El Salvador war: postscripts

[Pol-Mil FSO]

John:

A Vides Casanova story for you: in response to continued Embassy pressure to remove COL Staben from command of the Arce BIRI, Vides reportedly said "I can't remove him, he is our Patton." (The Embassy rejoinder should have been that Patton inherited his wealth.)

One of my favorite books on the El Salvador conflict is the 1988 NDU oral history volume edited by your colleague Max Manwaring, "El Salvador at War." (See: http://www.amazon.com/EL-SALVADOR-AT...3890512&sr=1-1 ). It has a lot of interesting and useful comments from most of the U.S. and Salvadoran military players during the 1980s.

Another of my favorites is "Strategy and Tactics of the Salvadoran FMLN Guerrillas." (See: http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Tacti.../dp/0275950182 ) As you probably know, it was ghost written by Gustavo Perdomo, the Commander of the Special Operations Group (GOE) during the war. I got to know General Perdomo when he was assigned to Salvadoran Embassy in Washington in the mid 1990s. A very sharp and charismatic guy - until Iraq and Afghanistan came on the scene he probably had more combat experience than any other Special Forces officer in the world.