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You are forgiven if you barely remember this happening.<\/p>\n
The first week of May 2020 was a little nuts. In the United States, deaths from COVID-19 were breaking new records<\/a>, approximating the particularly gruesome \u201ca 9\/11 a day\u201d metric. And if you were in the United States, there\u2019s a good chance that you were hitting refresh on Amazon, trying to get some N95 masks, or tallying cans of garbanzo beans in your pantry. So, when a small band of misguided men attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government\u2014Operation Gideon, as it was called\u2014it was quickly waved off by many as some screwy, off-the-front-page story. \u201cThe Bay of Piglets\u201d was the gag headline, which, at least for me, inspired an \u201coh, yeah, this rings a bell\u201d response when I sat down to watch Men of War<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n You are forgiven if you barely remember this happening.<\/p>\n The first week of May 2020 was a little nuts. In the United States, deaths from COVID-19 were breaking new records<\/a>, approximating the particularly gruesome \u201ca 9\/11 a day\u201d metric. And if you were in the United States, there\u2019s a good chance that you were hitting refresh on Amazon, trying to get some N95 masks, or tallying cans of garbanzo beans in your pantry. So, when a small band of misguided men attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government\u2014Operation Gideon, as it was called\u2014it was quickly waved off by many as some screwy, off-the-front-page story. \u201cThe Bay of Piglets\u201d was the gag headline, which, at least for me, inspired an \u201coh, yeah, this rings a bell\u201d response when I sat down to watch Men of War<\/em>.<\/p>\n Men of War<\/em>, a 2024 documentary now streaming on most major platforms, gives this curious history footnote the spotlight that it deserves. Yes, the word \u201cscrewy\u201d still applies, and parts of the tale seem like something from a Coen brothers movie, but directors Jen Gatien and Billy Corben approach the material as if it were a beehive, their cameras acting as a well-placed stick. The project got an assist from executive producer Adam McKay, the Saturday Night Live<\/em> alum who created comedy masterpieces like Anchorman<\/em> (2004) and Step Brothers<\/em> (2008), as well as more political films like The Big Short<\/em> (2015), Vice<\/em> (2018), and Don\u2019t Look Up<\/em> (2021).<\/p>\n The primary figure behind Operation Gideon, and the perhaps not-entirely-reliable narrator of Men of War<\/em>, is Jordan Goudreau, a Canadian kid who loves Rambo<\/em> movies and joined the U.S. Army because, as he somewhat condescendingly remarked, there\u2019s little chance of being deployed from Canada.<\/p>\n Goudreau wanted action and when al Qaeda attacked the United States just shortly after he\u2019d been stationed at Fort Bragg, he found it. He renounced his Canadian citizenship so he could see combat as quickly as possible, and he soon discovered that despite some queasy feelings after initial engagements, war was really his bag.<\/p>\n He served in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a group of Special Forces, also known as Green Berets, and soon discovered that returning to civilian life after thriving in such a high-adrenaline environment was simply untenable. One thinks back to the coda<\/a> of the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker <\/em>(2008), in which William James, a bomb diffusion specialist played by Jeremy Renner, is completely out of sync with the cereal aisle at the supermarket.<\/p>\n Goudreau found work as a security contractor, though some might call him a mercenary. After aiding in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, he created his own firm: Silvercorp USA. In time, this all leads to a ludicrous (and very confusing) scheme off the coast of Caracas, Venezuela, that is so outlandish that it seems like a punchline at first.<\/p>\n The scene in<\/span> Lawrence of Arabia<\/em> (1962) when T.E. Lawrence confesses to Gen. Edmund Allenby that he executed someone on the battlefield and \u201cenjoyed it<\/a>\u201d still reverberates with a tonal shock of emotional frankness decades later. Goudreau, meanwhile, talks about war like an HVAC salesperson praising a new unit\u2019s effect on your utility bills.<\/p>\n It could just be bravado, or he could be a genuine sociopath. Either way, Goudreau\u2014a bald, physically fit man who looks good in T-shirts, shares an eerie likeness to actor Billy Crudup, and slips phrases like \u201cit\u2019s what Heraclitus says\u201d into conversation\u2014is the poster boy for a classroom of war.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also a product of our time, which is great news for documentarians, since there is a wealth of footage of Goudreau deployed overseas and in the run-up to Operation Gideon. If only Leonidas of Sparta or John Rambo took selfies!<\/p>\n Soon after creating Silvercorp, Goudreau was hired to provide a security detail for U.S. President Donald Trump in North Carolina. An encounter at a Trump rally would forever tie Goudreau to Venezuela, a resource-rich nation on some rocky ground following the death of President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s successor, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, remained against U.S. interests but had adversaries in dismissed military leader Cliver Alcal\u00e1 and political candidate Juan Guaid\u00f3. Some people believed\u2014and Men of War<\/em> deliberately leaves it unclear who specifically\u2014that if Alcal\u00e1 could be led back into Venezuela, it would set off a chain reaction of armed resistance against Maduro, eventually putting the far more U.S.-friendly Guaid\u00f3 in power.<\/p>\n So, naturally, there were meetings at a WeWork in Florida.<\/p>\n Goudreau said that he was one of several security firms interviewed by\u00a0a lobbying group commanded by a longtime Trump associate to see if they\u2019d bite at this task. (The associate is quoted as telling investigators that he was only there to talk about supplying foreign aid to a troubled nation, and any plans of a military incursion must have happened while he was \u201cin the bathroom or getting coffee.\u201d Fair enough!)<\/p>\n With a plan in place, Silvercorp went to Colombia to strategize with Alcal\u00e1 and his fighters. Then, the money failed to show up. Goudreau was flat on his rear, but he had recognized the soldier spirit in the Venezuelan expats by that point. He felt connected to their cause and wanted to continue the work.<\/p>\n His continued interest led to another meeting in Florida\u2014this time at a Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. A cousin of Guaid\u00f3, who had declared himself the true president of Venezuela, wanted Silvercorp to get the ball rolling again on the planned coup. Money\u2014real money\u2014changed hands, though the legal documents included deniability clauses straight out of the Mission: Impossible<\/em> franchise.<\/p>\n Goudreau\u2019s encounters led him to J.J. Rend\u00f3n, an eccentric Venezuelan businessman, who was based in Florida and whose interview footage in Men of War<\/em> is the most likely to be misconstrued as a comedy bit.<\/p>\n
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