Overview

During the 1980s, the Reagan Administration financed and directed wars against popular movements in El Salvador and Nicaragua that left more than 300,000 dead and countless more wounded. Vowing to block “Soviet expansion,” the U.S. waged a Vietnam-style counterinsurgency against leftist rebels in El Salvador while orchestrating an illegal and covert war to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Some 75,000 died in El Salvador, mostly at the hands of U.S.-backed military and security forces, and more than 30,000 were killed in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, with tacit American support, the Guatemalan military razed hundreds of communities and killed an estimated 200,000 people during a 36-year civil war, including 100,000 Indigenous Mayan villagers. Scott Wallace arrived in Central America in 1983 to cover the conflicts as a freelance “stringer” for CBS News, and he would also later report for Newsweek, The Nation, The Guardian, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, and other news organizations. Seeking to discern the truth in a region riddled with death and deception, Wallace evolved a distinctive style of field reporting that included photography, writing, and broadcast recordings. He stayed in the region throughout the decade, moving back and forth across national boundaries and battlelines to produce a unique body of work that includes the perspectives of opposing sides of the interwoven conflicts as well as their impacts on the noncombatants tragically caught in the middle. He later reported from Afghanistan and Iraq. Situating the exercise of U.S. power on a continuum running from Vietnam through Central America to Iraq and the Middle East, In the Crosshairs of War 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. As Wallace reminds us, the multiple “troubles” associated today with America's southern border-among them immigration, drugs, and crime-are in significant measure the result of misadventures undertaken by the U.S. during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He also shows a continuum in U.S. military affairs, from Vietnam to Central America and the Middle East. AUTHOR: Scott Wallace is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut and the author of the best-selling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes (Crown, 2011). A longtime contributor to National Geographic, Wallace has also written and reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Condé Nast Traveler, The Guardian, Harper's, Interview, The New York Times, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among others. His photographs have also appeared in Details, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Smithsonian, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications through Getty Images and the World Bank Photo Collection. He has been honored with the Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Award for excellence in reporting from the field, and he has won awards from the Associated Press, Gannett Newspapers, Inter-American Press Association, Renewable Natural Resources Foundation, and Society of Professional Journalists. Christopher J. Dodd represented the state of Connecticut first as a member of the House of Representatives from 1975 to 1981 and then as a U.S. Senator from 1981 to 2011, during which time he was Chair of the Banking Committee (2007-2011), Chair of the Senate Health Committee (2009), and Chair of the Senate Rules Committee (2001-2003). From 2011 to 2017 he was CEO of the Motion Picture Association, and in 2018 he returned to the practice of law. Chris Dodd is Special Presidential Advisor on the Americas to President Joseph R. Biden. 102 color photographs, 2 color maps, and 6 color montages

Full Product Details

9781960521019

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Scott Wallace takes us along on his harrowing journey into the Central American jungles for an important historical accounting that draws a sharp line from the U.S. proxy wars of the 1980s to today's crises in those countries and at our own southern border.""--Deborah Nelson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Professor of Investigative Reporting at the University of Maryland ""Scott Wallace's book is fantastic. Vivid, immediate, gripping, and frequently hair-raising, his grounds-eye account of the cruel wars that the U.S. has inflicted and enabled on hapless victims far and near evokes history as it happened. Wallace's reporting, intensely detailed and personal, memorializes people and the world in which they lived and died in a way no reader can ever forget.""--Andrew Cockburn, Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine and author of The Spoils of War and Kill Chain ""For anyone seeking to comprehend how the United States lurched heedlessly from its disastrous war in Vietnam on to those in Iraq and Afghanistan, Central America in the Crosshairs of War is a must-read. One of the most intrepid and clear-eyed reporters to have covered the wars in Central America of the 1980s, Scott Wallace has produced an essential book, in words and pictures, offering an invaluable historical perspective.""--Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Fall of Baghdad and Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year ""Scott Wallace intensively documented the U.S.-supported wars that wracked Central America during the 1980s, and he deftly links them to the American 'war on terror' after 9/11. Writing with great lucidity and grace, Wallace also illustrates Central America in the Crosshairs of War with his stunning photographs. A very compelling read.""--Peter Bergen, Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, National Security Analysist for CNN, and author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden and The Longest War

Author Information

Scott Wallace, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut, is the author of the best-selling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes (Crown, 2011), and a longtime contributor to National Geographic. From 1983 to 1989 he covered the armed conflicts in Central America for CBS News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Guardian, The Independent, and Newsweek. His articles have appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Harper's, Interview, The Nation, The New York Times, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, his photographs in Details, The Economist, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Smithsonian, and The Wall Street Journal via Getty Images and the World Bank Photo Collection. His broadcast credits include CBS, CNN, FOX News, and the National Geographic Channel. He has been honored with the Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Award for excellence in reporting from the field, and received awards from the Associated Press, Gannett Newspapers, Inter-American Press Association, Renewable Natural Resources Foundation, Society of American Travel Writers, and Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Connecticut's Humanities Institute and Columbia University's Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Christopher J. Dodd, J.D., from 1966 to 1968 was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and from 1969 to 1975 served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He then became Connecticut's longest-serving member of Congress, first as a member of the House of Representatives from 1975 to 1981 and then the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 2011. Upon retirement from the U.S. Senate, Senator Dodd became Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, and, in 2018, he joined the law firm of Arnold & Porter as a Senior Counsel. Senator Dodd also served as Special Advisor on the Americas to President Joseph R. Biden.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available