Comandos : the CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels
Sam Dillon (Author)
Recounts how the American government financed and orchestrated the ten-year civil war between the Sandinistas and the Contras. He focuses largely on the work of Luis Fley, the Contras' chief legal investigator who, uncovering tortures, rapes and murders committed by the Contra commanders against their own peasant troops, brought the criminals before a tribunal. Dillon analyzes the rivalry among U.S. agencies for control of the Contras--the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Agency for International Development and the National Security Council all had a crack at it--and shows how Lt. Col. Oliver North secretly aided and advised the Contra army during the U.S. military-aid cutoff from 1984 to 1986. The book provides a fresh look at the occasion of the most controversial U.S. foreign policy since Vietnam, an immensely complicated struggle in which some 30,000 died. (Oct.)
Print Book, English, 1991
First edition View all formats and editions
Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1991
xv, 393 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
9780805014754, 0805014756
23974023
The pit
Insurgent roots
The rise of the ex-guards
The project
Dirty war
The cutoff
The $100 million offensive
Back in the camps
The Quilalí tribunal
Final verdicts
Epilogue
Narrative based largely on the personal experiences of Luis Fley