Book about Nicaragua, Contra war

[Bill Meara]

I think this book will be of interest to members of this group. It describes the experiences of one American officer who worked with the Nicaraguan contras during 1988 and 1989. It is filled with observations on the cultural differences between North Americans and Central Americans, and describes what life was like for one "gringo" who lived and worked with the Nicaraguan resistance.
------------------------

CONTRA CROSS: INSURGENCY AND TYRANNY IN CENTRAL AMERICA 1979-1989
BY WILLIAM R. MEARA

Published this month by Naval Institute Press

http://www.contracross.com

Why does the United States have such difficulty dealing with
insurgency?

A look back at the Central American wars of the 1980s sheds light on
the problem. Contra Cross presents one young American officer's journey
through Central America's violent decade of revolution and
counterrevolution. Bill Meara started out as a teacher at a Catholic
school in Guatemala, but he went on to become one of fifty-five U.S.
military advisers assisting the Salvadorans in their fight against
communism. By the end of the decade, he was in the U.S. Foreign Service
working as a liaison officer to the Nicaraguan contras. Meara was one
of very few Americans to work on both sides of insurgency in the
region: in El Salvador he supported efforts to defeat insurgents; with
Nicaraguans he worked to keep an insurgency alive.

Contra Cross takes readers into the world of an American adviser
struggling with cultural differences and human rights violations while
trying to stay alive in murderous El Salvador. We join Meara on
dangerous helicopter rides into contra base camps on the
Honduran-Nicaraguan border, and learn what it's like to be in a U.S.
embassy under attack. From Special Forces school at Ft. Bragg, to lunch
with Communist defectors in El Salvador, to a contra POW camp deep in
the jungle, we get a taste of life on the cutting edge of America's
controversial Central America policy.

More than a collection of war stories, Contra Cross explores the
difficult moral and ideological issues of the Central American wars.
Meara's experiences with insurgency and counterinsurgency allow him to
provide critically important insights on why the United States has such
difficulty dealing with ragtag armies of third-world rebels.

"Dead-on accurate, readable, and honest, this book will give no comfort
to those gringo politicians still mourning the communist failures in El
Salvador and Nicaragua. Bill Meara is someone who has the
insurgency-counterinsurgency era in Central America nailed." -- Col.
John Waghelstein, USA (Ret.), Naval War College, former commander of
U.S. Military Group - El Salvador and of the 7th Special Forces Group

"A boots-in-the-mud personal memoir from the battlefields of El
Salvador's Marxist revolution and Nicaragua's Contra War, Contra Cross
is also an eerily timely admonition of the challenges and pitfalls of
today's 'transformational' efforts to democratize the world. It is a
warning that victory will require both a very long-term commitment of
major national resources and some serious attitude adjustments by us,
beginning with our military and diplomatic corps." -- Dr. Timothy C.
Brown, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, author of The Real
Contra War

"Contra Cross is not only a refreshing and an uplifting change from
most war memoirs, it is also punctuated with the beautifully written
highs and lows of everyday life. Meara studiously avoids both personal
aggrandizement and being an apologist for American politicians. His
clear and uncommon common sense is refreshing and does much more: It
adds weight to his observations both as a Green Beret--trained officer
and a U.S. State Department foreign service officer. For the military
historian as well as anyone seeking a deeper understanding of how
American overseas assistance worked, this book is a must. The fact that
the writing reflects intelligence, candor, and fairness to all sides is
a terrific bonus."
-- Loyd Little, former Green Beret
author of the award-winning Vietnam novel Parthian Shot

William R. Meara served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1984 to
1988, attaining the rank of captain, and then joined the U.S. Foreign
Service where he has served as a diplomat in Honduras, Spain, the
Dominican Republic, the Azores, and the United Kingdom.