The American betrayal of Afghanistan took twenty years. Elliot Ackerman a participant and
witness tells the story with unsparing honesty in this intensely personal chronicle.” —George
PackerA powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan its
desperate endgame and the war’s echoing legacy Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten
years ago but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA
paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in
August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral he found himself pulled back into the
conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence
communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with
their families. The official US government evacuation effort was a bureaucratic failure that
led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in
Kabul Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to
arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe
evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's
longest war. For Ackerman it also became a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The
Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to
bear on a single week the week the war ended. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as
his lattice Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war's long progression beginning with
the initial invasion in the months after 9 11. It is a play in five acts the fifth act being
the story’s tragic denouement a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to
understand what went wrong with the war’s trajectory will find a trenchant account here. But
The Fifth Act also brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters
American and Afghan who fought the war with courage and dedication and at great personal
cost. Ackerman's story is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.
