Insurgencies in Central America
My book, "Contra Cross" deals with the Cold War insurgencies of Central America. I thought it would be of interest to this forum. I'd very much like to discuss it. Here are some blurbs:
"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, and author of The Real Contra War
"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 and former commander of U.S. Military Group – El Salvador and of the 7th Special Forces Group
"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 and author of the award-winning Vietnam novel Parthian Shot
http://www.contracross.com
Contra Cross and Cultural Understanding
It is often quipped that the mark of a brilliant man is that he agrees with what you believe; I read Bill Meara's book Contra Cross yesterday and I would use the word brilliant and brilliantly delivered to describe it.
Let me back up in time a bit. In 1988 just back from UN duty in Lebanon and Egypt I sat down in my 15-man section at CGSC and we did the "where I have been and what I have been doing" confessional. My section leader looked at me and quipped, "you have not been in the Army." I simply asked him and the larger group, "Have any of you been shot at lately?" No one answered. Later the same guy in discussing low intensity conflict remarked, "I cannot see anyway the US Army will ever get involved in a counter-insurgency again after what happend in Vietnam." I asked him what exactly he thought was going on in Central America at the very moment. He suggested that what was happening was not really the US Army. Six years later I greeted that same individual as he arrived in Goma with a water truck task force. He had a stunned look on his face. I said, "Welcome to my world."
Contra Cross is about Bill Meara's world, one like and at once unlike my own. The book is from the foot soldier's perspective and it offers unique insights on the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Bill was an SF officer trained in PSYOP and as a FAO. He served in uniform with the MilGroup in El Salvador and later as a Foreign Service Officer as liaison to the Contras from Honduras. Like any good read, Bill's book offers key themes and messages, weaving them through the pages, repeatedly exposing the reader to them in the hopes they will imprint. I will list some here:
- Culture and Cultural Understanding is Critical
- COIN and Guerrilla Warfare Target the Minds of the Population, Not the Enemy
- The Greatest Cultural Gap is Between DC and the Field
- The Unconventional Warrior is Indeed From Venus and the Conventional Warrior Refuses to Visit From Mars
I tell every Soldier that I coach, teach, and mentor that I have two fundamental rules for cross cultural understanding:
- They do not think like you do
- They have an agenda in every interaction with you
Bill's narrative hammers home the first point and his story reinforces the second. His self-reflection on his role as an US government representative while serving as liaison to the Contras is one of the books greatest strengths.
I would recommend this book to all from Strategic Corporal to the White House. I only wish that it had come out earlier.
Great job, Bill!
Sincerely,
Tom Odom
Author Journey Into Darkeness: Genocide in Rwanda
Guerrillas who could teach US a few things
We often assume that if there is any training or advising to be done, we Americans naturally should be the trainers and advisors, and the third world folk should be at the receiving end of our knowledge distribution effort.
I worked with the Contras in their base camps in Honduras, but I never crossed the border into Nicaragua, so in spite of my time with them, I never really got a complete picture of how they were operating in their country. It was obvious that some of them were operating and succeeding as true guerrillas -- they were not dependent on air drops, they were being supplied by civilian supporters in their areas of operation. But I didn't understand how they were doing this.
After the war, Tim Brown, the guy who'd been my boss in Honduras, went back and took a very close look at how, exactly, the contras had operated in Nicaragua. He wrote a book about it, "The Real Contra War." It is a fascinating look at how a third world peasant army successfully organized itself for guerrilla war. As I read Tim's book, I found myself thinking that the contras should have been advising us on G warfare.
It's not too late. Tim's book describes how they did it. A must read for anyone interested in guerrilla warfare. The Nicaragua focus will make it of special interest to the Forum's Marines. I have a link to the book on my web site (below).
US successes in Central America in the 1980s
I'm strongly leaning towards writing my next term paper on US government (read: CIA) successes in Central America in the 1980s, primarily because I know nothing about it. Also, I'm in the process of joining a Reserve Intel unit soon which focuses exclusively on South and Central America, and I intend to start familiarizing myself with the region now.
Can you guys point me towards the best books and articles and maybe help me narrow my focus a little bit? I'm leaning towards researching and writing about the long term improvements in El Salvador, as seen by the free elections recently held there in which the FMLN were victorious. However, if there is a better example of US involvement in that region then I would love to hear about it.
Thanks in advance for any information.
The latest thread re: El Salvador ...
is here, though it meandered off into other areas.
JTF (post #1 in linked thread) is very smart re: your present area of interest - and in other areas as well.