Central America in the Crosshairs of War: On the Road from Vietnam to Iraq

An unforgettable account of how misguided and illegal U.S. policies in Central America during the 1980s resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, created many of today's problems along America's Southern Border, and helped perpetuate a legacy of hawkish militarism at the expense of democracy and diplomacy.During the 1980s, the United States financed and directed wars against popular movements in El Salvador and Nicaragua that left tens of thousands dead and countless more wounded. Vowing to block "Soviet expansion," the U.S. waged a Vietnam-style counterinsurgency in El Salvador while orchestrating a covert and illegal war to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Some 75,000 died in El Salvador, and more than 30,000 were killed in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, with tacit American support, the Guatemalan military razed hundreds of Indigenous communities and killed more than 200,000 people during a civil war that claimed the lives of 100,000 Mayan villagers.Scott Wallace arrived in Central America in 1983 to cover these conflicts as a freelance "stringer" for CBS News, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and for the next seven years he would also report for Newsweek, The Independent, and The Guardian, among other news media. Traveling along the frontlines of war, Wallace evolved a distinctive reporting style that included photojournalistic portraits of startling intimacy, page-turning tales of high adventure, and incisive analysis of the events he witnessed. A consummate field reporter and award-winning journalist, Wallace brings to bear the full range of his skills as a storyteller and photographer in Central America in the Crosshairs of War. The result is an unforgettable account of a reporter coming of age on the battlefield as he seeks the truth amid a landscape rife with death and deception.Readers will find within these pages a compelling, eye-opening narrative and an indispensable visual record of the conflicts that continue to reverberate in the crisis on America's southern border and in policy decisions made in Washington that impact families at home and throughout the world. Situating the exercise of U.S. power on a continuum running from Vietnam through Central America to Iraq and the Middle East, where he later reported, Wallace provides a rare look into the shocking real-life consequences of morally dubious policies while offering a gripping primer for aspiring foreign correspondents and field reporters.Central America in the Crosshairs of War is a tour de force, a highly compelling memoir recounted in rich, nuanced detail. Scott Wallace's book reboots America's history of misadventures overseas since Vietnam and restores faith in the importance and power of journalism at a time when "alternate realities" and "disinformation" abound in America and abroad.