Army as a captain, serving with the Sherwood Foresters. He was promoted major in March 1955. In June 1963 he transferred from the Sherwood Foresters to the General List. In July 1965 he was awarded the
Territorial Efficiency Decoration.
In 1968 he transferred from the General List (Territorial Army) to the General List (Regular Army Reserve of Officers) and having achieved the age limit on 17 July 1968 (his 50th birthday) retired retaining the rank of major.
[London Gazette 12 November 1968]
He worked as a journalist for a US Wire Agency from 1948 to 1962, and was thereafter a freelance journalist. He covered over twenty wars and insurgencies and wrote extensively on international relations, defence and strategic problems. He was a member of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies and Chairman of the London-based Military Commentators' Circle. He wrote many articles for military journals and was the author of over forty books.
Mad dog of the Middle East
O'Ballance was the originator of the phrase "mad dog of the Middle East" when referring to
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
while on the lecture circuit in the USA. The then-U.S. president,
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, picked it up and used the phrase himself in April 1986.
Books
*No Victor, No Vanquished: the Yom Kippur War
*Malaya: The Communist insurgent war, 1948–1960
*The Arab-Israeli War 1948
*The Sinai Campaign, 1956
*The Red Army
*The Red Army of China
*The Story of the French Foreign Legion
*The Indo-China War, 1945–54
*The Greek Civil War, 1944-1949 - 1966
*The Algerian Insurrection 1954-1962 - 1967
*Korea: 1950-1953 - 1969
*The War In Yemen - 1971
*The Third Arab-Israeli war - 1972
*The Kurdish Revolt: 1961-1970 - 1973
*Arab guerilla power, 1967-1972 - 1974
*The Electronic War in the Middle East, 1968-70 - 1974
*The secret war in the Sudan, 1955-1972 - 1977
*Language of Violence: The blood politics of terrorism - 1979
*The Wars in Vietnam - 1981
*The US rapid deployment force - 1981
*Terror in Ireland: The Heritage of Hate - 1984
*The Gulf War - 1988
*Civil War in Bosnia, 1992-94 - 1995.
*Wars in the Caucasus, 1990-1995 - 1997.
*The Palestinian Intifada 1998
*Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92 - 1998.
*The Congo-Zaire experience, 1960-98 - 2000.
*Afghan Wars: 1839 To the Present Day - 2002.
*The cyanide war : Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka, 1973-88. London: Brassey's (UK). .
See also
*
Black July
*
Lebanese Civil War
References
External links
*
Boy soldier explored perils of changing world.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oballance, Edgar
1918 births
2009 deaths
British male journalists
British military writers
British military historians
Sherwood Foresters officers