Overview

Shadow Wars: Covert U.S. Military Action in Latin America exposes nearly two centuries of hidden conflict behind America's official diplomacy. Drawing on newly declassified files, congressional investigations, and eyewitness accounts, historian ga thompson traces the evolution of U.S. covert warfare from the Mexican-American War to modern counterterrorism campaigns. Across twelve meticulously researched chapters, Shadow Wars reveals how Latin America became the proving ground for America's secret wars-where reconnaissance units became intelligence agencies, and ""advisers"" directed coups, counterinsurgencies, and proxy operations. Through detailed case studies of Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and beyond, the book uncovers how programs like Operation Condor, Plan Colombia, and the Mérida Initiative transformed local conflicts into laboratories for global intelligence doctrine. Balancing policy analysis with human testimony, Thompson illuminates the ethical fault lines of clandestine intervention-moral injury among operatives, the price paid by civilians, and the enduring struggle for democratic accountability. Rather than treating these operations as isolated scandals, Shadow Wars maps their continuous lineage, connecting nineteenth-century border surveillance to twenty-first-century drone reconnaissance and cyber-espionage. Both historical study and moral inquiry, this definitive work reframes U.S.-Latin American relations through the lens of secrecy, technology, and power. For readers of history, intelligence studies, and geopolitics, Shadow Wars is an unflinching examination of what nations do when the lights are off-and who must live with the consequences. ""There are no clean hands in the shadows of empire."" -Anonymous CIA officer, 1978

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